Page F
(Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
Researchers as of 11/20/2019
| 3-to-1 A | 3-to-1 B | 3-to-1 C | 3-to-1 D | 3-to-1 E | 3-to-1 F |
| 3-to-1 G | 3-to-1 H | 3-to-1 I | 3-to-1 J | 3-to-1 K | 3-to-1 L |
| 3-to-1 M | 3-to-1 N | 3-to-1 O | 3-to-1 P | 3-to-1 Q | 3-to-1 FF |
this page was initially started (and placed on the web in 2007, hence the duplication with more recent documents;) as a reference to examples of 4-part structures from a variety of interests compiled by Alexander I. Stepanov, as a supplement to his compiled list of 3-part structures:
the most recent recital of the information can be found here: Dualities, Trialities, Quaralities page 3.
It was because of Mr. Stepanov's page that I began to think more earnestly about the 3 to 1 ratios idea that I was compiling information about, but had not as yet put into a comprehensive representation. I re-place the pages at this newer web-site, leaving most of the information as it had originally appeared. Let me thank Mr. Stepanov for his research efforts and his contribution to the study of threes.
triple structure examples by A.I. Stepanov:- Persons of pronouns: I - You - (he - she - it);
- Genders: Masculine - Feminine - Neuter;
- Past - Present - Future;
- three part's division of time by Confucius, Zoroastrians;
- the tense system in German;
- Degrees of comparison for adjectives and adverbs: Positive - Comparative - Superlative;
- Articles: Definite - Indefinite - Zero;
- Parts of the sentence: two primes and a Secondary;
- the Heaven - the Earth - the Hell (Paradise - Earth - Inferno);
- Body - Soul - Spirit;
- Geosphere - Biosphere -Noosphere;
- Mind - Sense - Will;
- three levels of the ego by K. Jaspers;
- More - Less - Equal;
- Rational quantities - Algebraic irrational ones - transcendence;
- Real numbers - Complex numbers - Quaternions;
- Rich - Middle - Poor classes in modern Western societies;
- the nobility - the clergy - the third estate in absolutistic France;
- Poetic social order in the Republic by Plato;
- Estate order in the Russian empire;
- three forms of state service: Military - Civilian - Court;
- three branches of state power: Legislative - Executive - Judicial;
- the institute of tripartite commissions: Business - trade unions - Government;
- the court: Prosecution - Defense - Judge;
- the forms of government: Autocracy - Oligarchy - Democracy;
- types of legal power by M. Weber;
- Standard classification of political movements: Liberalism - Conservatism - Radicalism
| Political Movement Variants: |
| Liberalism - Conservatism - Marxism |
| Liberalism - Marxism - Nationalism |
| the Right - the Left - the Centre |
- The West - The East - The third World;
- The notion of "the third Way";
- World-system analysis: Kernel - Semi-periphery - Periphery;
- Russian ideology of the 19th century: Orthodoxy - Autocracy - Nationality;
- State ideology of thailand: Nation - Religion - Monarchy;
- A. Ferguson: Ages of savagery - Barbarism - Civilization;
- thomsen: the Stone - the Bronze - the Iron Ages;
- Palaeolithic period - Mesolithic period- New Stone Age;
- Ancient history - Middle Ages - Modern times;
- "Moscow is the third Rome";
- "The third Reich";
- "The third Revelation";
- Classical system of literary genre: Lyrics - Epos - Drama;
- Tragedy - Comedy - Drama;
- Literary process: Author - Reader - Critic;
- Ingredients of aesthetic object by M.M. Bakhtin: Author - Hero - Audience;
- Frege's triangle: Real object - Concept - Symbol (denotation - designation - name);
- F. de Saussure: Langage - Langue - Parole
(German: Rede - Sprache - das Sprechen or Sprache - Sprachtum - Sprechart); - Mental structure of a person by S. Freud: Subconscious - Consciousness - Super ego;
- Faith - Hope - Love;
- Spheres of moral law by thomas Aquinas: the natural realm of elements - the heavenly world of the firmament - Intelligible world;
- The threes by J. Boehme;
- The truth - The good - The beauty;
- The highest cognitive abilities by I. Kant: Reason - Intellect - the ability for judgment;
- Hegel:
| Hegelian Examples |
| the universal - the particular - the single |
| Being - Nothing - Becoming |
| Quality - Quantity - Measure |
| Essence - Phenomenon - Reality |
| Law - Ethics - Morals |
| the family - the guild - the state |
| thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis |
- the life styles by S.A. Kierkegaard: Aesthetic - Ethic - Religious;
- three main paradigms of New Age's philosophy by A. Whitehead: Idealism - Materialism - Dualism;
- Races of mankind: the three-race theory (Negroid- Mongoloid- Caucasoid);
- Ethnic kernel of American nation: the English - the Germans - the Irish;
- Main groups of European nations: Romanic - Germanic - Slavonic;
- Pivotal world religions: Christianity - Islam - Buddhism;
- three main parts of Christianity: Catholicism - Orthodoxy - Protestantism;
- Key religious and philosophical components of the traditional Chinese culture: Confucianism - Daoism - Buddhism;
- the threes of folklore's heroes;
- Pythagorean classification of living intelligent creatures: God - Man - A creature like Pythagoras;
- Pascal: "the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, but not the God of philosophers";
- Roman law: tres Facuint Collegium (the three make a collegium);
- Number three by the Pre-Iranians, Chinese, primordial people;
- the structure of monogamic family: Man - Wife - Children;
- three-dimensional physical space;
Quaternion structure examples by A.I. Stepanov:
- Four-dimensional physical space; the aggregate states of the matter: solid - liquid - gas - plasma;
- the fundamental physical interactions: strong - electro-magnetic - weak - gravity;
- the Golden - the Silver - the Bronze - the Iron Ages;
- the four elements: earth - water - air - fire;
- the four of the Gospels (by Matthias, Mark, Lucas, John);
- the fours by A. Schopenhauer, H. L. Bergson;
- the four-dimensional time by M. Heidegger;
- the Ancient history - the Middle Ages - the New Age - the Newest;
- the social and economic structures by Marxism: slave-owning system - feudalism - capitalism - communism;
- the fourth type of political movements: bolsheviks;
- "Les trois mousquetaires" by A. Dumas: Athos - Porthos - Aramis - d'Artagnan;
- "the Karamazov Brothers" by Dostoyevsky: three legitimate sons and an illegitimate one;
- "the Golden Calf" by Il'f and Petrov: Kozlevitch - Balaganov - Panikovsky - Bender;
- the seasons: spring - summer - autumn - winter;
- the cardinal points: east - west - south - north;
- the times of the day: morning - afternoon - evening - night;
- Division of the day in German;
- The fourth literary genre;
- Quaternions by K. Jung;
- Paradise - Purgatory - Inferno - Earth;
- Studies about Sophia in Russian religious philosophy;
- Quaternions in the mass culture;
- "three men in a boat (to say nothing of the dog)" by J. K. Jerome;
- The Beatles: John - Paul - George - Ringo;
A question that must be asked, are the above examples of "four" actually examples of a 3 to 1 ratio? (A ratio that may be variously described as 3 and 1, 3 into 1, 3 from 1, 3 near 1, 3 apart from 1, 3 as 1, 3 or 1, 3 but not 1, 3 to 1, 3 overlapping as 1, etc., or the numbers may be reversed.) Is human cognition following a 1- 2- 3 -"and" four developmental sequence in consciousness, or is there a larger evolutionary change taking place where the label "four" is a misidentification? Are we witnessing a subtle expression of the beginnings in a developmental "leap" (in human consciousness) that some biologists might refer to as an example of punctuated equilibrium, instead of a graduated (overlapping?) form of development, that is implied by a natural transition expressed between a three and four sequence? Does a 3 to 1 ratio formula more accurately describe developmental processes of human cognition in terms of referencing this activity with humanity's progressive usage of word labels for quantities, as opposed to an interpretation of the same material as being representative of a "four" model?
A prime example of this question might be said to be answered by reference to early man's usage of:
- the word "one" for the quantity 1.
- the word "two" for the quantity 2.
- Any number beyond 2 was considered "many."
Hence, the three number words of ONE, tWO, MANY are a common recurrence cited by researchers studying the development of number concepts of early humans. there was no "four" label for quite some time until human cognition progressed. When the concept of "four" had been developed as a result of adding 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, or 2 + 2, or 1 + 3, the number 1 (as a singularity) was relegated to a status of being a non-number distinction, with parallels of this distinctiveness assigned to the "one" being expressed in the existence attributed to GOD as being distinct from the Holy Ghost/Spirit - the Son - Mankind. By such a philosophical exclusion, though in practical terms a value of one was indeed used to express the concept of singularity in commercialized terms, human cognition retained a basic three number (word) system of reference, but there was, in an overall sense, a 3 to 1 ratio formula: 3 numbers (two- three- four) and 1 non-number (one).
With this said, in one sense, the expression of "being one with god" is a reference implying a non-number association of a distinct reality. the "one" is not a number of quantitative exceptionalness, but a qualitative assignment of realization. Nonetheless, it is a number value akin to the enumeration values used in many modern contexts that are, in part, a persistence of cognitive primivity that is attached with a significant level of superstition. For example, political candidates weigh their chances of winning (or losing) on the "numbers" derived from polls conducted during campaigns and an election. Others examples are the numbers games employed by stock markets, census bureaus, statistical analytics, betting, etc... All are conducted with their one types and levels of superstition... related to the primivity of human cognition that persists.
In everyday terms, since it can be considered that the mental state of the average person retains some semblance of the 1-2-3... cognitive schematic of an ancient human in terms of number usage, are the above word-described examples of a four quantity just another way in which human consciousness expresses the referential "Many," which obscures the underlying recurrence of a 3 to 1 ratio formula? Is it simply nothing more than just another means of expressing a basic mental structure that finds ways of illustration other than the usage of numerical symbols?
An interesting (but subtle) variation of this 1/Many ratio -(mentality) can be observed in the logic used as a defense by some when questioned about whether or not a particular item was consumed in a large quantity by them. take for example a person who eats most of a bag of potato chips except for a handful. If another person then eats the remaining portion, it is argued by the first person (usually a child to a parent) that it was the other person who ate "all" the potato chips as evidenced by the empty bag, and that they only ate "some of them," where the label "some" is meant to be defined as a smaller proportion. though the labels of "One and Many" are not used as distinct references (as they are in the E pluribus Unum phrase on American money), there is a clear representation of a little/ -medium- /alot ratio which implies that there is a recurring underlying cognitive pattern being displayed in word form instead of numerical form.
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The question concerning a three-part versus a four-part structure was addressed by Carl Jung. the following comments had been extracted from the Quodlibet Online Journal article: "Carl Jung and the Trinitarian Self" by Michael J. Brabzon, which is no longer available and does not appear to have been archived. Luckily, I copied it. ... However, this is out of step with Jung's thinking generally which is always looking to the complementary nature of opposites, even to the extent of good and evil. Indeed, he berates Christian dogmatists for trying to cast out the Devil instead of making him part of the trinity, i.e. making it a quaternity. Jung himself noted that often the fourth part of a quaternity appeared somehow different to the other three (smaller, feminine, etc.),*** using as an example the woman who completes the trinity of men during his trip to Kenya in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. In particular, he points to the fourth element of the Christian quaternity, the Virgin Mary, the "chthonic" ("chthonic" means: dark, primitive, and mysterious). In the same way that Jung deals with triadic-themed mandalas, so also with dreams. *** Marie-Louise von Franz comes close to this concept when she explains a fairy tale concerning a king with his three sons. the youngest son - the fourth person in the story - is the weak odd-man-out who, psychologically, will be assimilated into the ego and then act as a mediator between the collective unconscious and the ego. However, this approach is constructed from typological considerations and falls short of a universal explanation for the imbalanced quaternity. Many of the dream examples used by Jung to demonstrate the centrality of the quaternity to the psyche are actually based on the formula of the-dreamer-plus-three- others. Here are some of the examples from Psychology and Alchemy [Collected Works, vol 12] which Jung employed to show ongoing alchemical symbolism in modern man's unconscious. the dreamer in each case, I believe, is representative of the ego and the three others, the triune Self:
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