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Overthrowing Eastern and Western Economics: Chan Economics (Serialization Part 6)

2006/7/27 21:28:00



VI


Discrimination is not some so-called principle, axiom, or concept — the commonsensical garbage assumed at a distance from human existence. Rather, since it is the starting point of human existence, it necessarily entails discrimination. Without discrimination, so-called living individuals would not exist, so-called equality among individuals would not exist, and the set formed by human existence in the categorical sense would become an empty set for lack of elements. Moreover, without discrimination, even things like individuals, elements, sets, and empty sets would lose their foundational meaning.

Human existence is a most fundamental circular definition — this has already been mentioned multiple times before. People fooled by common sense are bewildered by the complexity of processes, yet they do not realize that the greatest secret of all theories actually lies at the starting point, just as the secret of fruit lies in the seed. This seemingly meaningless, purely tautological "human existence" contains the ultimate foundation, logic, and secret of all theories that can be theorized by humans.

Human existence and the equality of individuals are mutually co-arising and co-existing, and discrimination is the necessary, most primordial logic entailed in human existence. Discrimination is, of course, human discrimination — without human existence, human discrimination would have no possibility of existing. But without human discrimination, even if human existence existed, it would have no meaning whatsoever. For humans, any meaning is first and foremost the meaning of discrimination. Discrimination is the original meaning of human existence.

The biological vitality of human beings is first manifested in discrimination. Without discrimination, a person would be like a rock — with no possibility or meaning for any theory about humans. Discrimination can also be called recognition, or simply "cognition" (識). This includes all sensory faculties and consciousness of the individual, as well as capabilities achieved through machines and other instruments. Anything that can be theorized by humans must first be discriminated by humans. Discrimination is the most primordial logic of human existence, and since human existence is the original starting point of all theories that can be theorized by humans, discrimination becomes the most foundational logic within the corresponding logic of all theories theorized by humans.

The analysis above does not fall under any particular logical system. Rather, the moment you use any logic to judge, you are already discriminating. Even when you utter the sound of "a proposition," write out its text, or sense it in consciousness or subconsciousness, you necessarily first depend on human discrimination. Without discrimination, any theory that can be theorized by humans not only cannot be established but cannot even be expressed — even silence comes from discrimination, and in this respect, it is no different from the situation with language. Discrimination is not necessarily linguistic, or even sensory or conscious or subconscious. Discrimination precedes language, sensation, consciousness, and subconsciousness, because discrimination is human existence itself.

(To be continued)