“things-in-themselves”:

concept introduced in Kant’s transcendental idealism (Critique of Pure Reason)  which distinguishes between 2 classes of objects: appearances & things in themselves.   Also called the 2-worlds interpretation, since transcendental idealism essentially distinguishes between a world of appearances & another world of things in themselves.  Things-in-themselves would be objects independent of observation.   Transcendental idealism posits that the sum of all objects, the empirical world, is a complex of appearances whose existence & connections occur only in our representations.  Kant introduces the thing-in-itself as follows:

                        And we indeed, rightly considering objects of sense as mere appearances, confess thereby that they are based upon a thing in itself,                                  though we know not this thing as it is in itself, but only know its appearances, viz., the way in which our senses are affected by this                                      unknown something.

                                                                                Prolegomena, § 32

 

Protagoras:

 490- 420 BC, pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, well known in Athens, a friend of Pericles; described as a sophist by Plato (in his dialogue Protagoras) who credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.  Controversial owing to his assertion that "Man is the measure of all things".  Plato interpreted this to mean there is no absolute truth but that which individuals deem to be the truth.  This argument for individual relativity was revolutionary for the time & contrasted with other doctrines which claimed the universe was based on something objective, outside human influence or perceptions.

 

Anaxagoras (optical theories):

510-428 BC, first of the Pre-Socratic philosophers to live in Athens, born in Ionia when it was under control of the Persian Empire; the.  He described the world as a mixture of primary imperishable ingredients; variation was never caused by an absolute presence of a particular ingredient, but rather by its relative preponderance over the other ingredients.  He introduced the concept of Nous (Cosmic Mind) as an ordering force, which moved and separated out the original mixture, which was homogeneous, or nearly so.  He gave a number of novel scientific accounts of natural phenomena; he correctly explains eclipses & described the sun as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese, as well as attempting to explain rainbows and meteors.  He recognises the weakness of the senses.  “Owing to feebleness [of the senses], we are not able to determine the truth.”  He posits that the evidence of the senses must be corrected by what we know through thought but (like other pre-Socratics) he gives no explanation as to how this correction occurs.  His account can be compared with that of Democritus, where the relation of sense-perception and thought is similar and similarly unexplained.

 

Democritus  (optical theories):

his theory of optics argues that thin layers of atoms, constantly sloughed off from the surfaces of macroscopic bodies, are carried through the air.  These films of atoms shrink & expand; only those sufficiently small can enter the eye.  Their impact on our sense organs enables us to perceive.  They convey the visible properties of macroscopic objects (size & shape); they tend to be distorted as they pass through greater distances in the air as they are subject to more collisions with air atoms.  A complementary theory claims that the object seen impresses the air by the images, and the compacted air thus conveys the image to the eye.

and see Chapter IV page 119

 

percipient:

noun, a person or thing that perceives.

 

Plato (his cave):

in the Republic (in the Allegory of the Cave) we find a paradoxical analogy where Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible while the visible world  is the least knowable & most obscure.  Physical objects & physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, & exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves.  Shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects; physical objects themselves are fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, an instance of the ideal Form.  Those who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good & real are living pitifully in a den of evil and ignorance.   Few climb out of the cave; those who do struggle to attain the heights, but when they return to the cave to visit or help other people up, they find themselves objects of scorn and ridicule.

 

space-energy (capacity and intensity):

Spengler refers to capacity or volume.  This is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by a closed surface, for example, the space that a substance (solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) or shape occupies or contains.  It is a type of known void or space, which he also calls “spatial interval”.  He also refers to intensity.  In physics, intensity of radiant energy is the power transferred per unit area, where the area is measured on the plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the energy. In the SI system, it has units watts per square metre (W/m2).  It is used most frequently with waves such as acoustic waves (sound) or electromagnetic waves such as light or radio waves, in which case the average power transfer over one period of the wave is used. Intensity can be applied to other circumstances where energy is transferred.

 

voluntas:

Latin, meaning will

 

Murtada:

aka Murtada al-Zabidi; 1732-1790, Islamic scholar, author of the dictionary 'The Bride's Crown from the Pearls of the Qamus [Taj al-Arus Min Jawahir al-Qamus] and a commentary on al-Ghazali's monumental  Revival of the Religious Knowledge [Ihya' Ulum al-Din] written in the early 12th century; born in Uttar Pradesh, India, family originated from Iraq, from where his parents had emigrated to the east of Yemen; he spent time in SW coastal plains of Yemen, which was a centre of academic learning .  He died in Cairo during a plague; affiliated with the Naqshbandi Sufi Order or the Rifayia Sufi Order.

 

Christendom (Early-Arabian ethos):

Spengler posits that the Christianity of the Apostolic Church & the Great Church(until the  East–West Schism  of 1054 AD), was heavily influenced by Magian Culture; he labels this synthesis of Apollonian and Magian Cultures the Pseudomorphosis.