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Metaphysics
The term “metaphysics” comes from Greek, meaning “beyond the physical.” In general or popular usage it has come to denote things of a supernatural, occult, or mystical nature. Scionics, however, eschews all mystical, non-reality-based concepts, in metaphysics and in everything else. In Scionics, therefore, metaphysics is the study of the ultimate foundation of all existence – and therefore the ultimate ground of our physical and mental existence – upon which all existence depends, and without which existence itself would be impossible. Scionics identifies this ultimate existential foundation as mathematical truth.
Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of the nature, acquisition, formation, and evaluation of information, truth, knowledge, concepts and beliefs. Scionics recognizes that the most reliable knowledge comes from a form of extreme and profound self-honesty, which is characterized by the rejection of hopes or fears as a means for determining that which one accepts as true or false, and instead unflinchingly embracing the evidence of reality and reason, wherever this evidence leads. Scionics labels this critically applied integration of empiricism (reliance upon actual experiential evidence of reality) and rationality (reliance upon logic itself) as “empiricorationalism.”
While some may see empiricorationalism as a sort of “cold” or strict approach to the acquisition and evaluation of knowledge, this approach nevertheless is the most powerful available to human beings. The disciplined application of this approach leads the individual to the most accurate and reliable knowledge of reality. The value of this is that the more accurate and reliable one’s knowledge of reality is, the more one can act in actual (rather than imagined) harmony with existence, and the more effectively can one pursue and attain happiness and fulfillment (and those things which lead to them) both for oneself, one’s loved ones, and for others in general.
Ethics
Ethics is the study of the nature of proper choice and conduct. In situations which only affect oneself, Scionics applies the principle of empiricorational hedonism: the guiltless, empiricorational pursuit of maximum hedonic value. (Positive hedonic value leads to an increase in pleasure or a decrease in pain, and negative hedonic value leads to a decrease in pleasure or and increase in pain.) In situations which involve others, the hedonic principle is further integrated with the non-aggression principle: the recognition that no individual or group of individuals may ethically initiate force, fraud or coercion against another. The integration of empiricorational hedonism and the non-aggression principle results in the the principle of non-aggressive empiricorational hedonism: the guiltless, empiricorational and non-aggressive pursuit of maximum hedonic value.
Politics
Politics is concerned with such issues as the proper forms of legal, governmental and economic systems, and related issues. It deals with many of the same issues as the subject as ethics, in that it is concerned with proper (or ethical) and improper (or unethical) modes of interaction between individuals, although it is often particularly concerned with organizations of individuals such as businesses, governments, etc., and representatives and agents of such organizations.
Any proper, well-formed political system must be based upon proper ethical standards and principles. Building upon the ethical principle of non-aggressive empiricorational hedonism, Scionics recognizes that the only proper function of government is the duty to ensure the free exercise of the individual right to the pursuit of hedonic value through the protection of the individual against initiatory aggression by other individuals or groups, or even by the government itself. Scionics identifies this as the governmental duty to protect against initiatory aggression.
Aesthetics
Aesthetic “selectivity” is a fundamental principle of Scionics aesthetics: it is the principle that, if all else is equal, that art which is the product of greater selectivity is superior to that art which is the product of lesser selectivity. This selective re-creation of reality requires volitional thought, whereas the appreciation of – or response to – art typically occurs automatically, without volitional thought, according to the “sense-of-life,” i.e., the conscious and unconscious metaphysical value-judgments (which would include the hedonic response) of the perceiver of the art.
The sense of life advanced by Scionics is founded upon may be described as “empiricorational nobility.” This encompasses the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views of Scionics: that reality is real and based upon mathematical truth rather than anything supernatural; that certain important aspects of reality are humanly knowable and understandable; and that one should pursue hedonic value empiricorationally and non-aggressively.
This all leads to the single concept of “aesthetic empiricorational nobility,” which can be shortened when the context is understood, to “aesthetic nobility:” the highly selective recreation of reality, consistent with empiricorationally noble sense-of-life characterized by the vigilant, ever-faithful application of empiricorationality.
Matheology
Theism is a belief in one or more gods, and theology is the philosophical inquiry into the nature and role of such gods in relation to human beings. Atheism is the belief that no such gods exist at all.
Scionics takes a much more sublime position, which we term “matheism.” This involves the recognition that mathematical truth is the foundation of all existence. Mathematical truth is uncreated, infinite, eternal and immutable. Nothing, not even a god, could create, destroy, or alter mathematical truth in any way. We use the term “matheology” to refer to the philosophical investigation of the idea that reality is founded upon mathematics itself.
Scionics recognizes that there must be some explanation for how mathematical truth can give rise to our experience of reality. While this is unknown, we advance the conjecture that the mathematical nature of consciousness is such that consciousness must exist wherever mathematics exists. We also go further than this, and develop an explanation of how the activity of consciousness could give rise to the experience of physical reality.
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