“Lenses, Images, Fruits and Order of Appearance: A working lexicon of ontological philosophy for addressing how the assumptions we make about existence affects how we understand and engage in life”
Fundamental for how we understand “The Origin and Concept of Life,” this text introduces a new lexicon for addressing ontology in such a way that it aids us in seeing how the ontological lens we use to engage with existence shapes that to which we pay attention, how we perceive and understand it, and then what we think we can do about it. The paper will contrast two lenses based on complementary-opposite assumptions about the primordial instance of existence. The contrast, discerned in terms of how each one’s pre-supposition shapes the image we use to filter existence and according to which we relate to it, will be developed over the course of four sub-sections. First, the complementary-opposite primordial assumptions about existence, separation and interconnection, will be defined and briefly discussed. The second section will review the conceptual tools we need to contrast the implications of each ontological pre-supposition. Third, these tools are key for the next portion, which actually walks us through how each primordial assumption generates a distinct image that affords only certain kinds of fruits due to the ontological order of appearance of phenomena through the image. Finally these different ontological processes are applied to the concept of life itself so that we might be more aware of how our particular ontological assumptions about existence affect the way in which we engage the idea from conceptualization and throughout the entire process of engagement.