Quintipotentiality
Everyone knows
DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man”. There is, at first glance, a sort of
four-way symmetry in the drawing: The four limbs radiate generally
in four directions. In fact, the human body is often thought of in
this four-way deconstruction. But closer inspection reveals that we
are actually five-way creatures. The head springs out of
the trunk like the two arms and two legs. Five radial aspects. We’re
all more closely related to starfish than we think.
In fact, all mammals (and a great deal of the animal kingdom) shares
in this five-pointed symmetry. The insects and the arachnids got
distracted somehow, but for the most of us, it’s some variation on
the starfish. No wonder Pythagorus was so enamored of the number 5
(it was, I believe the most sacred number).
And so, now we come to quintipotentiality, or perhaps “5-valued
logic”. Historically (and mathematically, and, well, logically),
logic has been construed as binary: something is true or false.
There’s been talk of quantum computers, where (I think) the truth
state is somehow supervalued (or superimposed, or collapsible), but
regardless of the Heisenbergian (initial) Uncertainty, it still
devolves into True or False. When the observer finally takes a look
at Schroedinger’s Cat, it’s either (0) Alive or (1) Dead.
But quintipotentiality, that’s a different world. The five limbs
spread into 5 little limbs (fingers, toes, and the ears/eyes/nose).
So when we count off our possibilities on our fingers, there
should be five. And there are:
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It’s Just False. One is not Zero. A is not B.
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It’s Just True. One is One. A is A. So far, binary logic.
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It’s Unknown. Or more completely, it’s Unknowable.
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It might (possibly, likely) be True. I think so. Looks like it to me. Qualified Truth.
-
It might (possibly, likely) be False. I doubt it. Smells wrong. Wouldn’t bet on it.
These are the real
possibilities we deal with. In fact, (4) and (5) take up more of our
planning and suspecting and what-iffing and wonder what’ll happen
than (1) and (2) ever do. The certainties are pretty much reserved
for mathematics and Euclidean geometry. And (3), the absence of
knowability, also represents a fairly small universe, or at least
that seems (4)-ish to me (likely to be true that completely
unknowable doesn’t come up very often).
Pythagoreans therefore would see this in their magic numbers.
In the beginning is One (or Nothing, for the Big Bang enthusiasts;
both are equally miraculous in their infinite encompassing).
Somewhere, the one splits into Two, and the Binary Worlds emerge.
Polar opposites, each attracting or repelling, in any case exerting
forces upon the Universe. The Universe becomes a Biverse.
And immediately, the Two resolves into Three. Thesis, Antithesis,
Synthesis. Least, Greatest, Average. North, South,
Equator. Whenever the Two emerges, the Third has to appear
in order to satisfy the polarities. The Third is the Balance
between the Extremes.
And hence, Five: Two
+ Three. The important numbers are all primes. In naming them
primes, perhaps we knew more than we were aware. The Binary together
with the Triad that the Polarities create gives us the Pentad. Which
presents us with the Golden Mean, derived from the pentagram and the
pentagon.
(What of Four you ask? Not as perfect: The Poles can beget
intermediate opposites. North/South begets East/West. And Four is
the first square. But all in all, not as intriguing, nor as
compelling as the first four primes.)
Quintipotentiality. The Logic we live by.
© 2021 Chuck Puckett