PP21 How well does the Pattern Paradigm stack up as a philosophy?
G'day, my name is Bruce Robertson and this is Pirate Philosophy, the channel where I describe The Pattern Paradigm, a new and original philosophy that I claim is better than any other philosophical paradigm that is currently available. Welcome.
In today's video, I want to take a pause from developing the ideas of The Pattern Paradigm and instead take stock of how far we have come and how well The Pattern Paradigm stacks up as a philosophical paradigm. When we've done this, we can compare it with the score I gave to Standard Western Philosophy, back in the video, PP5 'How does standard Western philosophy stack up as a philosophical paradigm?'
Before we get into that, I want to give a bit of background. The Pattern Paradigm is a new and original philosophical paradigm and one might ask, why is there a need for a new philosophical paradigm?
Well, I started my explorations of philosophy following the disquiet I felt with the philosophies I encountered in childhood and early adulthood. I grew up in a society where Christianity and Standard Western Philosophy were the predominant philosophies; but I like neither. I couldn't accept the precepts of Christianity and Standard Western Philosophy just seemed to be a banal combination of irrelevance and moral truths that were neither moral nor true.
And like so many other young people at the time who sought answers with deeper meaning, I sought something better. But rather than look to Eastern philosophies for answers or resign myself to living in a philosophical vacuum, I decided to explore the world of knowledge and seek answers for myself. And to cut a long story short, I eventually arrived at the pattern paradigm; the philosophy that I've been describing in these videos.
And perhaps the deepest question that I sought to answer and one that nobody else seemed to be asking was: How is it possible to create a model or knowledge of the world with nothing more than a logical processor and sense data?
The answer that I arrived at as being the only possible logical process was one of pattern identification; searching for patterns within the data and building on them. And since this is so fundamental to my philosophy, I named the philosophy 'The Pattern Paradigm'.
And to emphasize the logic of this process, I devised a pattern-identifying algorithm to describe how this process can work. (See the video PP9 'Patterns time and space' for details of this.) And of course, such patterns can only become useful if they are used to make decisions to enhance one's interactions with the external world and to enhance one's own personal well-being. To this end and to show how the logic of this can work, I devised a decision-making algorithm. (This algorithm is described in the video PP13 'The logic of decision-making'.) These two algorithms lie at the heart of The Pattern Paradigm philosophy.
It was also realized at an early stage that the logic of mathematics and other abstract systems, i.e. systems that have no direct connection to sense-data, was quite different. This logic is based on symbols, axioms and rules which are used to generate theorems. (See the video PP14 'The four components of mathematics' for further details.)
With these philosophical foundations, the ideas were extrapolated to science, language and ethics to create a fairly comprehensive, yet simple and logical philosophy. And this is by no means the end of this philosophical journey, but it is a place to take stock and see how far we have come.
For most of the main ideas have been presented; the hard work has been done. The skeleton of the ideas have been presented and fitted together into a cohesive whole. From here on, it is mostly a matter of seeing where these ideas take us and fleshing out the skeleton.
When I first got the idea of making these videos, I realized that I needed to compare The Pattern Paradigm with Standard Western Philosophy as competing philosophical paradigms. So I would need some criteria for comparing disparate philosophical paradigms.
So what are the criteria by which philosophical paradigms can be compared and evaluated? This was another question that nobody seemed to have asked before. And the six criteria that I came up with were: Self-consistency, Comprehensiveness, Accuracy, Logic, Explicitness and Simplicity; which can be combined into the acronym SCALES. (I discussed this in the video PP4 'What makes for a good philosophical paradigm?')
So let us move on to evaluating The Pattern Paradigm according to these criteria.
1.Self-consistency
A philosophical paradigm needs to be a cohesive whole with continuity and clear links between the various different domains. The Pattern Paradigm satisfies this in that, as I have described in this journey, there are clear links and cohesiveness between the various ideas and there is no contradiction from one end to the next. So I give the pattern paradigm is score of 8 out of 10 for self-consistency.
2. Comprehensiveness
A philosophical paradigm needs to cover all the significant domains of life. The Pattern Paradigm satisfies this as it covers all the main domains from epistemology, mathematics and science, to decision making and ethics. It also covers meta-philosophy in its discussion of the comparison of philosophical paradigms and SCALES. It even covers the fundamental separation of mind from matter. (This was discussed in the video PP8 'As deep as you can go').
However, so far, it only describes the bare skeleton of ideas and needs some filling in of the details. So I'm getting it 5 out of 10 for comprehensiveness.
3. Accuracy
A philosophical paradigm needs to describe the world as we experience it; as opposed to describing some unreal or fantasy world. T The Pattern Paradigm achieves this as it is closely aligned with how knowledge is achieved and how that knowledge can be put to practical use. It even has theories for why we sleep and a theory of consciousness; neither of which were directly sought but instead emerged from the underlying basic theories.
So I am giving The Pattern Paradigm 8 out of 10 for accuracy.
4. Logic
Now we come to logic: logic is all about the fine details of how inferences are made. And logic is important for any philosophical paradigm in order to show how the ideas are linked together in an explicit and logical way; as opposed to mere hand-waving arguments. The Pattern Paradigm achieves this by providing explicit logical algorithms for perception (the pattern-identification algorithm), for decision-making, (the decision-making algorithm) and a logical description for the foundation of abstract systems such as mathematics.
So I give The Pattern Paradigm 8 out of 10 for logic.
5. Explicitness
Now, we come to explicitness. it is essential for a philosophical paradigm to be explicit with regards to its foundational assumptions and the logical processes by which inferences are made. The Pattern Paradigm explicitly describes its foundations in videos: PP7 'Preparation for a philosophical journey' and PP8 'Patterns, time and space'. And it explicitly describes its logical processes in the algorithms previously mentioned.
So I give The Pattern Paradigm 9 out of 10 for explicitness.
6. Simplicity
And the last criteria is simplicity. It is important for a philosophical paradigm to be simple and not get lost in long convoluted arguments using obscure and possibly meaningless words. The Pattern Paradigm achieves this by being described in clear and simple and logical language. That said, there is always room for improvement.
So I give it a score of 7 out of 10 for simplicity.
Total score
Totting up the scores of 8, 5, 8, 8, 9 and 7 for the six criteria of SCALES, this comes to a total of 45 out of a possible 60, for an average of 7 ½ /10. So overall, I am getting The Pattern Paradigm a score of 7 ½ /10.
This compares with a score of 3 ½ out of 10, which I gave to Standard Western Philosophy in the video PP5. So this gives me some justification for my claim that The Pattern Paradigm is the best philosophical paradigm currently available.
Do you agree with this assessment of The Pattern Paradigm? Let me know in the comments below, or give this video a thumbs up.
Well, that is all I have for you today. If you have enjoyed the video and would like to continue the journey with me, then please subscribe to my channel, give it a thumbs up and ring the bell.
Thank you
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