(19) Diversity and Coherence between the modes

There is a danger that modal aspects are viewed as parts that make up reality, however this is not accurate.  Reality does not split up into 15 separate sections like a cake.  Here it is important to repeat that the special sciences investigate their object through the perspective of a modal aspect, they do not investigate the modal aspect itself.  We now need to say something about how each aspect is intimately related to all the others.  This can be done by introducing the notion of analogies.  Through analogies each aspect refers to all the others.  

We can distinguish two types of analogies, those modes that are earlier than other modes can refer towards the later modes, this is called anticipations, and the later modes refer back to the earlier modes in retrociptations.

The first modal aspect is that of number whose meaning is found in discrete quantity as expressed in so called rational or natural numbers.  The spatial aspect is irreducible to that of number, nevertheless in irrational numbers we find an anticipation of spatial figures within the numeric modal aspect.  For example π.

In referring to the number of dimensions in space we find an intrinsic element of space that refers back to that of number, this is a retrocipation.  The notion of causality, which finds its origins in the physical aspect, is an analogical concept that has its place in the different modes of experience: we talk of historical causality while resisting a reduction to the physical kind of causality.  Likewise we require a notion of legal causality in order to hold a criminal legally accountable for their crime, a notion of logical ground to move from premises to conclusion and so on.

These analogies are very important when interpreting theories and concepts within the different disciplines.  The religious impulse to find the meaning and coherence of our world from within this world leads inevitably to reductionist views of the nature and character of the diversity we experience.  In their conceptual expression these reductionist views continually distort the analogical character of our concepts which leads to serious theoretical problems and paradoxes.

Examples in modern sociology

Aspects	Analogies in social aspect	One-sided emphasis
Sign Aspect	Social symbolism and interpretation	Symbolic interactionism/Post-modernism
Historical Aspect	Social power, control and authority	Historicism/Post-modernism
Logical Aspect	Social identification and distinction	Social consensus and conflict theories
Sensitive-psychical Aspect	Social sensitivity/solidarity	Psychologistic approaches
Biotical Aspect	Social differentiation and integration	Organicistic trends/ Functionalism
Physical Aspect	Social change and dynamics	Physicalistic trends
Kinematical Aspect	Social constancy/persistence	Status quo trends
Spatial Aspect	Social totality/wholes and parts	Universalism/holism – emphasis on systems and sub-systems
Arithmetical Aspect	Social unity in multiplicity	Individualism/society as a collection of individual actors

Source D.F.M. Strauss Reintegrating Social Theory p.11

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