Knotty boy

Bryant's latest blog post is again on the Borromean knot. In discussing ethics and Epicurianism he brings in levels. Countering the oft-cited criticism of Epicurianism as being merely a form of hedonism he notes a hierarchy of needs: "...a variety of higher needs such as friendship, love, service, empathy (towards humans and nonhumans), beauty, intellectual stimulation, and so on." This hierarchy though is for the Imaginary domain. Are there higher levels for the other two domains? Yes, for the symbolic we move from authoritarian control to rational law. In the material domain our bodies are included in ecologies and hence become a part in larger mereological aggregates. Same within our individual body.


Speaking of his strange mereology, just the symbol of the Knot is instructive. The domains intertwine and have a space in the center, the "a." Whereas the AQAL diagram doesn't express this sort of interrelationship between the domains with an "a" coordinating them. Perhaps instead of the AQAL assholon of everything we might call the Borromean integration an a-holon of anything?

By the way, what does the "a" stand for in his Knot?