Book 1 of The Nature of Order

Claims (14)

• A great work of art makes a permanent connection with the I.
  The highest works of art open a enduring window to the ground.
• Each center, then, would be a window on the eternal blinding light of this domain.
  Definition of a center as an aperture for the I-light.
• Every living center in the matter of the universe—even the smallest center which is induced in space—starts this kind of tunneling towards the I-stuff.
  Generalization that all living centers initiate a connection to the I.
• I am seeing God, the glowing of all things, shining out from that old brick wall, or from that bush, or from that face, or from the flowers in a vase.
  Alexander equates the faintly glowing quality with an immanent God shining through matter.
• If you could accept it, it would finally make sense of all of that, because it finally answers these questions fully.
  The plenum model provides a unifying explanation for the beauty and life of centers.
• It becomes visible when the structure of a strong field of centers gently raises the lid, lifts the veil, and through the partial opening, we see, or sense, the glow of the Blazing One beyond.
  Description of the experiential effect of a strong field of centers.
• it is not possible to understand either the life of artifacts, or the process which creates this life, without realizing that in the end all living processes are processes which lead towards this I
  Argument that a non-mechanical view of matter is necessary to account for architectural facts.
• It really exists everywhere, it is single, underlying all things.
  Claim that the plenum is universal and singular.
• Some kind of tunneling can occur, to connect physical structures in our familiar physical domain with the single I-stuff of the plenum.
  Extension of quantum tunneling idea to the connection between matter and the I-plenum.
• Space is a material whose most important feature is its capacity to form centers.
  Reiteration of a key premise from Book 1 within the new metaphysical framework.
• The I exists physically, there is some plenum, not part of the physical space and matter as modeled in Cartesian science, but nevertheless there in fact.
  Core assertion of the plenum model: the I is real, not a metaphor.
• The I, in some form, exists.
  Minimal conclusion that at least one of the two versions of the I-hypothesis must be true.
• The life of a center is a phenomenon in which the center, like a window, makes contact with the plenum of absolute unity.
  The definition of life in a center as contact with the absolute unity via tunneling.
• The more it is alive, the more it seems faintly to shine.
  Alexander's introspective observation about the qualitative appearance of life in things.