Another Perspective on Facts
95
would recognize. They have shape for us in the sense that they can be narrated
intelligibly.
Returning for a moment to Michelangelo’s angel, note that its form—what
we see and take to be its shape—is its outer surface. It is like a veneer with no
thickness at all. The inner bulk supports the shape, but is not part of it. It is
similar if you draw a silhouette on paper: It is the outline that determines the
silhouette but the interior is fill. Just like the immaterial, veneer-like surface
which covers the statue and is its shape, the “shape” of a fact (that is, its narrative
content) is the outer surface of a solid in 4 dimensions. It is a “veneer” with no
thickness in space-time.
Thus, like a marble sculpture whose shape is its visible surface, the “shape”
of a fact is its boundary surface in four dimensions. The surface itself presents
an appearance to us, but has no volume. Since it has zero volume (because
its thickness is zero), the shape of a sculpture does not exist as something in
space, and likewise, the shape of a fact does not exist in space-time. The shape
of a sculpture is something immaterial (because it has zero volume), as is the
shape, or narrative content of a fact. They exist in a physical sense (because the
surfaces of objects do exist physically) but since they have zero volume they are
not part of the material world, nor do they even exist in space and time.
This may appear, at first blush, to be quite an astonishing claim—but in fact
it is an idea that has been kicking around for millennia. The sheer surface of an
object such as the marble angel has no thickness, and therefore does not exist
in space. In the same way, the surface of a fact (that is, its shape or content)
has no thickness in space-time, and therefore is not something that exists in
the physical universe. In the previous Section we made the same observation
from a different perspective. It was shown that a fact is not something of the
material world, but exclusively a description or claim made by a living being
having a purpose or reason for being interested in that one specific fact.
This is quite an amazing observation. We live in an era when the dominant
philosophy is materialism—the idea that everything that exists is material and
part of the material world. But we have just found that all that exist are facts,
and furthermore, that facts are not parts of the physical world at all, but ideas
in Gestalt minds. It would appear, then, that what exists in our universe is not
part of material reality, but part of the world of thought and mind. Neither
Bertrand Russell nor anyone else denies that there is a material world—but
what has just been shown is that matter is not all there is. I will come back
to this question later in this chapter and argue that necessarily there are two
components of reality: There is a material component described by physics,
and another side which, though not material, is real and whose function is to
give shape and structure to the material universe. Without this second aspect,
95
would recognize. They have shape for us in the sense that they can be narrated
intelligibly.
Returning for a moment to Michelangelo’s angel, note that its form—what
we see and take to be its shape—is its outer surface. It is like a veneer with no
thickness at all. The inner bulk supports the shape, but is not part of it. It is
similar if you draw a silhouette on paper: It is the outline that determines the
silhouette but the interior is fill. Just like the immaterial, veneer-like surface
which covers the statue and is its shape, the “shape” of a fact (that is, its narrative
content) is the outer surface of a solid in 4 dimensions. It is a “veneer” with no
thickness in space-time.
Thus, like a marble sculpture whose shape is its visible surface, the “shape”
of a fact is its boundary surface in four dimensions. The surface itself presents
an appearance to us, but has no volume. Since it has zero volume (because
its thickness is zero), the shape of a sculpture does not exist as something in
space, and likewise, the shape of a fact does not exist in space-time. The shape
of a sculpture is something immaterial (because it has zero volume), as is the
shape, or narrative content of a fact. They exist in a physical sense (because the
surfaces of objects do exist physically) but since they have zero volume they are
not part of the material world, nor do they even exist in space and time.
This may appear, at first blush, to be quite an astonishing claim—but in fact
it is an idea that has been kicking around for millennia. The sheer surface of an
object such as the marble angel has no thickness, and therefore does not exist
in space. In the same way, the surface of a fact (that is, its shape or content)
has no thickness in space-time, and therefore is not something that exists in
the physical universe. In the previous Section we made the same observation
from a different perspective. It was shown that a fact is not something of the
material world, but exclusively a description or claim made by a living being
having a purpose or reason for being interested in that one specific fact.
This is quite an amazing observation. We live in an era when the dominant
philosophy is materialism—the idea that everything that exists is material and
part of the material world. But we have just found that all that exist are facts,
and furthermore, that facts are not parts of the physical world at all, but ideas
in Gestalt minds. It would appear, then, that what exists in our universe is not
part of material reality, but part of the world of thought and mind. Neither
Bertrand Russell nor anyone else denies that there is a material world—but
what has just been shown is that matter is not all there is. I will come back
to this question later in this chapter and argue that necessarily there are two
components of reality: There is a material component described by physics,
and another side which, though not material, is real and whose function is to
give shape and structure to the material universe. Without this second aspect,