On the road to Paradise: Some logical steps

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In the human life, we only have access to Paradise through very limited fragments of idealized representations, given in descriptions of religious books, paintings, musical pieces, snatches of dreams… What does it mean, through such fragments, to represent/presentify Paradise? Addressing such a question can be seen as a special case of the logical problem of representation [3]: how construct a represented universe from limited fragments of presence? Is a system of representation coherent, faithful and complete in its restitution of the universe it aims to represent?However, the representation of a paradisiacal universe from limited fragments of presence has a specific logical interest. This was the fundamental problem of Western medieval logic when the essential purpose of a human life was to deserve one's share in Paradise — it commanded, for example, the construction of Gothic cathedrals [1]. From a more contemporary point of view, a paradisiacal universe offers specific logical characteristics since it implies maximal elements of fidelity (truth), coherence and completeness, through the notions of perfection, unification and Goodness that it is supposed to embody.To address these problems of the representation of Paradise, a construction of representational universes is necessary. Starting from the notion of grounding of representations, we will succinctly show how to construct a unified universe from fragments given in the presence window of a mind [2]. Then, we will clarify some logical constraints for a paradisiacal universe, in terms of extension, unification and depth. We will consider the modal structure necessary to define the nesting of possible worlds to represent the relations between minds, as a paradisiacal universe should not smooth out intersubjective differences, if it is commanded by love as in Christian theology [5]. We will specify how to define in this framework notions that are essential to paradisiacal intuitions such as light, joy, ectasy, but also encounter (with other bodies and minds, angels, God...), care, reconciliation and apocatastasis.Within the framework of the grounding of represented universes, simple proofs of the existence of God, Good or Paradise are possible. However, such proofs are of no use in approaching Paradise, for they are in no way a meeting point with God, offering at most a starting point to get ‘on the road’. We will build on Dante's Divine Comedy (1320) to highlight the logical role of poetic intuitions and amorous intuitions in the path to a paradisiacal universe. To this end, we will define harmonic intuitions in a represented universe that are keys for extension of presence. Encounters are essential to such intuitions and we will evoke the logic of difference that underlies them: extension of presence is logically impossible without difference — conversely, the coupling of two reciprocal desirable intuitions allows for the infinite expansion of two inner worlds, even the ascent to the hyperouranos [4]. Beyond the meeting of minds, an ever-renewed caring offered by God (the Grace), as a presence always exceeding the represented universe, appears to be a logical condition for any paradisiacal ascent. However, strategies for fulfilling paradisiacal intuitions can be proposed, relying on anchor points that give a foretaste of paradise in the actual world.References[1]Huysmans, J.-K. The Cathedral. Book Company, 1898.[2] Plagnol, A. Principes de navigation dans les mondes possibles. Editions Terra Cotta, 2019.[3] Plagnol, A. Logic as the theory of representation. In: J.-Y. Béziau et al. (Editors), Logic in Question: Talks from the Annual Sorbonne Logic Workshop (2011-2019). Springer, 2022.[4] Plato. Phaedrus. Hackett, ≈375BC/1995.[5]Saint Augustine. The City of God. New City Press, 426AC/2012.