the Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the
Eristic Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both
order and disorder are man made concepts and are
artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a
level deeper than is the level of distinction making.
With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we
look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us.
The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled
"reality" and unenlightened people are forever
perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other
cultures, see "reality" differently.
It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real
(capital-T True) reality is a level deeper than is the
level of concept.
We look at the world through windows on which have
been drawn grids (concepts). Different philosophies
use different grids. A culture is a group of people
with rather similar grids. Through a window we view
chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and
thereby understand it. The ORDER is in the GRID. That
is the Aneristic Principle.
Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with
contrasting one grid with another grid, and amending
grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will
account for all reality and will, hence, (say
unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it
is what we Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some
grids can be more useful than others, some more
beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others,
etc., but none can be more True than any other.
DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed
through some particular grid. But, like "relation",
no-relation is a concept. Male, like female, is an idea
about sex. To say that male-ness is "absence of
female-ness", or vice versa, is a matter of definition
and metaphysically arbitrary. The artificial concept of
no-relation is the Eristic Principle.
The belief that "order is true" and disorder is
false or somehow wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To
say the same of disorder, is the Eristic Illusion.
The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of
definition relative to the grid one is using at the
moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical
reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid,
and through it some chaos appears ordered and some
appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same
chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered.
Reality is the original Rorschach.
Verily! So much for all that.