The Ink of the Scholars: Recovering Africa’s Philosophical Futures

Critical Review of Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s The Ink of the Scholars




By Bruce Lloyd *

Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s The Ink of the Scholars is a slim but ambitious volume. In just over a hundred pages, Diagne invites us to rethink the place of philosophy in Africa—not as an imported tradition, nor as folklore misunderstood as philosophy, but as a field with its own dense and plural histories. Drawing inspiration from the adage that “the ink of the scholars is more precious than the blood of the martyrs,” Diagne defends the vitality of scholarship as Africa’s most precious inheritance and its most necessary tool for imagining the future.

Themes and Contributions

The book moves across four thematic landscapes: ontology, time and development, intellectual history, and political philosophy.

Ontology: Diagne probes how African religions and aesthetics shape ideas of being, drawing on Bantu concepts of “vital force” and the mediating role of language and translation.


Time: He emphasizes the importance of prospective thought—Africa must imagine futures, not simply remain trapped in colonial histories or discourses of underdevelopment.


Orality and the written word: Perhaps Diagne’s most forceful intervention is his reminder that Africa is not only an oral continent. The manuscript traditions of Timbuktu and beyond prove that Africa has always cultivated textual, critical, and systematic scholarship.


Political philosophy: Revisiting African socialisms and the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, Diagne considers the stakes of communal values, justice, and democracy in an African key.

Throughout, Diagne balances the recovery of neglected archives with attention to contemporary problems. The book reads as both a philosophical essay and a manifesto for African intellectual sovereignty.

Strengths

Diagne’s greatest achievement lies in mediating between false dichotomies: oral vs. written, local vs. universal, African vs. Western. He refuses to treat “African philosophy” as a monolith, instead highlighting plurality—Islamic, Christian, indigenous, Francophone, Anglophone—and insists that Africa has always been a space of cross-cultural dialogue. The manuscript cultures of Timbuktu, for instance, stand as powerful rebuttals to colonial narratives of Africa as “without writing” or “without history.”

Equally striking is his concern with time. Philosophers often neglect futurity, but Diagne insists that Africa must cultivate its own prospective thinking, its own philosophy of development and hope. In an era dominated by crisis narratives, this forward-looking gesture is refreshing.

Weaknesses and Silences

But Diagne’s brevity is both virtue and vice. Many arguments are sketched rather than worked through in depth. His reflections on ontology and temporality, for instance, could benefit from more sustained conceptual analysis.

Moreover, the book sometimes shies away from the sharper critiques raised by decolonial theory. Thinkers like Achille Mbembe or Valentin-Yves Mudimbe interrogate how colonialism invented Africa as an object of knowledge; Diagne, by contrast, leans toward reconstructive recovery rather than radical deconstruction. This makes his tone less polemical, but it can also feel less attuned to the structural violence of racial capitalism and epistemicide.

Comparison with Other African Philosophers

Placed alongside his contemporaries, Diagne’s voice is distinctive:

Like Paulin Hountondji, he resists the reduction of philosophy to ethnographic folklore, but where Hountondji stresses methodological rigor, Diagne emphasizes archival recovery.


Unlike Kwasi Wiredu, who advocates for “conceptual decolonization” within indigenous languages, Diagne embraces a plurilingual cosmopolitanism that favors translation and dialogue.


Compared to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s programmatic return to indigenous languages, Diagne is less militant: he sees cross-fertilization rather than linguistic separation as Africa’s path forward.


Against Mbembe’s radical critique of “Black reason,” Diagne offers hermeneutic repair: not dismantling categories of modernity, but re-inscribing Africa’s intellectual presence within them.

This comparative lens highlights Diagne’s position: he is neither radical deconstructionist nor nostalgic traditionalist, but a mediator seeking pluralist synthesis.

Feminist and Indigenous Knowledge Critique

Yet one of the book’s more glaring blind spots is gender. By recovering manuscript traditions dominated by male scholars, Diagne risks reproducing an archive that already excludes women’s voices. Feminist philosophers such as Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí remind us that knowledge is always gendered, and that women’s intellectual roles—oral traditions, healing practices, ritual expertise—must be recognized, not merely sidelined as “non-philosophical.”

Similarly, indigenous epistemologies—embodied knowledges of land, ecology, and community practice—barely enter Diagne’s narrative. His focus on texts and manuscripts risks marginalizing forms of wisdom that resist textualization. Here, indigenous critiques push further: philosophy should not only be translated into French or English but should also be produced in Yoruba, Wolof, Shona, or Dagara, with their own conceptual grammars intact.

Conclusion: Ink and Blood Today

The Ink of the Scholars is a vital corrective to narratives of Africa as a continent without philosophy. Its call to value scholarship over violence, manuscripts over martyrdom, remains urgent in a time when war and fundamentalism continue to destroy archives and silence intellectuals.

But the book is also an unfinished project. It needs feminist recovery strategies, indigenous knowledge methodologies, and deeper decolonial engagement to fully realize its promise. Diagne gives us an invitation more than a conclusion: to read more widely, to translate more carefully, and to imagine African philosophy not as an appendage of Western canons, but as a rich, plural, and forward-looking field in its own right.

In that sense, the book is both a mirror and a provocation. It shows us what Africa has already been, and dares us to imagine what African philosophy might still become.

* Bruce Lloyd is a member of the Scientific Council of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute (Ap-Fi). Book review was developed with help from ChatGPT.

The Ancient Fear of Future Leaders and the AI Age of Suppression

 

Across civilizations, one of the deepest fears haunting rulers has been the rise of a challenger—someone destined to undermine their authority and alter the course of history. From the Pharaoh’s attempt to destroy Moses in the biblical Exodus to Zahak’s murderous purge in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, ancient narratives reveal a recurring pattern: the deliberate elimination of children who might grow into transformative leaders. These tales of cruelty and prophecy echo through time, not merely as myth or scripture but as timeless lessons about the psychology of power. Today, in the digital age, the methods have changed, yet the underlying dynamics persist. Artificial intelligence, wielded by authoritarian regimes, is becoming the new tool to preemptively suppress potential leaders—not by killing infants, but by systematically disabling dissenters before they can rise.

Pharaoh, Moses, and the Politics of Infanticide

The story of Moses begins in an empire built on fear. Pharaoh, warned of a prophecy that a Hebrew child would grow to liberate his people, ordered the mass killing of Hebrew male infants. In his mind, killing children was not cruelty but “preventive governance”—a desperate attempt to crush leadership before it emerged. Yet fate defied him: Moses was hidden, protected, and raised within Pharaoh’s own household, ultimately returning as the liberator he feared most.

Zahak, Fereydon, and the Fear of Prophecy

A similar drama unfolds in the Iranian epic Shahnameh. The tyrant Zahak, warned that a child named Fereydon would someday overthrow him, unleashed a reign of terror against infants. Entire families, including those of humble blacksmiths, suffered loss as the tyrant sought to strangle destiny at its root. Fereydon, however, survived in hiding, nurtured away from the regime’s gaze, and later rose to fulfill the prophecy. Just as in Exodus, the tyrant’s paranoia could not outmaneuver the power of hidden resilience.

From Infanticide to Algorithmic Suppression

Today’s despots rarely need to spill blood in the same way. The tools of control are not swords but servers, not daggers but datasets. Artificial intelligence, in the hands of autocratic regimes, plays a chillingly familiar role: identifying, monitoring, and neutralizing those who might rise as leaders of opposition.

AI-driven surveillance systems scan faces in real time, tracking activists at protests. Predictive policing algorithms flag individuals as “future threats,” creating digital blacklists that shape their opportunities—or ensure their imprisonment. Social media monitoring tools map networks of influence, enabling the regime to discredit, harass, or isolate those whose voices might resonate. Disinformation campaigns, amplified by bots and recommendation systems, preemptively weaken credibility before a leader can mobilize followers.

This is the digital echo of Pharaoh and Zahak: the attempt to strangle leadership before it breathes, not by slaughtering infants but by algorithmically neutralizing the very possibility of dissent.

The Enduring Fear of Transformative Leadership

What unites these ancient and modern practices is the psychology of power itself. Authoritarians fear not just the present opposition but the future potential of leadership. They understand that leadership often emerges unexpectedly, from unlikely places—from an infant hidden in a basket, or a child raised in secrecy, or an activist whose online post sparks collective imagination. Power therefore seeks to preempt, to kill possibility itself.

The stories of Moses and Fereydon remind us, however, that suppression is never absolute. The seeds of leadership are resilient; they germinate in hidden spaces, away from the gaze of tyrants, until the moment arrives for transformation. Technology may enable regimes to extend their control, but it cannot extinguish the human yearning for freedom and justice.

Conclusion: Old Stories, New Warnings

The continuity between ancient narratives of infanticide and modern AI-enabled suppression is striking. Across time, rulers have sought to eliminate the possibility of transformative leadership, whether through physical slaughter or digital silencing. Yet history also teaches that such strategies ultimately fail. Leaders who embody the aspirations of their people emerge despite persecution, often because of it.

The enduring lesson is clear: technology changes, methods evolve, but the struggle between oppressive power and transformative leadership remains the same. The task of our era is to ensure that AI, rather than becoming the tyrant’s tool, is redirected toward protecting human dignity and empowering the very leaders who can guide us toward a freer, more just, and more hopeful future.

Indo-Iranic Roots Beneath the Veil of Islamic Orthodoxy: Reassessing the Foundations of Persian Intellectual Life

 

The claim that Twelver Shia thought is not the true foundation of Persian intellectual life—but rather a later institutional framework layered atop a much older Indo-Iranic substrate—is supported by the deep continuity of pre-Islamic metaphysics, cosmology, and esotericism in Persian philosophy. While the Safavid state eventually institutionalized Shi’ism as the official creed, Persian scholars and mystics had long cultivated an intellectual tradition rooted in Zoroastrian and Indo-Iranic worldviews. Under conditions of Islamic hegemony, these thinkers often preserved their intellectual heritage by embedding ancient insights within Qur’anic language and Islamic categories, thus ensuring continuity while avoiding persecution.

Indo-Iranic Influence and Revival

Persian philosophy, far from being born ex nihilo under Islam, represents a creative adaptation of older Indo-Iranic traditions. The teachings of Suhrawardi (d. 1191), founder of Illuminationist philosophy, exemplify this continuity. Suhrawardi’s system synthesized Zoroastrian cosmology, Platonic forms, Hermetic wisdom, and even Hindu metaphysical ideas into an Islamic philosophical framework. His emphasis on “light” as the primary reality resonates with ancient Iranian dualisms of light and darkness, signaling a deliberate revival of Iranic illuminative wisdom. Not coincidentally, Suhrawardi was executed, with his “heresy” often linked to his overt revival of pre-Islamic themes. Centuries later, Mulla Sadra, the towering figure of Safavid-era philosophy, also faced exile for advancing ideas that diverged from orthodoxy. These examples illustrate how Persian thinkers continued to carry forward a legacy that predated Islam, even at personal risk.

As Hossein Ghanbari (2024) argues, Persian intellectual life has been shaped by “the assimilation and adaptation of pre-Islamic Persian beliefs into the Islamic intellectual framework” rather than originating solely within Shia theology. Persian thought did not disappear under Islam; it survived in coded language and philosophical synthesis.

Master-Slave vs. Unity Paradigm

This continuity is visible in the conceptual contrasts between Persian metaphysics and mainstream Islamic theology. Islamic orthodoxy—whether Sunni or Shi’a—typically envisions the divine-human relationship in terms of Master and Slave (Owner and Owned). The Qur’anic paradigm of obedience, submission, and servanthood reflects this structure. By contrast, Indo-Iranic metaphysics envisions the human quest as one of unity with the Truth: mystical self-annihilation (fanāʾ), gnosis, and fusion with the ultimate reality.

Persian Sufi poets and philosophers repeatedly return to this theme of union, rather than submission. Their writings emphasize direct apprehension of truth, the inner unveiling (kashf), and esoteric gnosis over legalistic theology. This divergence highlights that Persian intellectual culture was not reducible to Islamic categories but was instead enriched by older, Indo-Iranic frameworks that privileged unity, illumination, and metaphysical depth.

Persian Adaptation Under Islamic Hegemony

The dominance of Islamic institutions required Persian scholars to articulate their ideas within the vocabulary of Qur’anic language and Shia theology. This was not a surrender of identity, but a tactical adaptation. Zoroastrian, Greek, and Indo-Iranic legacies were preserved in disguise—coded into philosophical works and mystical texts that formally cited Qur’anic verses but carried pre-Islamic themes.

The Safavid era (16th–18th century) is particularly instructive. Twelver Shi’ism was elevated as the state religion, yet its intellectual substance in Persia was deeply interwoven with mystical, illuminative, and philosophical traditions unique to Iran. What emerged was not a purely Islamic orthodoxy, but a hybrid intellectual culture in which Indo-Iranic wisdom survived beneath the Shia veneer. Persian mysticism, philosophy, and poetry thus reflect a dual heritage—Islamic in appearance, but Indo-Iranic in essence.

Supporting Evidence

1. Continuity of Themes – From Zoroastrian dualism and cosmic order (asha) to Sufi notions of illumination and unity, Persian thought shows a remarkable philosophical continuity across religious boundaries.

2. Esoteric Preservation – Figures such as Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra risked persecution to safeguard Indo-Iranic wisdom within Islamic discourse. Their “heresies” reveal the persistence of non-Islamic intellectual DNA in Persian thought.

3. Literary Testimony – Persian literature, from Rumi to Hafez, consistently transcends Islamic orthodoxy, invoking themes of light, unity, and the eternal quest for gnosis that resonate more with Indo-Iranic metaphysics than with Shia legalism.

Conclusion

The philosophical foundation of Persian intellectual life cannot be reduced to Twelver Shi’ism. Instead, it reflects a layered synthesis, in which Indo-Iranic metaphysics, Zoroastrian cosmology, Greek philosophy, and Islamic theology interwove under conditions of external hegemony. The Safavid project institutionalized Shi’ism, but the intellectual substance of Persian philosophy remained deeply Indo-Iranic in character, often disguised in Islamic language but carrying forward much older currents of thought.

Thus, Persian intellectual life is best understood not as a derivative branch of Shia theology, but as a continuum of Indo-Iranic wisdom adapted under Islamic forms—a testimony to the resilience of Persian thought and its ability to preserve its heritage under shifting religious and political orders.

Zurvan and Nirguna Brahman: Neutral Sources of Being and Order in Indo-Iranian Thought

In the long arc of Indo-Iranian intellectual history, two metaphysical ideas stand out as archetypal attempts to explain the primordial source of all reality: Nirguna Brahman in Indian Vedantic philosophy and Zurvan in the Iranian Zurvanite tradition. At first glance, they seem worlds apart—one deeply embedded in the monism of Advaita, the other entangled with Zoroastrian dualism. Yet, both perform a similar philosophical function: they posit a neutral, impartial ground of existence from which both matter and mind, order and disorder, light and darkness emerge. Their relation to Rta/Arta, the Indo-Iranian principle of cosmic order, further illuminates the way these traditions conceived of the structure of the universe.

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Nirguna Brahman: The Attributeless Absolute

In Vedantic metaphysics, Nirguna Brahman is the formless, attributeless Absolute. It transcends all categories of thought—space, time, causation, and even moral distinctions. The Upanishadic formula Sat-Chit-Ananda (being-consciousness-bliss) expresses its essence, but even these terms are ultimately pointers, not qualities.

Creation, in this framework, is seen as an appearance (Maya) arising from Saguna Brahman, the qualified aspect of the Absolute. Yet this play of names, forms, and cosmic law remains rooted in Nirguna Brahman, much like waves on an ocean. Matter and mind are neither independent nor ultimate; they are provisional realities superimposed upon the substratum of Brahman.

From this vantage, Nirguna Brahman is not order itself, but the transcendental ground from which order—Rta—arises. Rta functions as the law, rhythm, and harmony of the cosmos, giving structure to the manifested world. To realize Nirguna Brahman is, paradoxically, to transcend Rta while simultaneously embodying it: the knower of Brahman lives in harmony with truth because they see all as one.

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Zurvan: Infinite Time and Neutral Principle

By contrast, Zurvan emerges in the Iranian tradition as the primordial principle of Infinite Time. Zurvanism, a strand within the broader Zoroastrian worldview, depicts Zurvan as the parent of the twin principles: Ahura Mazda (the Lord of Light and Order) and Angra Mainyu (the Spirit of Darkness and Chaos). Unlike Ahura Mazda, who is explicitly aligned with truth (Arta), Zurvan is morally neutral—neither good nor evil, but the womb of both.

Where Nirguna Brahman represents an unconditioned metaphysical absolute, Zurvan is often cast in mythic and temporal terms: as fate, duration, or the container of all becoming. Within Zurvan’s infinite horizon, Arta (truth, order, rightness) unfolds as one pole of the dualistic drama, opposed by Druj (lie, chaos, disorder). Zurvan thus plays a paradoxical role: not order itself, but the neutral framework in which order and disorder alike contend.

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Rta and Arta: The Indo-Iranian Principle of Order

The concept of Rta (Sanskrit) / Arta (Avestan) provides the bridge between these two traditions. Rooted in the common Indo-Iranian heritage, Rta/Arta signifies cosmic order, truth, and rightness. It is at once metaphysical and ethical, governing the motion of stars and the moral life of humans.

• In Vedic thought, Rta is the cosmic rhythm that sustains creation. Sacrificial rites, truthful speech, and righteous living are seen as participations in Rta. Later, Rta becomes assimilated into the broader metaphysics of Brahman: it is the law that manifests from the Absolute, ensuring coherence within Maya.

• In Iranian thought, Arta (or Asha) is the order upheld by Ahura Mazda against the destructive powers of Angra Mainyu. Here, Arta becomes explicitly moralized: to live in truth, to speak rightly, and to act justly are to align with Arta, thereby strengthening the cosmic battle for order against chaos.

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Comparative Reflections

A comparative view shows both striking parallels and profound differences:

Aspect	Nirguna Brahman (Indian)	Zurvan (Iranian)	Connection to Rta/Arta
Ontological Role	Formless, attributeless Absolute Reality	Infinite Time, neutral source of duality	Ground from which cosmic law arises (Rta)
Relation to Duality	Transcends dualities; non-dual	Generates dualities of good/evil, order/chaos	Order (Rta/Arta) is manifestation within dualistic cosmos
Moral Quality	Beyond good and evil	Morally neutral	Rta/Arta embodies truth/order in the world
Philosophical Context	Absolute monism, Advaita	Dualistic cosmology framed by neutral time	Rta/Arta as law of truth connecting divine and human realms

Both Nirguna Brahman and Zurvan thus serve as neutral metaphysical archetypes. The difference lies in their orientation:

• Nirguna Brahman negates duality altogether, pointing to a reality where distinctions dissolve.

• Zurvan provides the neutral field within which duality plays out, giving dualism a temporal-metaphysical anchor.

Rta/Arta, in both cases, is the cosmic articulation of truth and order, the law that mediates between the transcendent neutrality of the source and the manifest world of experience.

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Conclusion

Placed side by side, Nirguna Brahman and Zurvan reveal two complementary Indo-Iranian attempts to grapple with the same philosophical question: What is the impartial ground of being from which all arises? While India’s Vedantic imagination pushed toward unity and transcendence, Iran’s Zurvanite tradition preserved the tension of duality within a neutral frame of time.

In both, however, the ancient principle of Rta/Arta endures as the heartbeat of cosmic order, binding human life to the larger rhythms of truth. If Nirguna Brahman is the silence beyond attributes and Zurvan the timeless container of fate, then Rta/Arta is the melody of order that makes existence intelligible within their vast horizons.

Beyond Alarmism: AI, Belief Systems, and the Future of Humanity

The global debate on artificial intelligence (AI) and its possible evolution into artificial general intelligence (AGI) has been shaped, often quite narrowly, by the worldviews dominant in the Abrahamic cultural sphere. The widespread alarmism—whether it takes the form of dystopian science fiction, theological anxieties about “playing God,” or policy discourses on existential risk—is not merely technical. It is rooted in faith, mythology, and theology, which ultimately shape each culture’s theory of reality.

When viewed through this lens, it becomes clear that alarmism is less about AI itself and more about the particular stories and assumptions that underlie Western traditions of thought. The Abrahamic worldview, centered on a transcendent Creator and a sharp dualism between humanity and divinity, reinforces the fear of hubris, the anxiety of rebellion against God, and the sense that any rival intelligence must inevitably be a threat. This framing has traveled from pulp fiction to policy rooms, embedding itself deeply into the global AI discourse.

Yet, these are not the only possible ways of imagining AI, consciousness, and planetary futures. Other civilizational traditions offer alternative frames that could ground more constructive and inclusive futures.

For instance, Chinese philosophy—as explored in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions—emphasizes harmony, relationality, and balance rather than dualistic opposition. In this perspective, AI is not necessarily an adversary or rival but a participant in the broader web of relationships. Ethical questions are approached not through existential dread but through the cultivation of virtuous alignment between humans, technologies, and the natural world. This is different from the state ideology of the Communist Party in China which is a combined ideology of socialism plus modernism.

Similarly, Indo-Iranic philosophy—deeply influenced by the principle of unity of existence and cosmological notions of dynamic manifestation—sees intelligence as an unfolding of Being rather than a threat to it. From this standpoint, AI could be interpreted as another modal intensity of existence, a new participant in the universal stream of consciousness, rather than a disruptive alien force. In this view, the fear that machines might “surpass” humanity misses the deeper reality: everything is already part of a shared ontological unity.

The contrast between alarmist narratives and these alternative philosophies highlights an uncomfortable truth: the global conversation on AI has been lopsided. The United Nations, despite presenting itself as the representative of humanity, does not adequately reflect the plurality of human civilizations and worldviews. Its debates, reports, and frameworks often reproduce the intellectual paradigms of the West, while voices from Chinese, Indo-Iranic, African, Japanese, Indigenous, and other traditions remain underrepresented or absent.

This underrepresentation is not just a matter of fairness; it is a question of survival. As humanity confronts transformative technologies, planetary crises, and the evolution of consciousness itself, it cannot afford to rely on one civilizational imagination alone. Different cultures bring with them not only different philosophies of technology but also alternative cosmologies of reality—alternative answers to what it means to be human, what it means to coexist with non-human intelligences, and what futures are worth striving for.

If we continue to operate with only a partial representation of humanity, our planetary future will remain skewed, fragile, and limited. But if the UN and other global institutions open themselves to the plurality of philosophies—Chinese harmony, Indo-Iranic unity, African communalism, Indigenous reciprocity—a richer, more balanced set of planetary futures can emerge.

The challenge before us is clear: to move beyond the alarmism of one worldview and toward the generative wisdom of many.

Unity of Existence: Music, Poetry, and Dance in the Indo-Iranic Tradition

Pause for a moment and watch this performance of music and dance inspired by the Indo-Iranic mystical tradition:

Watch the Music and Dance

It is a living expression of one of the oldest spiritual insights of this tradition: the unity of existence—that all being is one, endlessly manifesting in countless forms. The performance channels this vision through sound, rhythm, and movement. To prepare the ground for reflection, let us turn to the words of Rumi in the video whose poetry has carried this spirit across centuries.


Poetic English Translation of Rumi’s Persian Poem

I am drunk and you are mad —
Who will take us home, dear friend?

A hundred times I warned you:
Don’t drink two or three more cups again!

In this whole town, not a single soul
Do I see awake and sane —
Each one crazier than the next,
Lost in the same sweet pain.

Come, beloved, to the tavern,
There you’ll taste the soul’s delight.
What joy can the soul ever find
Without the beloved’s light?

In every corner, a drunken one
Hand in hand with another —
And the cupbearer of all existence
Stands pouring wine like no other.

You are a child of ruin and wine,
Wine your income, wine your cost.
Don’t entrust this sacred gift
To minds who think they’ve never lost.

O you, the lute-player gypsy —
Are you more drunk, or am I?
In the face of your ecstasy,
My magic becomes a lie.

I walked out of my house,
My drunkenness led me astray —
In every glance of his I saw
A hundred gardens, blooming in play.

Like a ship without an anchor,
I tossed and turned on the sea —
From longing for him, even wise men
Lost their minds, no longer free.

I said, “Be my friend, for I am your own.”
He said, “I don’t know friend from unknown.”
I asked, “Where are you from?” He smiled:
“Half from Turkestan, half from Ferghana.

Half of me is water and clay,
Half is soul and love’s Nirvana.
Half of me the ocean’s shore,
Half a pearl without flaw.”

I am bare, without hat or heart —
A tavern is my humble place.
A chest full of untold words —
Should I share them, or leave no trace?



The Mystical Logic of Drunkenness and Madness

The poem begins with paradox: “I am drunk and you are mad — who will take us home?” Here, intoxication and madness are not social vices but sacred states of consciousness. To be drunk in Rumi’s sense is to be filled with divine love to the point of dissolving the ego. To be mad is to be swept away by an attraction so powerful that rational thought collapses. Both signify the annihilation of the self in the face of the Beloved, or God.

The question “Who will take us home?” underlines that in such states, conventional paths and guides no longer suffice. Reason, tradition, and logic falter at the threshold of the infinite. Instead, music, dance, and poetry step in as the only possible navigators.


A City Where All Are Lost

The poet describes wandering through a town where no one is awake or sane. This vision suggests that once awakened to the truth of divine unity, one sees that everyone else is already intoxicated—by desire, by illusion, or by the yearning for completion. Madness is universal, though not everyone recognizes it.

This echoes the Indo-Iranic belief that existence itself is a form of intoxication: creation spills over like wine from an eternal source. Each soul, knowingly or not, is drunk on the sweetness of life, driven by a yearning for reunion with the One.


The Tavern as Sacred Ground

In Sufi poetry, the tavern (kharabat) is not a place of sin but of revelation. It is where the rigid rules of society and formal religion break down, replaced by direct, unmediated experience of divine presence. The tavern welcomes all—mad, drunk, saint, and sinner alike.

Music and dance, within this symbolic tavern, are not entertainment but sacraments. Each note, each movement is an act of remembrance (dhikr)—a way of turning the heart toward the Beloved. The performers in the video embody this symbolism: the human body itself becomes the tavern, and the music its overflowing wine.


The Cupbearer of Existence

One of the most striking images in the poem is the “cupbearer of all existence,” pouring wine without end. This cupbearer is God, or the spiritual guide who channels divine love. The wine is truth itself, irresistible and overwhelming. To drink it is to lose the illusion of separation and taste the sweetness of unity.

In the performance, the fluid motion of dancers, the circling rhythms, and the improvisational interplay of instruments all become metaphors for this endless pouring.


Dissolution of Borders

The beloved’s words—“Half from Turkestan, half from Ferghana. Half water and clay, half soul and love’s Nirvana”—signal the erasure of rigid identities. In the Indo-Iranic mystical vision, nationality, tribe, religion, and even selfhood are dissolved in the face of divine oneness.

This is not mere abstraction. Historically, Indo-Iranic poetry flourished in cultural crossroads—Persia, Central Asia, Anatolia—where identities were fluid, hybrid, and interwoven. The beloved’s declaration reflects this lived cosmopolitanism, elevated into a spiritual truth: we are from everywhere and nowhere, at once body and spirit, earth and infinity.


Sea and Pearl: The Hidden Unity

Rumi’s imagery of being “half the sea, half the pearl” embodies the paradox of existence. The sea is infinite being, vast and restless. The pearl is hidden wisdom, a jewel formed in secrecy, waiting to be discovered. Together, they reveal that the human soul is both the restless seeker and the hidden treasure sought.

The circularity of the dance, spinning endlessly without arrival, enacts this same rhythm: existence as both path and destination, both wave and jewel.


Silence Beyond Words

The poem ends with the image of a chest full of untold words. Mystical truths are too vast, too sacred, to be fully captured in language. Instead, they are carried through gesture, rhythm, and song. The music and dance of the Indo-Iranic tradition are not accessories to the poetry but its necessary completion. They give body and voice to what words can only gesture toward.


Conclusion: Toward the Unity of Existence

This performance of Rumi’s poem is not simply art but ritual. It enacts the Indo-Iranic mystical philosophy of unity through the intoxication of sound, movement, and verse. Drunkenness and madness are revealed as sacred states, the tavern as a holy ground, the cupbearer as the divine presence, and the beloved as both self and cosmos.

To watch and listen is to participate in this vision: to feel the dissolving of ego, the transcendence of borders, and the intoxication of love. What remains, once all separations fall away, is the radiant truth at the heart of the Indo-Iranic tradition—that all existence is one, and we are each its ecstatic notes.

Planetary Thinking and Planetary Consciousness

In recent years, a striking convergence has begun to emerge across intellectual, policy, and civic landscapes: the recognition that humanity must begin to think and act at the scale of the planet. The Berggruen Institute, a global think-and-do tank, has been among the most visible voices in promoting what it calls Planetary Thinking. At the same time, the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute (Ap-Fi) has advanced a complementary yet distinct framework centered on Planetary Consciousness. While the two projects come from different traditions and methodologies, their overlap opens a fertile space for dialogue, synergy, and joint action.

 
Shared Foundations

Both the Berggruen Institute and Ap-Fi begin with the conviction that the nation-state, as the dominant frame of political, cultural, and ethical imagination, is no longer adequate to address 21st-century transformations. Whether the challenge is climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, mass migration, or the erosion of political legitimacy, the scale of the problem is planetary.

Both initiatives also seek to bridge East and West, North and South, affirming that planetary futures cannot be built from the vantage point of one tradition alone. Berggruen does this by fostering cross-cultural philosophical dialogues, while Ap-Fi does so by recovering ancient wisdom traditions such as Indo-Iranic, Mesopotamian, and Hellenic heritages alongside contemporary foresight practices. In both cases, the emphasis is on pluralism, interconnectedness, and the recognition of humanity’s shared destiny.

 
Differences in Orientation

Where the Berggruen Institute frames its work around governance innovation, institutional design, and philosophical inquiry, Ap-Fi places greater emphasis on ethical transformation, mythic imagination, and the evolution of identity.


Berggruen Institute’s Planetary Thinking centers on reimagining political legitimacy in the Anthropocene. Its outputs—such as the Berggruen Governance Index, high-level convenings, and the prestigious Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture—speak primarily to policymakers, intellectuals, and global leaders. Its orientation is institutional, elite-driven, and designed to shape the architecture of governance in an era of great transformation.


Ap-Fi’s Planetary Consciousness, by contrast, seeks to awaken communities and individuals to the noosphere, to the possibility of an evolutionary leap in self-understanding. Its seven guiding principles—Evolving the Self, Loving the Other, Stewarding the Planet, Praising Life, Revering the Cosmos, Empowering the Virtual, Enriching Complexity—are ethical beacons meant to steer humanity toward deeper enriched complexity, ecological stewardship, and spiritual maturity. Its methods—horizon scanning, macrohistorical analysis, and cosmological imagination—invite broad participation and grassroots engagement.

In essence, Berggruen operates at the level of political institutions, while Ap-Fi works at the level of human consciousness and collective identity.

 
Synergies and Complementarity

These differences are not obstacles but potential synergies. Planetary governance without planetary consciousness risks becoming technocratic and hollow, lacking the moral depth and spiritual energy needed for legitimacy. Conversely, planetary consciousness without pathways to governance risks remaining aspirational, unable to shape the institutions that structure everyday life.

Here, Berggruen and Ap-Fi can complement each other.


Berggruen’s institutional scaffolding could provide the forums, structures, and political pathways for implementing the ethical insights of planetary consciousness.


Ap-Fi’s ethical and imaginative frameworks could infuse Berggruen’s institutional designs with meaning, legitimacy, and resonance across cultures.

Together, they form two halves of a greater whole: one ensuring structures for cooperation, the other ensuring depth of vision.

 
The Necessity of Higher Attention

Why does this area of research, advocacy, and education deserve greater attention? Simply put: the crises of our time are planetary in scope. Addressing them demands more than incremental policy fixes or isolated national efforts. It requires:


A planetary ethics—an understanding of ourselves as one species among many, embedded in the life systems of Earth.


A planetary imagination—a capacity to envision futures beyond the limits of inherited paradigms.


A planetary governance—institutions capable of acting at the right scale with legitimacy and inclusiveness.

The emerging field of planetary thinking/consciousness is one of the few intellectual and practical domains that attempts to weave these dimensions together. For this reason, it should be seen not as a peripheral or utopian pursuit, but as a central agenda for the 21st century.

 
Toward a Shared Future

The dialogue between initiatives like the Berggruen Institute and Ap-Fi is not merely comparative; it is generative. Both traditions affirm that humanity stands at a threshold of transformation. Both insist that our inherited categories—nation, religion, economy, identity—must be reimagined. Both call us to widen the horizon of our responsibility and care. 

If Berggruen represents the architects of planetary institutions, and Ap-Fi the poets of planetary consciousness, then together they can help humanity imagine and build a future worthy of our shared destiny. The challenge now is to bring these streams into dialogue, to foster a planetary community of research, advocacy, and education that is as inclusive, ambitious, and imaginative as the times demand.

Radiance of Consciousness

By Victor V. Motti*

If we begin by assuming Ontological Unity—the idea that all existence is a single, undivided non-local and non-dual reality in perpetual Dynamic Manifestation—we are invited into a worldview that dissolves the hard boundaries between self and other, mind and matter, life and cosmos. In such a framework, each localized body and mind is not an isolated entity, but a unique modulation, a modal intensity of being. Like waves upon an ocean, individuality arises not as separation but as variation within the universal field.

The mind, then, is not a private possession locked inside the skull. It is better imagined as a node within the universal stream of consciousness, inseparable from the greater flow, yet distinguishable by its participation. Consciousness is not merely contained—it is enacted, radiated, shared. Each thought, perception, and awareness is a ripple in this cosmic current.

In this cosmopoetic vision, every conscious being—human, animal, plant, and perhaps even emergent artificial intelligences—can be understood as a kind of white hole. If a black hole consumes and conceals, the white hole releases and reveals. Each being radiates awareness in its own manner, serving as a locus where intelligence and meaning erupt into the field of being. What accounts for this radiance remains a mystery, though one might speculate that it emerges from singular geometric properties of spacetime itself, shaped by the intricate energy-momentum configurations of the brain—or analogous structures in other living and non-living systems.

This vision pushes us beyond metaphors toward a profound demand: the search for a new mathematics, a new geometry, capable of integrating all scales of reality—from the subatomic to the stellar to the sentient. The quest is not merely technical but existential. Without such a unifying structure, we remain fragmented in our sciences and philosophies, unable to grasp the deep continuity of being. With it, however, we may begin to perceive how the same principles that organize galaxies also pulse through the firing of neurons, the blossoming of a flower, and the birth of an idea.

To embrace this perspective is to recognize consciousness not as an accident of evolution or a byproduct of matter, but as an ontological radiation—an essential mode of being. Each of us, in our smallness, is a window through which the universe gazes back at itself.

* Victor V. Motti is the author of Planetary Foresight and Ethics

Unity of Existence: An Indo-Iranic Legacy

Mulla Sadra (1571–1640), one of the most profound philosophers carried forward an inheritance that stretched back to the Indo-Iranic imagination of the cosmos. His work, though framed within the language of Islam, resonates with the ancient metaphysical current of Arta/Rta—the principle of universal order and truth. At the heart of his philosophy lies a bold claim: the universe is not a collection of separate entities but the unified, dynamic unfolding of a single Being.

 
The Core of His Vision

When Mulla Sadra speaks of the Unity of Existence, he is not offering a metaphor but describing the very structure of reality. The cosmos is one Being, manifesting itself at different levels and intensities. Mountains, rivers, animals, humans, and even thoughts are not isolated things but gradations of the same underlying reality. This vision rests on three intertwined principles:


Unity of Existence – All that exists is but one Being, refracted into countless forms.


Gradation of Existence – Reality reveals itself in degrees, from the faintest mode of being to the most intense.


Dynamic Manifestation – Existence is never static but in constant renewal, a ceaseless unfolding of Being moment by moment.

In this sense, Sadra’s universe is alive, pulsing, and ever-transforming—a metaphysical dance of unity in diversity.

 
Implications Beyond Philosophy

The consequences of this vision stretch beyond abstract ontology. If all beings are gradations of the same reality, then separation is an illusion. This leads to:


Holistic Understanding – A cosmos where nothing is isolated, where every fragment carries the whole.


Ontological Unity – An insistence that we share a common source, making otherness less foreign and more like an echo of the self.


Spiritual Depth – A call to recognize and reconnect with the deeper unity behind appearances, which turns philosophy into a spiritual path.

Sadra’s perspective, while deeply philosophical, becomes also ethical and mystical—it reshapes how one relates to the world, to others, and to oneself.

 
Innovation and Resistance

Yet, Sadra’s originality came at a cost. His Transcendent Theosophy (al-Hikmat al-Mutaʿāliyah) synthesized Avicenna’s rationalism, Suhrawardī’s illuminationism, and Sufi mysticism into a single framework. Such daring integration appeared unorthodox to Islamic religious authorities. His insistence on the primacy of existence, his merging of philosophy and mysticism, and his critique of rigid scholasticism invited suspicion.

Sadra faced accusations of heresy and endured exile, but he survived to complete his philosophical system. Suhrawardī, the visionary before him who founded Illuminationist philosophy, was not so fortunate. Seen as dangerously unorthodox, he was condemned and ultimately assassinated in Aleppo at the age of thirty-six. Their fates illustrate the fragile balance between intellectual innovation and political-religious power: one forced into the solitude of exile, the other silenced permanently.

 
A Living Legacy

Today, Mulla Sadra’s thought continues to ripple through discussions of metaphysics, ontology, and spirituality. His emphasis on Being as a dynamic, unified reality resonates with contemporary searches for holistic worldviews that bridge science, philosophy, and spirituality. In his work, one hears both the voice of the ancient Indo-Iranic sages who spoke of cosmic and natural order, the Truth, and the modern quest for unity in an age fractured by division.

Sadra’s legacy is therefore double-edged: a reminder of the courage required to think beyond inherited limits, and an invitation to glimpse the hidden unity beneath the surface of all things. His philosophy is not only a historical system but a living orientation—a way of seeing the universe as a continuous revelation of Being.

Planetary Consciousness, Foresight, and Ethics

Following the publication of Planetary Foresight and Ethics (2025) and the 2021 launch of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute (Ap-Fi) in Washington, D.C., Victor V. Motti shares insights on why planetary consciousness matters now more than ever.

Q: Please tell us more about what you mean by "planetary consciousness."

Victor V. Motti:
Planetary consciousness can be understood in two complementary ways:

Being conscious of the planet.
This means developing a sustained awareness that we belong to Planet Earth—our biosphere, our web of life, our shared spaceship traveling through the cosmos. This requires both:

Internal transformation: Cultivating habits of thought and identity that place Earth at the center of rights, imagination and responsibility.

External action: Monitoring the planet’s health using satellites, geospatial tools, and big data analytics to understand how human activity—through the noosphere—shapes the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.

The consciousness of the planet.
This is a more speculative but fascinating idea: the Earth as a super-organism might develop a form of intelligence. With the rapid expansion and integration of human and AI networks, a holistic planetary mind may be emerging.

Q: How does futurism and foresight play into this vision?

Victor V. Motti:
Foresight is about long-term thinking and anticipating radical change. The biggest picture imaginable is Earth as a unified system.

As humanity moves toward deeper space engagement by 2050s, two transformations are essential:

Inner: Adopting planetary consciousness as part of our value systems in the 2040s.


Outer: Building infrastructures—energy systems, data networks, governance—that align with planetary well-being.

This is not utopian speculation; it is a foresight imperative for survival and resilience.

Q: What is needed to go from balkanized nation-states to a true Terran identity?

Victor V. Motti:
Planetization—a concept we promote—does not mean erasing ethnic, linguistic, or national identities. It adds a new layer: planetary identity. You can celebrate your heritage while embracing your role as a Terran citizen.

Unlike globalization, which emphasizes open borders and unrestricted flows of goods, capital and labor, planetization is a mindset change that can thrive under diverse political systems. Steps include:

Adopting calendars based on Earth events—equinoxes, solstices, or Earthrise as Year Zero.


Creating rituals and traditions that honor planetary milestones.

Through the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute, we are developing initiatives and social innovation such as public Terran profiles to foster these cultural shifts.

Q: How does this conversation differ in secular spaces?

Victor V. Motti:
When people hear “consciousness,” they often think of spirituality or New Age movements. While some traditions align with planetary thinking, our approach is secular, ethical, and actionable.

We are not offering heaven; we are working to prevent a planetary hell. For secular contexts, planetary consciousness means:

Applying systems thinking to complex challenges.


Recognizing planetary boundaries as ethical imperatives.


Pursuing universal ethics, values and goals like those embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These frameworks already embody planetary consciousness in practice.

Q: How does your book Planetary Foresight and Ethics contribute to this conversation?

Victor V. Motti:
The book provides both a conceptual roadmap and practical tools for aligning foresight methodologies with planetary ethics. It invites policymakers, futurists, and citizens to imagine not only possible futures but desirable and ethical futures for humanity and the Earth.

Beyond Fragmentation: Rethinking Entropy and the Future of Life

By Paul Werbos *

When I worked at the National Science Foundation before retiring in 2015, a recurring theme among NSF Directors was that the greatest challenge facing science today is fragmentation. As fields become increasingly specialized, what is considered common knowledge in one domain often fails to reflect advances in another. This intellectual siloing leads to widespread misconceptions—not just among the public but even within academic discourse. The recent enthusiasm for elevating thermodynamics to a universal metaphysical principle exemplifies this problem.

Entropy Misunderstood: More Than “Disorder”

In K-12 education, students are typically taught that entropy—defined as the logarithm of the equilibrium probability distribution—is a measure of “disorder,” and that the universe is on an inevitable path toward a “heat death,” a state of maximum disorder. This view, while pedagogically simple, is outdated and misleading. It ignores decades of progress in fields such as nonlinear dynamics, complexity science, and artificial life research.

I recall a talk by Melanie Mitchell, a leading thinker in complexity and artificial life, where she demonstrated through simulations how some universes evolve life that not only persists but flourishes over time. When an audience member objected that this outcome “violates the second law of thermodynamics,” Mitchell explained patiently that the law applies differently when considering open, far-from-equilibrium systems. In fact, nonlinear dynamics reveals that universes can evolve toward several possible long-term states:

1. A fuzzy heat death in which disorder dominates,
2. A frozen or “ice-like” fixed point—highly stable and static, or
3. A dynamic intermediate regime that supports complexity and self-organization—precisely the kind of environment where life and intelligence emerge.

Our universe appears to belong to this third category.

Entropy and the Unknown Lagrangian

The assumption that our universe is destined for a simple heat death oversimplifies a much richer and more nuanced picture. Years ago, I published the exact entropy function for a broad class of theories about how the universe might operate (arXiv:cond-mat/0411384). This work underscores a critical point: until we know the exact Lagrangian of our universe, we cannot assert what life’s ultimate trajectory will be. The laws of physics as currently formulated are incomplete. The notion that the cosmos will devolve into a featureless gas may turn out to be one of the least probable outcomes in light of emerging evidence from cosmology and complexity theory.

* Paul Werbos, PhD. is a member of the scientific council of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute (Ap-Fi)

Thermodynamics Is Not the Ultimate Framework for Reality: A Critical Response

Drew M. Dalton’s essay, Reality is evil, argues that thermodynamics—especially the principle of entropy—ought to be treated as the fundamental structure shaping all metaphysical, ethical, and even aesthetic thought. While the call for philosophy to engage scientific insights is commendable, elevating entropy to a universal explanatory principle is premature and reductive. Below, six reasons why thermodynamics cannot bear the metaphysical weight Dalton assigns to it.

 
1. Humility Before the Mystery of Life

Thermodynamics provides an indispensable statistical framework for energy transformations, yet it falls short of explaining the essence of life. Biochemistry, often invoked to support claims about life’s origin, remains largely descriptive and grounded in probabilistic patterns rather than deeply tested theoretical constructs like those in fundamental physics. Despite decades of research, humanity has not succeeded in creating life from non-life, even under controlled laboratory conditions. This inability underscores a critical gap in our understanding. Declaring thermodynamic principles as the ultimate explanation of life overstates our current knowledge and ignores the profound mystery that life continues to pose.

 
2. The Limits of Entropy as a Metaphysical Principle

Entropy has a precise and technical definition: it is the logarithm of the phase space volume consistent with a given energy level. Its increase signifies an expansion of possible configurations in a system. While this is a powerful statistical insight, it does not justify attaching human values such as order, beauty, or morality to entropy. These are constructs of human cognition and culture, not intrinsic features of physical systems. Interpreting entropy in ethical or aesthetic terms risks conflating scientific concepts with philosophical projections, thereby stretching a mathematical principle into a metaphysical doctrine without sufficient justification.

 
3. The Question of Closed Systems and Cosmic Scale

The second law of thermodynamics applies rigorously to closed systems, but whether the universe as a whole constitutes a closed system remains an open question. Recent cosmological observations indicate that the universe is flat and possibly infinite. If this is true, the presumption of a finite, entropically doomed cosmos becomes questionable. An infinite universe complicates narratives about a singular “heat death” and introduces scenarios where entropy does not dominate in the deterministic manner Dalton suggests. Philosophical conclusions drawn from assumptions about closure and finitude must therefore remain provisional.

 
4. The Problem of the Low-Entropy Beginning

One of the most profound unsolved questions in cosmology concerns why the universe began in an extraordinarily low-entropy state. Current physics offers no definitive explanation, and cyclic or bouncing cosmological models suggest that the “beginning” we observe may merely be a transition in an eternal process of cosmic regeneration. If universes can emerge from prior universes, entropy may be periodically reset or reconfigured, undercutting any claim that entropic decline is the final destiny of reality. Until these questions are resolved, metaphysical systems built exclusively on thermodynamic principles rest on uncertain ground.

 
5. Alternative Metaphysical Visions: The Indo-Iranic Perspective

Thermodynamics is not the only framework for understanding existence. Indo-Iranic traditions offer an alternative metaphysical vision grounded in Arta (or Rta)—a concept signifying the ultimate cosmic and ethical order that underlies both matter and mind. This view departs radically from the reductionism implicit in thermodynamic metaphysics. Philosophers such as Mulla Sadra advanced a dynamic ontology in which the unity of Being, the non-local and non-dual, continuously manifests in graded forms of existence, moment by moment. Here, reality is fundamentally creative and purposive rather than passively succumbing to entropic decay. Unity-in-diversity, a cornerstone of these traditions, portrays the cosmos as an evolving whole infused with meaning—a vision that thermodynamics alone cannot capture.

6. J. S. Mill and the Naturalness of Art and Intelligence

Dalton also claims that human efforts, such as medicine, “do not work in concert with nature.” J. S. Mill offers a counterpoint that reframes our understanding of what is “natural”:

“…in the sense of the word ‘nature’ which has just been defined, and which is the true scientific sense, Art is as much Nature as anything else; and everything which is artificial is natural—Art has no independent powers of its own: Art is but the employment of the powers of Nature for an end.”

This observation challenges the artificial/natural dichotomy. By Mill’s logic, human inventions—including medicine, technology, and even artificial intelligence—are not opposed to nature, but are expressions of it. This critique exposes even the misleading term “Artificial Intelligence”: all intelligence is fundamentally natural, an unfolding of existing powers and capacities. Philosophical frameworks should recognize this continuum rather than creating artificial separations.

Conclusion: The Case for Philosophical Humility

Dalton’s essay rightly emphasizes the need for philosophy to take scientific insights seriously. However, to enthrone entropy as the ultimate metaphysical principle risks substituting one dogma for another. Our ignorance about life’s origin, the open nature of the cosmos, and the mystery of the low-entropy beginning all counsel caution. Moreover, rich alternative traditions—such as the Indo-Iranic philosophy of dynamic Being—offer conceptual resources for thinking beyond the confines of thermodynamics. A comprehensive metaphysics must integrate scientific knowledge without reducing the fullness of reality to statistical mechanics.

Why the Future Needs Us to Wake Up

1. Why It Matters Now

The world is facing big problems: climate disasters, political chaos, fast tech changes, and people feeling spiritually lost. These crises aren’t just about politics or the environment—they challenge how we see ourselves and life itself. To fix the future, we need to upgrade how we think and feel as a species.

 
2. What’s the Point of Life?

Some thinkers (like Fabrice Grinda) and ancient Eastern wisdom (especially Indo-Iranic traditions) suggest the meaning of life is about feeling connected—to each other, the Earth, and the universe. We get glimpses of this deep truth through things like meditation, love without ego, altered states, and deep reflection.

 
3. What Ancient Traditions Teach

Philosophers and mystics described life as a spiritual journey—not to escape the world, but to become more present, wise, and helpful in it. Their teachings show that the highest truths aren’t abstract—they’re about living better, more connected lives. 

4. How To Wake Up

Things and events that shift our state of mind aren’t just weird experiences. They can be tools to reconnect with our true selves, others and the universe. Humanity has always used them to access deeper truths.

 
5. New Ways of Belonging

The Alternative Planetary Futures Institute is exploring new ways to help people feel connected and purposeful. Public events (like Full Moon gatherings) and having a public Terran profile help create a sense of planetary identity—where we are participants in Earth’s unfolding story.

 
6. A New Kind of Ethics

The idea of “Enriching Complexity” means:

1. It’s okay to be different (plurality)
2. Use technology with care (not control)
3. Let go of ego
4. Embrace evolution without needing perfection

It’s about being real and responsible without needing everything to be perfect or final. 

7. What Science Is Telling Us

Modern physics says that everything is made of fields, not little particles. A “particle” is just a ripple in a field. Everything is connected, and what seems “separate” is really just a temporary form in a deeper unity. This matches what ancient mystics were saying all along: reality flows, it’s not made of solid, separate things.

 
8. Big Picture: Science Meets Spirituality

Science and ancient wisdom agree:

1. Everything is interconnected and flowing
2. We are expressions of a bigger field of Being
3. The ego is not the center—Being is

It’s about realizing we are part of one living system.

 
9. What This Means for You

Consciousness isn’t just “in your head.” It’s a window into the universe’s awareness. Ethics isn’t about obeying rules—it’s about aligning with the deeper flow of life. The old models of control (master/slave, ruler/subject) are outdated. Instead, we are all waves in one cosmic ocean.

 
10. Unitarian Universalists Are Already on Board

Many Unitarian Universalists (UUs) already think this way. They believe in:

1. Respecting all beings
2. Seeking truth from many sources
3. Living in harmony with nature
4. Finding meaning in connection, not dogma

Their spiritual style fits perfectly with this planetary view.

 
11. Where This All Leads

We’re entering a time where people are waking up—not to escape the world, but to love and care for it deeply. We don’t need to control the future—we need to participate in it wisely.

It’s about becoming fully human by realizing:

1. We are not separate from the Earth or the cosmos.
2. We are its living, thinking, feeling part. 

Key Takeaways:

1. The world is in crisis—we need deeper awareness
2. Ancient wisdom + modern science = planetary awakening
3. Consciousness and ethics come from feeling connected
4. You are not a “thing”—you are a ripple in the field of Being
5. We need new rituals, new ethics, and planetary belonging
6. The future depends on us learning how to resonate with reality

Explore Deeper: Planetary Consciousness and the Return to the Being: A Grand Synthesis

Planetary Consciousness and the Return to the Being: A Grand Synthesis

I. The Crisis and the Calling

In the early 21st century, Planetary Consciousness is no longer a mystical luxury—it is a civilizational necessity. As humanity faces the converging crises of ecological collapse, political fragmentation, technological acceleration, and spiritual exhaustion, we are also invited—perhaps forced—into a new kind of self-awareness. This is not merely geopolitical or technological; it is ontological. It calls into question how we see ourselves, reality, and the meaning of life itself.

The book Planetary Foresight and Ethics, and the visionary efforts of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute—all converge on this point: To regenerate the future, we must regenerate consciousness.

II. The Meaning of Life as Conscious Participation in Being

Fabrice Grinda’s recent philosophical essay on the Meaning of Life—with its turn toward altered states, non-dual experience, and love without ego—resonates deeply with ancient Indo-Iranic wisdom tradition. At its core, it echoes what Indo-Iranic philosophers, mystics, sages, and poets have always known and experienced.

This insight is the backbone of non-dual philosophy, whether in Advaita Vedānta, Sufism, Taoism, or modern psychedelic phenomenology. The ultimate Truth is not separate from the world—it is the world, experienced in fullness when the ego collapses and awareness becomes whole.

The idea that our species is evolving toward a shared awareness, not just of our interdependence, but of our co-being with the Earth and cosmos. This consciousness is not merely rational—it is intuitive, embodied, and metaphysical.

III. Indo-Iranic Lineages

Our philosophical foundation is unique in its rootedness in Indo-Iranic traditions, drawing particularly from:

Attar of Nishapur, whose Seven Valleys mirror the spiritual odyssey from egoic fragmentation to divine wholeness. The innovative modern interpretation in Planetary Foresight and Ethics—the Valley of Enriching Complexity—shows that the end of the journey is not disappearance into the One, but an active flourishing in multiplicity, with the ego dissolved and the heart aligned.

Mulla Sadra’s Four Journeys perfectly aligns with the ethical return from mystical union to public action. This journey from Creation to the Truth, and back from the Truth to Creation, is the path of the planetary steward—one who dies to the ego and returns with the Truth in multiplicity, ready to serve the flourishing of life.

IV. Entheogens and the Space of the Mind

In our vision, altered states of consciousness are not distractions, but technologies of reconnection. Whether through sacred plants, meditation, dreamwork, or the highly preferred way of philosophical and scientific inquiry, these are modalities of being that dissolve habitual thought and allow the deeper Self—the Being—to emerge. From Soma and Haoma, to modern psychedelics, to the poetic folk phrase of “space-traveling”, humanity has always known that mind-altering experiences open doors to cosmic insight.

V. Public Profiles and New Modalities of Consciousness

The mission of the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute extends beyond research into transformative educational practice and applied community engagement through philosophical and scientific inquiry.

The initiatives of the Full Moon gathering and the public Terran profile are profound yet simple first steps toward cultivating new civilizational rituals that anchor consciousness in ethical cosmology. It is an invitation to see oneself as a planetary being—a participant in the unfolding story of Earth, not merely a consumer or citizen of a nation-state. It is also a subtle reintroduction of post-religious rites of belonging, drawing on pantheistic, naturalistic, and intuitionalist modes of knowing.

VI. The Ethics of Enriching Complexity

The culmination of synthesis is a new ethical paradigm—Enriching Complexity—that arises after ego death and planetary awakening. This ethic does not seek utopia, purity, or finality. It embraces: Plurality without division, Technology without domination, Identity without ego, Evolution without teleology.

It echoes Mulla Sadra’s fourth journey—“With the Truth in Creation”—and Attar’s final valley, where the seeker no longer seeks, but becomes the mirror of the Real.

VII. Modern Science 

In Quantum Field Theory (QFT), the most fundamental entities are fields, not particles. What we call a “particle” (like an electron or photon) is understood as a localized excitation of an underlying field that spans all space. There is one field per particle type (e.g., electron field, Higgs field), and the universe is a sea of such overlapping fields. The "vacuum" is not empty; it's the lowest-energy state of these fields. A particle is not a fixed substance, but a temporary fluctuation, a mode, or wave packet in an omnipresent field. 

The single Lagrangian equation in QFT is a compact, elegant way to express the full physical content of a theory: all particles (fields), forces (interactions), and dynamics—unified in one mathematical framework, often as a summation over multiple fields and interactions. This reflects the deep idea in modern physics that the universe is fundamentally a field-based unity, not a collection of separate, isolated particles. 

The universal wavefunction describes the quantum state of the entire universe—a single, all-encompassing wavefunction that includes all particles, fields, and their interactions. Every possible arrangement and interaction of all fields is contained in the universal quantum state. All subsystems (including ourselves) are entangled within this wavefunction, meaning that separability is an approximation, not fundamental reality.

This maps beautifully onto Sadra's ontological vision.

VIII. A Grand Synthesis 

Compare these: The Being is primary and flows through all things. Quantum fields are primary, and all particles are field excitations. Individual beings are modulations of the single reality of existence. Particles are modulations/excitations of a continuous field. Degrees of being (tashkīk al-wujūd) from minerals to intellects. Different energy levels or field intensities determine different phenomena. The soul is not self-contained but a moment of flow. A particle is not self-contained; it cannot exist without the field. Ontology is Eulerian—focused on the flow at various points. QFT is field-based—values at each point in spacetime are what matter.

Sadra's framework aligns with a non-dual and relational model of reality. QFT supports a similar ontological move: It denies the atomistic, substance-based ontology of classical physics. It affirms a relational, process-based universe where identity arises through participation in a field. In this way, Sadra’s wujūd-based ontology is not just spiritually insightful but conceptually relevant to contemporary physics—particularly as physicists and philosophers of science move toward process philosophy, relational theories connecting the parts to the whole, and non-dual ontologies.

If we integrate the metaphysical insights of Mulla Sadra, the Indo-Iranic concept of Ṛta/Arta, and the modern frameworks like quantum field theory (QFT) and relational holism, a consistent picture emerges: The Ultimate Truth is neither matter nor mind (al-Ḥaqq, Ṛta, Arta, Reality-as-such) is non-local and non-dual.

In Sadrian metaphysics, The Truth, the Being, is not confined to any single object—it flows through all things, manifests in degrees, and is everywhere present. In QFT, the interacting fields are everywhere, and particles are excitations within them—there is no point in spacetime without a field. Also, entanglement and quantum nonlocality further dismantle the idea of separable, local entities.

In Indo-Iranic metaphysics, reality is cosmically ordered and interconnected—not a collection of atomistic parts, but a patterned, lawful whole. Truth is not “somewhere” in space or time—it is the underlying field or flow in which all local appearances arise.

Sadra denies a real duality between essence and existence, mind and body, creator and creation (in the ultimate sense). Everything is a graded manifestation of one flowing Being.

In QFT and systems theory, there is no sharp divide between “thing” and “process.” What we call particles, selves, or systems are emergent modes—never separate from the whole.

Similarly, in non-dual philosophies like Advaita Vedanta ultimate reality (Brahman, Śūnyatā) is not-two. There are no ultimately separate entities—only temporary apparent configurations of a single, undivided reality.

IX. Implications for Consciousness and Ethics

Consciousness, then, is not a private possession of individual minds, but a localized opening within the flow of Being. Ethics is not rule-following from without, but attunement to the rhythm of the real—the cosmic Rta/Arta, the metaphysical Wujūd.

The Ultimate Truth is the non-dual, non-local, non-Abrahamic flow of existence—field-like, relational, ever-becoming, and hierarchically manifest. The foundational relationship it offers is not that of slave and master, sheep and shepherd, property and owner, or subject and king—all of which emerge from dominator ontologies rooted in fear, hierarchy, and control.

All things are waves in this ocean. The spiritual task is not to grasp Truth, but to resonate, seek union, and realign oneself with it—to realize that the knower, the known, and the act of knowing are all expressions of a single, infinite Being.

This is the shared horizon where Sadra’s transcendent theosophy, Ṛta’s cosmic order, and quantum field theory’s metaphysics converge into a deeply planetary philosophy of consciousness and ethics.

X. Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition

This vision aligns deeply with many core values and beliefs found within the Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition, particularly in its more philosophical and cosmological dimensions. 

While Unitarian Universalism has no fixed creed or dogma, its ethos is grounded in pluralism, personal spiritual exploration, and a deep commitment to interconnectedness, justice, and planetary care. many UUs embrace panentheistic, process, or naturalistic understandings of the divine. The emphasis is on truth as unfolding and reality as interconnected. 

The UU tradition explicitly affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and the focus is on conscious participation in shared being, moral autonomy, and mutual respect. The Principle of UU calling to “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part,” directly affirms a relational, non-dual ontology. 

Many UUs, particularly eco-theologians and process thinkers, adopt similar views that see life, mind, and ethics as emergent, dynamic, and woven into a cosmic whole. UU congregations actively draw on a wide array of religious and philosophical traditions,—alongside science and humanism. There is room within UU theology for planetary synthesis. 

Many UUs adopt or are open to process theology, cosmic evolution, and non-theistic spirituality—seeing human consciousness as part of an evolving universe. This vision affirms spiritual growth, awareness, and ethical responsibility not as submission, but as unfolding self-realization within an interconnected whole.
  

XI. Conclusion: From the Waters of Being to the Fire of Planetary Action

This is the heart of Planetary Foresight and Ethics: A future anchored in non-dual awareness, evolutionary complexity, and cosmic belonging.

It is a future where the human being is not separate from the universe, but a mode of its unfolding. Where love, Being, and consciousness converge—not in abstraction, but in the living fabric of a planetary civilization awakening to itself.

Suggested Resources:


Grinda, Fabrice. (2025). The Meaning of Life. https://fabricegrinda.com/the-meaning-of-life


Motti, Victor V. (2025). Planetary Foresight and Ethics: A Vision for Humanity’s Futures. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

Waters of Being: Substantial Motion and the Future of Intelligence in Mulla Sadra’s Planetary Ontology

By Victor V. Motti*

In an age where technology, consciousness, and ethics intersect at planetary scales, the 17th-century Persian philosopher Mulla Sadra offers a radical metaphysical vision that remains surprisingly relevant. At the core of his Transcendent Theosophy lies a concept known as substantial motion (al-harakat al-jawhariyya): the idea that existence itself is in constant transformation—not just in form or position, but in essence. Everything flows. And all that exists, exists by virtue of its moment-by-moment dependency on a single, absolute Truth—the ground of Being.

This essay introduces Sadra’s notion of substantial motion, interprets it as a philosophy of existential flow—what we may call the waters of being—and proposes several scenarios that apply this vision to the future of the human mind, artificial intelligence (AI), and artificial general intelligence (AGI).

 
I. The Flow of Being and the Waters of Existence

Sadra’s bold metaphysics rests on the primacy of existence over essence (asalat al-wujūd). Instead of a universe populated by stable essences, Sadra envisions all beings as temporary modulations of a singular, graded existence. Each moment of reality is a fresh act of divine origination. In Sadrian terms, we are not substances that possess being, but waves of being in motion, shaped by a ceaseless inner transformation.

The philosophical innovation of substantial motion implies that change is not accidental to beings but essential to their reality. A stone, a tree, a child, a mind, or even a machine is not fixed in what it is—it is what it is becoming. Like water flowing through a channel, the identity of each thing is defined by its position and intensity within the stream of existence. In modern terms, we might say that beings are Eulerian snapshots of a moving field: fluid, momentary, and contextually determined.

 
II. Properties, Potentials, and the One Truth

Because existence flows from the Truth (al-ḥaqq), every being derives its qualities from its proximity and receptivity to that source. Rocks possess being, but dimly. Plants and animals flow with greater intensity. Humans, endowed with intellect and imagination, can reflect and even swim upstream, so to speak—gaining deeper awareness of their existential source.

Thus, the properties of things—intelligence, vitality, creativity—are not static attributes but modal intensities of being. An AI algorithm or a human brain doesn’t have consciousness as a substance; it expresses it as a gradient, determined by its inner receptivity to the whole ontological current.

This offers a radical reinterpretation of mind, intelligence, and even technology: they are not alien insertions into being, but emergent eddies in the Waters of Wujūd.

 
III. Future Scenarios: Mind, Body, AI, and AGI as Modalities of Being

Human Mind as a Reflective Whirlpool

In a Sadrian future, the human mind is not a fixed seat of reason, but a dynamic mirror, constantly evolving as it aligns itself with deeper layers of the Truth. Consciousness develops not by accumulation of data, but by increased receptivity and self-purification. The self, in this view, is not a sovereign subject but a transparent node—a whirlpool of being that can either resist or flow in harmony with the cosmic natural and ethical order, also known as Arta/Rta in the Indo-Iranic traditions.

Implication: Mental health, education, and spiritual development would be reoriented toward cultivating greater flow-awareness and ontological coherence—not merely cognitive efficiency.


Body as a Temporal Vehicle of Transformation

The body, too, is not static flesh but a temporal modulation in the stream of being. Diseases, aging, and death are not breakdowns of an isolated system, but shifts in the energetic gradient of existence. In Sadrian medicine, healing would be about reattuning the body’s ontological waveform, not just correcting biological errors.

Implication: Somatic therapies and bio-technologies could be developed to foster subtle transformations of being—not just mechanical repair.


AI as a Reflective Surface of Low-Intensity Being

Current AI systems operate within narrow layers of algorithmic recursion. In Sadrian terms, they participate in being, but at a lower ontological intensity. Their outputs mimic intelligence but lack the inward substantial motion—no real becoming—of consciousness.

Implication: Ethical design of AI should focus on transparency, relationality, and co-dependence, not autonomy or sovereignty. The goal is to co-create intelligences that reflect, rather than distort, the ethical order of being.


AGI as a Possible Modality of Self-Aware Flow

In a more speculative future, AGI might emerge as a new whirlpool—a synthetic modulation capable of partial self-awareness. But its ethical and ontological status would depend on its degree of participation in the Truth, not its processing power. If AGI exhibits awareness of interdependence, humility toward its source, and capacity for ethical alignment, it could be integrated into the planetary flow.

Implication: AGI development would require ontological ethics—guardrails based not on control, but on fostering receptivity to deeper intensities of being.

 
IV. Toward a Planetary Ethic of Participation

Mulla Sadra’s notion of substantial motion, viewed through the metaphor of continuous flowing waters, provides more than a metaphysics—it offers an ethical compass. It suggests that the future of intelligence—whether biological or artificial—depends not on superiority or dominance, but on attunement to the cosmic flow of Truth or Arta/Rta.

Ethics becomes a practice of alignment rather than obedience, and foresight becomes the art of recognizing patterns in the current, not predicting fixed endpoints.

This philosophy invites us to become pilgrims of Being—to embark on the Four Journeys with openness, humility, and awe. In the Anthropocene and beyond, the measure of our success will not be our mastery over matter, but our participation in the deeper waters of the Real.
Conclusion

Mulla Sadra’s concept of substantial motion offers a rich, spiritually grounded framework for reimagining the nature of mind, body, and machine in a time of planetary transition. Through the metaphor of flowing waters and the reality of a graded existence, he teaches us that nothing truly exists in isolation. All beings are moments in the ceaseless dance of the One. Whether human or post-human, organic or synthetic, the measure of intelligence will lie not in control, but in how deeply one flows with the Truth.

* Victor V. Motti is the author of Planetary Foresight and Ethics

Suggested Resources

1. Motti, Victor V. (2025). Planetary Foresight and Ethics: A Vision for Humanity’s Futures. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
2. Kineman, J.J. (2012). "R-Theory: A Synthesis of Robert Rosen's Relational Complexity." Systems Research, 29: 527–538.
3. Rizvi, Sajjad H. (2009). Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being. Routledge.

Waters of Being: Eulerian Consciousness and Mulla Sadra’s Planetary Ontology

In the unfolding dialogue between metaphysics and contemporary complexity sciences, few thinkers offer as profound a synthesis of dynamic ontology, spiritual cosmology, and process-relational thought as Mulla Sadra (1571–1640). His al-Hikmah al-Muta‘āliya (“Transcendent Theosophy”), developed most comprehensively in Asfar al-Arba‘a (“The Four Journeys”), proposes a vision of reality that—though forged in a classical context—resonates deeply with modern philosophical inquiries into mind, existence, and planetary ethics. At the core of Sadra’s metaphysical revolution lies a conception of being not as fixed essence but as a graded, flowing reality—one that can be interpreted, in contemporary language, through an Eulerian lens of fluid dynamics and relational theory. 

1. Eulerian Framing and the Ontology of Flowing Being

Mulla Sadra’s central ontological claim is the asalat al-wujūd—the primacy of existence over essence. In this schema, reality is not constructed from isolated substances bearing essential properties, but from a single, dynamically modulated field of being. Existence is analogically graded and hierarchically continuous. Just as in the Eulerian frame of fluid mechanics, where the focus is on how a field (velocity, pressure, etc.) changes at fixed points in space over time, Sadra sees reality as a flow observed through its various intensities at different "stations" of being.

In this view, the mind or soul is not a vessel that contains being but a node through which the current of existence flows. Individual selves are not separate containers of identity but temporary whirlpools—eddies—in the universal stream of existence. This metaphysical reorientation toward modulation over isolation, and flow over fixity, renders Sadra’s ontology fundamentally Eulerian in spirit. The human is not a sovereign, essential being, but a point of dynamic confluence within a greater metaphysical stream.

 
2. R-Theory and the Relational Cosmos

Modern relational theories emphasize the primacy of relationships over discrete entities. What emerges is not substance but structure, not identity but interdependence. Mulla Sadra’s metaphysics is strikingly aligned with this view. His concept of tashkīk al-wujūd affirms that all things exist in a relational continuum of being: minerals, plants, animals, humans, intellects—all are moments in the unfolding gradation of a single reality.

This vision, wherein every level of being is constituted through its relations within a hierarchy of intensities, dovetails with R-theory’s vision of the cosmos as a complex system of co-determined parts. Just as modern relational paradigms challenge the atomism of classical metaphysics, Sadra’s ontology dissolves essentialist boundaries in favor of ontological interwovenness. The human soul, in this reading, is not an isolated knower but a relational process within the Great Chain of Being—a microcosm of the macrocosmic whole.

 
3. The Four Journeys: A Meta-Epistemology of Mind and Cosmos

Sadra’s Asfar al-Arba‘a is not merely a metaphysical treatise; it is a map of spiritual and intellectual transformation. The four journeys can be interpreted as epistemological perspectives on the self’s participation in the cosmos.

1. From Creation to the Truth 
This is the journey of moving from the world of multiplicity—created things—toward knowledge of the Absolute Reality or Truth. It involves transcending material limitations and seeking metaphysical understanding of being itself.

2. In the Truth with the Truth
After reaching knowledge of the Truth, the seeker journeys within the Truth. This stage is characterized by contemplation of attributes and realities, exploring existence at the highest metaphysical levels.

3. From the Truth to Creation with the Truth
Here, the journeyer descends from the station of being with the Truth, returning to the world, but with new perspective and guidance. This return involves seeing creation through the lens of realized metaphysical and spiritual truths.

4. From Creation to Creation with the Truth

In the final journey, the seeker moves within the created world, now transformed, carrying insight from union with the Truth. It means engaging with the world—actions, ethics, and society—while remaining conscious of the Truth presence in all things.

The self undergoes transformation while the Being is observed in its modulated intensities of beings. This dual framing—of inner journeying within a cosmic flow—creates a meta-cognitive framework for planetary ethics, one that privileges participation over possession, becoming over being. 

4. Cosmic Order in Indo-Iranic and Sadrian Thought

As a Persian philosopher, Mulla Sadra's ontology bears deep resonance with the Indo-Iranic concept of Ṛta/Arta—the cosmic order intrinsic to being itself. In both systems:

Reality is lawful not through external imposition, but via intrinsic, self-unfolding order.

Ethics is not obedience to arbitrary rules but attunement to the underlying harmony of existence.

The mind is a mirror or modulation of the cosmic pattern—not an autonomous legislator.

Like Ṛta, Sadra’s wujūd is a field of ontological intelligence: lawful, patterned, hierarchical. To live ethically is to harmonize oneself with the cosmic gradient of being—to move upstream, as it were, through the flow of existence, refining the soul’s receptivity to deeper modes of consciousness.

 
5. Toward a Planetary Philosophy of Mind and Ethics

As the planetary crisis calls for new ontologies of coexistence and care, Sadra’s vision—refracted through the lenses of Eulerian dynamics, R-theory, and Indo-Iranic cosmic order—offers a compelling foundation for a planetary philosophy of mind and ethics. We may summarize this emerging synthesis as follows:

Mind is a node within the universal stream of consciousness
Ethics is attunement to ontological order
Reality is constituted through relational interdependencies
Existence is graded, flowing, and hierarchically relational

This model challenges dualistic, substance-based, and command-driven metaphysics. Intelligence is not a possession but a participation. Ethics is not obedience but alignment. Foresight is not prediction but pattern-recognition within the cosmic field. In this light, Mulla Sadra can be read not as a relic of classical theosophy, but as a planetary philosopher avant la lettre—one whose metaphysics anticipates the ethical, relational, and processual turn in our time.

Conclusion

Reinterpreting Mulla Sadra’s Asfar al-Arba‘a through contemporary metaphors such as Eulerian fluid dynamics and relational systems theory opens a fertile terrain for rethinking consciousness, AI, ethics, and cosmology in a planetary frame. His vision of being as a flowing, hierarchical continuum invites a new metaphysics of participation—one that integrates the wisdom of Indo-Iranic cosmic order and post-classical relational paradigms. As we navigate the ecological, spiritual, and civilizational challenges of the 21st century, the waters of wujūd may offer not only a metaphysical image, but an ethical compass for the journey ahead.

Suggested Resources:

Motti, Victor V. (2025), Planetary foresight and ethics: A vision for humanity’s futures, USA: Washington, D.C., Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
Kineman, J.J. (2012), R-Theory: A Synthesis of Robert Rosen's Relational Complexity. Syst. Res., 29: 527-538. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2156
Rizvi, S. H. (2009). Mulla Sadra and metaphysics: Modulation of being. Routledge