(1.2) Deflationary ontology in 9 propositions

1. Deflationary ontology can be achieved by two paths which at first glance are independent, but ultimately turn out to be complementary paths of the same movement of deflation of classical ontology.  2. The ascending path seeks to fulfill the potential of self-transcendence of the particular sciences.  3. The descending path (descending dialectic or katabasis) seeks to fulfill the potential of immanence of philosophy.

4. The refusal of the teleology of unconditioned requires the global restructuring of the dialectical system. The principle of coherence (Cirne Lima) is preserved, although reread in the context of the dialectics of the One and the Many (Plato's Philebus).  5 Although the dialectical philosophy, as in Hegel, flows into a relational and holistic ontology, there are multiple, potentially infinite ways of realizing the coherence of the whole.  6. Coherence can occur at the extremes of the maximum predominance of the One over the Many (close to Parmenides' Configuration), or vice-versa (close to Gorgias' Configuration).

7. The envelopment of all possible modes of self-coherence in the process of self-organization is the evolutionary logical space. 8. The typical asymmetry of the evolutionary logical space - in opposition to the radical symmetry that we find in analytical versions of the logical space (eg. in the first Wittgenstein) - explains the tendency of the natural becoming to manifest itself close to Leibniz's Configuration. 9.  The more robust natural systems are precisely those that combine the appropriate measure (the appropriate degree of coherence, always context-dependent) of order and diversity (what network theorists call "scale-free-networks" (Barabási)).

Ascending and descending dialectics

The ascending path bifurcates into two trajectories. On the one hand, it leads from Plato’s theory of ideas to classical biology, and thence to its Darwinian critique; on the other, it takes the direct path that goes from Platonism to Bertalanffy’s systems theory; both these directions are finally unified in the theory of complex adaptive systems.

The descending path bifurcates also into two routes: on the one hand, it traces the influence exerted by the theory of ideas in German Idealism and then spells out the deflationary consequences of the critique of Hegel’s dialectic; on the other, it goes directly from the critique of the theory of ideas, vehiculated in Parmenides, Plato’s dialogue, to the deflationary ontological approach found in Philebus.

(See. also C. Cirne-Lima. Dialética)

Authorized translation by Hedy Lorraine Hofmann