Scale of Ideal Forms

The first form is an event. Something happened.

The second form is a fact. This is an event plus interpretation.

The third form is an object. This includes a phenomenon, for example an epidemic, or a person.

The fourth form is a generalization.

These four forms are called Experience. They are about the past.

Within them, we cannot discuss the future unless the future is only a repetition of the past.

If we want to discuss the future, we need four more forms. This is the Imaginarium.

These are methods. They are assembled into technologies.

These are knowledges. They are produced by science.

These are values. They exist in images; they are produced by art.

These are representations. They are produced by philosophy.

Methods exist in recipes.

Knowledges exist in models.

Representations are assembled into worldviews.

Four more classes of ideal forms.

Eight in total.

The Eight Forms

Three Questions

Is this selection complete? Are there other forms? This is the first question.

Is the linear order obligatory here? This is the second question.

What is the use of these new concepts? This is the third question.

Completeness and Nonlinearity

Imagine that we want to describe something.

Suppose we want to obtain the description in the form of a mathematical structure. We can build this structure as a graph.

A graph has vertices and edges. But usually this is not enough, and a third packet of information is needed: operations or actions.

Vertices are entities.

Edges are relations between entities.

Actions are the possible life of the structure in real time.

For example, natural numbers.

There are the numbers themselves.

There are relations, for example “next”.

And there are operations, for example addition.

An event is a whole before analysis.

Entities are objects.

Relations are facts, because interpretation is present.

Actions are represented in generalizations.

This is about the past.

If we speak about the future, then:

• entities are images;
• relations are representations;
• methods are actions;
• models give us wholeness.

As you can see, completeness is demonstrated, while linearity is, on the contrary, refuted.

We have answered the first two questions.

The third question is about usefulness.

Quality Criteria

Truth and Quality Criteria

Andrii Baumeister gives five different definitions of the concept of truth.

More precisely, we have five criteria of truth:

1. Usefulness.
2. Self-consistency.
3. Adequacy, that is, correspondence to reality.
4. General acceptance.
5. Obviousness.

Let us write out the part of the Scale of Ideal Forms that belongs to the Imaginarium:

Notice that Baumeister’s list fits this table well.

Obviousness - “I see this clearly and distinctly”, in Descartes’ sense - is suitable for representations.

Usefulness is suitable for methods.

General acceptance is suitable for values.

Self-consistency and adequacy are suitable for knowledges.

But the word “suitable” requires clarification.

For this, I suggest approaching the issue from another side: consider the scale of ideal forms and formulate an internal quality criterion for each form.

With some effort, it becomes clear:

1. Baumeister’s criteria are external and superficial. For example, it is obvious that the Sun moves around the Earth. But is this true? In Aristotle’s time, slavery was generally accepted. But is it good today? You took a cookbook in order to cook borscht. You cooked and cooked, and got semolina porridge. Useful? Apparently yes. A good book? Apparently not.
2. For each class, we need its own internal quality criteria.
3. Science and knowledge are especially difficult. We will examine them separately.

Internal Quality Criteria

A brief premature conclusion, which does not forbid us to investigate the topic further:

different types of ideal forms have different quality criteria.

It is meaningless to apply the criteria of one class to examples of another class.

I offer the reader examples from different classes. Each time one should clarify: what class is this?

Scientific knowledge does not have to be useful. Usefulness is a criterion for technology, and an external one at that.

Philosophical representations do not have to pass a test designed for scientific knowledges, and so on.

This division of ideal entities into classes saves a great deal of time for both reader and writer.

What knowledge is and how to check it

The question of truthfulness is fully solved.

The question of Truth is exhausted.