Alternate systems of thought

Yun-shuno

Banned
In the world today there are three kinds structural paradigms for conceiving the world. Rational Science/Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism/Occultism.

What alternate possible ways are there of conceiving the world. Of course the former mentioned can be merged and compromised at will but are there other more exotic or unknown structural paradigms(ways of thinking and perceiving) that would act as an explanatory power.

What do you think?
 
I think your three structures are overly broad. Any philosophy could be argued to fall into one or the other of those three (which, for that matter, could probably be condensed into two).

But okay, let's look at Occultism. "To Occult" is very similar as "to obscure", to make hidden. But the sort of knowledge that is sought out by occult practitioners, such as mental communion with a greater power or the ability to alter the world around them need not be hidden. Once un-obscured, "Mysticism/Occultism" is basically the same as religion, but it need not be very organized. So, if a great power promotes an Animistic world view, power which would in other social structures be considered 'occult' could be something that is commonly shared. People see divinity in the rain, in the rising sun, etc. and feel a commonality with a greater power, but unmediated by a professional priest.

So basically...more widespread Shinto, I guess?
 

Yun-shuno

Banned
I think your three structures are overly broad. Any philosophy could be argued to fall into one or the other of those three (which, for that matter, could probably be condensed into two).

But okay, let's look at Occultism. "To Occult" is very similar as "to obscure", to make hidden. But the sort of knowledge that is sought out by occult practitioners, such as mental communion with a greater power or the ability to alter the world around them need not be hidden. Once un-obscured, "Mysticism/Occultism" is basically the same as religion, but it need not be very organized. So, if a great power promotes an Animistic world view, power which would in other social structures be considered 'occult' could be something that is commonly shared. People see divinity in the rain, in the rising sun, etc. and feel a commonality with a greater power, but unmediated by a professional priest.

So basically...more widespread Shinto, I guess?
Perhaps I should have clarified to difference between esotericism and organized religion. Esotericism is different in what is asks, what it aims to achieve, and how it views the world at large than organized religious belief.

Also I was looking for something more...imaginative. Surely there are alternate ways of conceptualizing the world?!
 

Raunchel

Banned
I fear that alternative ways to view the world are very hard to conceive of as someone who is used only to the broad categories you mention. I at least can't think of any.
 
If religion is in it's own category, apart from mysticism, you must also include civil 'religions' like the state, like contract or common law, and so on under religion.
 
In the world today there are three kinds structural paradigms for conceiving the world. Rational Science/Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism/Occultism.

Is philosophy linked to rational science? Maybe, but it's as well linked to religion. And religion and mysticism, well, I don't see a great difference either.
 
In the world today there are three kinds structural paradigms for conceiving the world. Rational Science/Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism/Occultism.
I think there's one obvious paradigm missing from that list: irreligious romanticism(or whatever you want to call it), faith and passion based politics/philosophy that isn't(inherently) tied to religion or mysticism. Fascism is probably the clearest example of this, and I don't mean that as a slur against fascism- fascist ideology openly and shamelessly idealized irrational passion as preferable to logic and reason.
 

Yun-shuno

Banned
I think there's one obvious paradigm missing from that list: irreligious romanticism(or whatever you want to call it), faith and passion based politics/philosophy that isn't(inherently) tied to religion or mysticism. Fascism is probably the clearest example of this, and I don't mean that as a slur against fascism- fascist ideology openly and shamelessly idealized irrational passion as preferable to logic and reason.
I'd say philosophy can go either way analytical is tied to science, continental whereas forms of irrationalism. And everything previous could probably fit into both.

Irreligious romanticism is more a literary and artistic movement than something as broad and overreaching as want I'm looking for.
 
Maybe the best place to start here is to examine the systems that existed in the past.

Religion, the secular institution, was the medium of science (I don't think there will be too much argument here, or at least it will be one we've heard before) and of the occult (I couldn't possibly prove this, I just assume there were esoteric elements as there are now) during the Middle Ages, slightly truer in Catholicism than Islam. I don't know enough about Eastern or Dharmic religions to compare them in this way. So splitting into three systems of thought is already something of a change, a Middle Ages 'AH.com poster' would say all the systems are actually one.

Would Classical Greece have had the same tripartite division? Which institutions were they expressed in?

I'll do some more reading on this, but I don't have much more than questions now. Good topic. I was looking for ways to phrase a scenario about an alternative to the nation-state paradigm, this goes into the same area.
 
Would Classical Greece have had the same tripartite division? Which institutions were they expressed in?

Isn't a lot of Christianity's method based on Greco-Roman philosophy, though? I couldn't see non-Christian Europeans being too different. They'd have their popular conceptions of religion--neoplatonism allowed for it in the form of theurgy and so much more--as well as the elite's philosophy of religion, where these "beings", represented by the gods of their culture, did these various acts which lead to the world we know.

I think a non-Christian science would be different in characteristic than a Christian science as we saw OTL, but by shared Western heritage, leading to similar results in both the short term and long term. Greco-Roman philosophy is to Europe what Confucianism was to China, I think, it just never had a real chance to develop.
 
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