The World According to '4': Or, Fourthness as a Typological Necessity

Abstract:     
The author discusses why reality seems to be organized according to coupled pairs of relationships, whereas empirical reality typically renders the archetypal components into threes as, for example, in the syllogism and the transitive property (of mathematics). Fourthness refers to the nature and characteristics of the fourth component of a naturally-occurring continuum, with completion, conclusion, deduction or emergent as ‘meaning tags’.

From mystic ruminations and divination, to number theory and particle physics; from ancient medicine and physics to modern philosophy and anthropological typology, the idea of fours, almost always sorted as intercalating pairs, have taken center stage, for which, this author suggests, common sense suggests an obvious reason. This paper explores the evidence that such a reason is or is not well founded.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 38

Keywords: Paradigmatics, Fourthness, Modal Philosophy

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