The 16 Axes of the Parascience Spectrum

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of social function and existential significance. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Explanatory-Comforting (aims to explain phenomena vs. aims to provide comfort/meaning). Axis 14: Transformative-Confirmatory (challenges worldview vs. reinforces existing beliefs). Axis 15: Communal-Private (shared practice vs. individual exploration). Axis 16: Dangerous-Harmless (potential for harm vs. benign). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every parascientific phenomenon, every spiritual tradition, every fringe inquiry. The 16 Axes reveal that parascience isn't a single thing to be accepted or rejected—it's a vast landscape of human inquiry operating alongside science, serving different needs, making different claims, offering different gifts and dangers. Some parascience is testable and failing—that's pseudoscience. Some is untestable by nature—that's spirituality. Some is testable and promising—that's emerging science. Some is metaphorical and meaningful—that's poetry dressed as fact. Some is dangerous—cults, anti-science movements. Some is harmless—personal spiritual practice. The 16 Axes don't tell you what to believe—they give you language to ask better questions. What kind of parascience is this? What are its axes? What does it claim, what does it offer, what does it risk? The answers aren't one-dimensional—and neither is the inquiry.

The 16 Axes of the Parascience Spectrum "You want to know if parascience is valid. The 16 Axes ask: which parascience? What are its coordinates? Testable? Compatible? Experiential? Subjective? Explained? Traditional? Insider? Integrative? Universal? Empirical? Literal? Practical? Explanatory or comforting? Transformative or confirmatory? Communal or private? Dangerous or harmless? Sixteen questions, sixteen answers, and only then can you even ask about validity. And the answer won't be one word—it'll be sixteen coordinates in a vast space of human knowing. That's not relativism—that's just respecting the complexity of how we seek meaning, truth, and healing beyond the lab."

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Reality

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of ultimate ground and epistemic access. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Grounded-Ungrounded (reality rests on something vs. brute fact all the way down). Axis 14: Necessary-Contingent (reality must be this way vs. could have been otherwise). Axis 15: Knowable-Unknowable (reality can be understood vs. exceeds comprehension). Axis 16: One-Many (reality is unified vs. irreducibly plural). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every metaphysical system, every religious worldview, every scientific cosmology, every philosophical speculation. The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Reality reveal that the question "what is real?" isn't one question but sixteen—and every answer is a choice on each axis. The 16 Axes don't tell you which position is correct—they give you a language for understanding what any position actually claims. Every worldview is a choice on sixteen dimensions. The 16 Axes are the map of that choice space—the ultimate tool for understanding what you believe, what others believe, and what's really at stake when worldviews collide.

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Reality "You want to know if God is real. The 16 Axes ask: which God? Material or ideal? Objective or subjective? Absolute or relative? Deterministic? Continuous? Manifest? Eternal? Causal? Physical or mental? Value-laden? Purposeful? Infinite? Grounded? Necessary? Knowable? One or many? Sixteen questions, and every religion gives different answers. The 16 Axes don't answer whether God exists—they give you the vocabulary to ask what kind of God anyone is even talking about. And without that vocabulary, you're not even having the same conversation."

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Metaphysics

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of value, purpose, and the ultimate. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Fact-Value (reality includes value or value is projected). Axis 14: Purpose-Mechanism (reality has telos vs. blind mechanism). Axis 15: Finite-Infinite (reality is bounded vs. unbounded in space/time/substance). Axis 16: Personal-Impersonal (ultimate reality is personal (God) vs. impersonal (Brahman, the One)). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every metaphysical system ever conceived. The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Metaphysics reveal that metaphysics is the art of choosing positions on sixteen fundamental questions. Every philosopher, every religion, every worldview makes choices on these axes—consciously or not. The 16 Axes don't tell you which metaphysics is true—they give you a language for understanding what any metaphysics actually claims, what it entails, and how it compares to others. They are the periodic table of metaphysical elements—the fundamental dimensions that combine to create every possible worldview.

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Metaphysics "You want to know if God exists. The 16 Axes ask: which God? Personal or impersonal? Finite or infinite? Purposeful or beyond purpose? Grounded or grounding? Necessary or contingent? Eternal or temporal? Causal or acausal? Value-laden or beyond value? Sixteen questions, and until you answer them, 'God' is just a word. The axes don't tell you whether to believe—they tell you what you'd be believing in. And that's the only question that matters."

Materialist atheism chooses material, pluralist, realist, atomist, eternal, contingent, causal, brutal, nominalist, actualist, endurantist, presentist (or eternalist depending), fact (no intrinsic value), mechanism, finite, impersonal. Advaita Vedanta chooses ideal, monist, realist, holist, eternal, necessary, acausal (in ultimate), grounded (in Brahman), realist about universals (as Brahman's aspects), possibilist (all possibilities in Brahman), endurantist (Brahman timeless), eternalist, value (Brahman is bliss), purpose (lila), infinite, impersonal (or transpersonal).

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Philosophy

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of relationship to science and to life. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Scientistic-Humanistic (philosophy should emulate science vs. philosophy is distinct from science). Axis 14: Professional-Public (philosophy for academics vs. for everyone). Axis 15: Critical-Constructive (philosophy deconstructs vs. philosophy builds). Axis 16: Autonomous-Embedded (philosophy stands alone vs. embedded in culture, politics, life). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every philosophical movement, every school, every thinker, every approach. The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Philosophy reveal that philosophy is not a single discipline but a multidimensional space of practices, purposes, and styles. The 16 Axes don't tell you what to believe—they tell you who you are as a philosopher. And until you can answer them, you're not doing philosophy—you're just repeating what you've heard.

The 16 Axes of the Spectrum of Philosophy "You want to know what philosophy is. The 16 Axes answer: it depends. For Plato, philosophy was esoteric, sacred, constructive, embedded, humanistic, public, theoretical and practical, realist, holist, a priori, foundationalist, traditionalist, systematic, therapeutic, prescriptive. For a contemporary analytic philosopher, it's exoteric, secular, critical, autonomous, scientistic, professional, theoretical, realist or antirealist depending, individualist often, a posteriori often, coherentist often, progressive, systematic, investigative, descriptive. Same word, sixteen axes of difference. The axes don't define philosophy—they give you a language to ask what anyone means by it. And that's the most philosophical thing of all."

The axes allow you to locate any philosopher, any tradition, any text—and to understand what kind of philosophy you're doing, or want to do. Are you analytic or continental? Theoretical or practical? Realist or antirealist? Individualist or holist? A priori or a posteriori? Foundationalist or coherentist? Traditionalist or progressive? Systematic or aphoristic? Esoteric or exoteric? Therapeutic or investigative? Descriptive or prescriptive? Secular or sacred? Scientistic or humanistic? Professional or public? Critical or constructive? Autonomous or embedded? Sixteen questions, and your answers define your philosophy.

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026

The 16 Axes of the Logic Spectrum

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of context, psychology, and metaphysics. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Context-Independent-Context-Dependent (logic applies everywhere vs. context matters). Axis 14: Psychological-Ideal (logic describes how people think vs. how they should think). Axis 15: Ontologically-Neutral-Committed (logic assumes nothing about reality vs. logic has metaphysical implications). Axis 16: Unitary-Pluralist (one true logic vs. many logics for many purposes). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every logical system ever conceived. The 16 Axes of the Logic Spectrum reveal that logic is not a single discipline but a multidimensional space of choices about how to reason, what reasoning is for, and what reasoning assumes. The 16 Axes don't tell you which logic is correct—they give you a language for understanding what any logic claims, what it's good for, and where it might fail. They are the map of the space of valid inference—the periodic table of reason itself.

The 16 Axes of the Logic Spectrum "You want the one true logic. The 16 Axes ask: which one? The one that's formal or informal? Classical or nonclassical? Deductive or inductive? Monotonic or nonmonotonic? Bivalent or many-valued? Truth-preserving or information-preserving? First-order or higher-order? Extensional or intensional? Explosive or paraconsistent? Relevant or irrelevant? Computational or noncomputational? Static or dynamic? Context-independent or context-dependent? Psychological or ideal? Ontologically neutral or committed? Unitary or pluralist? Sixteen questions, and until you answer them, 'one true logic' is just a slogan. The axes don't give you the answer—they force you to ask the questions that any real logic must answer. And that's the most logical thing of all."

Classical logic chooses formal, classical, deductive, monotonic, bivalent, truth-preserving, first-order, extensional, explosive, irrelevant (classical doesn't require relevance), computational (for propositional), static, context-independent, ideal, ontologically-neutral (claims to be), unitary (claims to be the one true logic). Relevance logic disagrees on relevance and maybe paraconsistency. Fuzzy logic disagrees on bivalence. Nonmonotonic logic disagrees on monotonicity.

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026

The 16 Axes of the Knowledge Spectrum

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of scope, certainty, and the epistemic subject. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Defeasible-Indefeasible (knowledge can be overturned vs. immune to revision). Axis 14: Absolute-Relative (knowledge holds for all vs. relative to framework). Axis 15: Human-Transhuman (knowledge accessible to humans vs. beyond human capacity). Axis 16: Finite-Infinite (knowledge is bounded vs. potentially infinite). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every epistemological theory, every conception of knowledge, every debate about what it means to know. The 16 Axes of the Knowledge Spectrum reveal that knowledge is not a simple concept but a multidimensional space of possibilities. The 16 Axes don't tell you which conception of knowledge is correct—they give you a language for understanding what any knowledge claim involves, what it assumes, and how it relates to other kinds of knowing. They are the map of the space of human understanding—the periodic table of epistemology itself.

The 16 Axes of the Knowledge Spectrum "You want to know what knowledge is. The 16 Axes answer: it depends. For a scientist, knowledge is a posteriori, propositional, communal, explicit, fallible, inferential, empirical, instrumental, justified, externalist, social, particular, defeasible, relative, human, finite. For a mathematician, it's a priori, propositional, personal, explicit, certain, inferential, conceptual, intrinsic, justified, internalist, individualist, universal, indefeasible, absolute, human, infinite. For a mystic, it's experiential, procedural/tacit, personal, tacit, certain (to them), direct, both, intrinsic, justified by experience, externalist (experience is reliable), individualist, particular, defeasible (to others), relative, human, finite. Same word, sixteen axes of difference. The axes don't define knowledge—they give you the language to ask what anyone means by it. And that's the most profound knowledge of all."

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026