70 overcoming the worldindividual phenomena that we encounter are instances of types of be-
ing. Th ese types are in turn formed on the model of invisible arche-
types, which may be capable of repre sen ta tion only in the language of
mathematics or of a metaphysic eschewing all reference to particulars.
What is most present to our experience is less real than what is least
present. Our unexamined sense of reality is a delirium brought on by
our embodiment and by the consequent limitations of our perceptual
apparatus.
Th eory can, however, liberate us from the burdens of embodiment
and present the world right side up. Once again, however, our practical
reasons for adopting such a view will always seem more persuasive
than our theoretical reasons. Th e correct understanding of the hier-
archy of being and of reality should allow reason to rule over the
action- oriented impulses and these, in turn, to prevail over the carnal
appetites. It can equip us to curb our insatiability by overcoming the per-
spective of the will, entranced with the shadowy world of appearance.
It off ers to help us achieve serenity in the face of death, which, accord-
ing to this line of reasoning, annihilates only the lesser reality of ephem-
eral individual selfh ood. It holds open the promise of communion with
what is most real and most valuable: the universal being and mind in
which we share.
In both the radical and the qualifi ed versions of the metaphysics of
the overcoming of the world, the relation between the denial of time
and the denial of distinction and individuality plays a central role. Th e
world of individuals and individual things is also the world in which
each of these individuals remains subject to the ravages of time. It is a
world in which our engagements and connections function as the most
important clocks by which we mea sure the passage of our lives.
Time and distinction are internally related in experience. If diff erent
parts of the world, or states of aff airs, did not change diff erently, there
would be no time. Th e reality of time presupposes a world made up of
distinct elements that fail to change in lockstep.
On the other hand, if time did not exist, there could no causal inter-
action among parts of the world. Th ere could be only a timeless grid or
manifold (as represented, for example, by the philosophy of Leibniz).
Diff erent kinds of being might continue to be distinguished from one
another in such a world, as nodes in a grid. Nevertheless, the sense in