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The Apollonian fire transforms the world in accord with the exigencies of the time.
Some people, by nature, have a bias toward unity—they instinctually seek uniformity in all things. I use Nietzsche's term, "Apollonian" for this bias.
Some people, by nature, have a bias toward division—they instinctually seek diversity in all things. I use Nietzsche's term "Dionysian" for this bias.
Some people are balanced—they seek uniformity when it is called for and diversity when it is called for. I call this kind of balance, when it occurs as a dissident view in times when Dionysianism is dominant, "bright Apollonianism," and when it occurs as a dissident view in times when Apollonianism is dominant, I call it "bright Dionysianism." (Bright Apollonianism is Apollonianism only in contrast; bright Dionysianism is Dionysianism only in contrast.)
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Dionysianism dominates, and we sense that today's world lacks a necessary balance, and that our common culture is in decline. And, seeking to identify the cause of the imbalance, we point to the persistent influence of Postmodernism, the most destructive legacies of which are first, the widespread and false belief in values relativity, the most destructive version of this being the view that there is no single (objective) Truth, but a diversity of truths—my truth, your truth, etc., and second, the notion that linear thinking, whose elements occur in a single sequence, should be replaced by emotion. These two false beliefs have led to the now common denigration of reasoned debate.
But debate is indispensable; it is the way that a society, as an entity, thinks— debate, at its best, is a search for Truth; but the Post-postmodernist tends to disparage debate, because first, it involves linear thinking and, second, to them, it makes no sense to search for that which does not exist. The result of the disappearance of debate from much of our public sphere, this shutting down of the collective mind, is that mistaken beliefs are not corrected, bad choices are legion, there is serious decline.
It is to be expected, then, and desirable, that there be dialectical pushback, a bright Apollonian reaction, an Apollonian counter-revolution—not a violent revolution by any means, but a word-war, what I will call a logopolemos: we must bring back public debate.
But we must not just bring back debate, we must invent a better sort of debate, a more powerful weapon, than that which currently exists The main purpose of this site, then, is to advance the goals of this Apollonian revolution by fostering a new kind of debate, which we call Truth Engine debate, and toward this end, we have designed a Truth Engine whose several parts, like those of a compact and efficient machine, will work together to accelerate the Truth-revealing power of debate. Faster than ever before, it will tell us what is factually True, what is True of the Good, and what is true of the Beautiful.
The parts of the Truth Engine are these: (1) The League of Dialecticians is the organization that oversees the operation of the Truth Engine. (2) The Logos is dedicated to the debates themselves, which we have cast as tournament games of our Game of a Trillion Worlds (GoaTW); it is the Mind of the system, and is divided into both three divisions—Truth, Goodness and Beauty—and three levels of generality—the Practical, the Critical and the Philosophical. (3) The Ikon is the Heart of the system; it is meant to reinforce our commitment to the values of Truth, Goodness and Beauty by means of aesthetic expression—no system of productive debate can function without the participants having made such a commitment. (4) The Logikon connects the system's Mind and Heart; it is dedicated to the production of works that combine rational thought and aesthetic expression. (5) The Tri-Divisional School, it is envisioned, will teach the playing of the game. (6) There will be, in general, two Truth Engine (TE) Societies for each topic category, one for the affirmative and one for the negative. Our inaugural TE Societies will be TEUFOS , the Truth Engine UFO Society, and TESkepS-UFO , the Truth Engine Skeptic Society-UFOs. We see TEUFOS as a complement to data-collecting & analysis organizations like MUFON and UAP Discovery. In time, we hope to found manyTE Societies under the categories of Truth, Goodness and Beauty.
In the UFO GoaTW tournament, members of TEUFOS will debate members of TESkepS-UFO.
To see how crowdsourcing and the positive, recursive interplay between article and debates will make Truth Engine debate special, and to see how the ultimate products of the game will be an encyclopedia and the content of a news site, go to The Logos. The Game of a Trillion Worlds
Our Game of a Trillion Worlds has a backstory called the Panoply. It reads like a fantasy, but the wise reader will come to see it as a fundamentally true description of the context in which the game exists.
—Dr. Crist, Director of the League of Dialecticians. —New York, November 22, 2024.
I think of how we awaken to a beautiful day in midsummer, when we sense that all is right with the world. On a day such as this, we feel that all things are possible and that nature, in the tangible form of clement weather, will cooperate as we carry out our human plans. We have somewhere to go this day—an art show, a charity event, a big game, or a wonderful party—where we will be together with others, deepening our relationships and forming new ones. We know that it will be the kind of day when, at its end, we will say, "We had fun today—and we accomplished so much. We did something wonderful today."
I think that work can be like this for the Truth Engine participant every day, because what we do is done in harmony with the ccsmos. We experience each new day as a day full of opportunity to have great fun with others, to tackle and subdue intellectual chalenges of the highest order and greatest importance, to see who among us—each a champion of Truth, Goodness and Beauty—can rise the highest, and to do wondrous, positive, creative things together.
This is my vision of dialectical happiness.
We have to begin this project by making sure that the Truth Engine that we are building obtains a firm foundation. It will take work to sort things out at first, so I invite any and all advice, comments, criticisms and questions. Help is welcome.
Contact Dr. Crist at: contact@truthenginedebate.com
Follow the links below to navigate to the different parts of the Truth Engine:
The League of Dialecticians—Truth Engine officers and members. Join the League.
The Logos. The Game of a Trillion Worlds
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