InnerSpace | Philosophy

SDL InnerSpace is guided by its own philosophical framework. Drawing from Sam Diellor Luani’s old philosophy notes, the project incorporates foundational concepts and theories, adapting them to support InnerSpace’s speculative worldview and act as a substrate for new creative ideas and motifs. These original notes are being updated with new insights and integrated as a dynamic foundation for artistic innovation, conceptual exploration and creative speculation, in a series of articles which also are intended to result in at least two books on the topic. The material will be curated and presented in this section.

The philosophy of SDL InnerSpace constitutes a part of the common conceptual composition and generative substrate of SDL InnerSpace, but it is rooted in traditional and conventional thinking. It systematically addresses materialism, idealism, dualism, the nature of matter and life, dialectical reasoning, conceptual evolution, and metaphysical questions about existence and consciousness.

InnerSpace Philosophy Concepts

• Worldview | Multifunctionalism
• In SDL InnerSpace a worldview is a coherent framework of assumptions, values, and principles through which reality is interpreted, meaning is constructed, and action is guided. The only worldview or ideology SDL InnerSpace embraces is one equivalent to its own: multifunctionalism. It may be understood as functionalism extended to its fullest scope—across philosophy, science, art, and human practice—emphasizing adaptability, contextual validity, and multi‑use value. Multifunctionality is one of its ideals.
• Philosophy
  • Materialism
  • Materialism (in philosophy) holds that matter is the fundamental substance of reality, with consciousness arising from material interactions. It has evolved from ancient atomism through mechanistic and physicalist theories influenced by scientific advances, while grappling with challenges like explaining consciousness. Materialism impacts ethics, metaphysics, politics, and culture.
  • Idealism
  • Idealism (in philosophy) emphasizes ideas and consciousness as the foundation of reality, with various forms such as metaphysical, epistemological, transcendental, objective, subjective, and absolute idealism. Influential philosophers include Plato, Berkeley, Kant, and Hegel. Idealism has shaped multiple fields but faces critique from materialism.
  • Dualism
  • Dualism (in philosophy) posits two distinct realities or principles, such as matter and soul, or good and evil, manifesting in metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and cosmological forms. It contrasts with monism and reductionism and remains influential across cultures and philosophical disciplines.
• Matter
• In the spirit of multifunctionalism, SDL InnerSpace adopts the multifunctional concept of matter from philosophical materialism, as the “fundamental substance” of nature, or objective reality. It is a distilled concept that captures the most basic properties shared by all physical objects and phenomena. These properties include inertia, motion, extension in space and time, and modularity. In SDL InnerSpace, we infuse this concept with a new property: all (dead) matter is caught in a state of logical reasoning and possesses the inherent capacity to generate consciousness.
  • Inertia
  • Matter resists changes in its state of motion, even under the influence of an external force. This quality of matter is called inertia, and it is quantified and measured as mass. Gravity is a direct manifestation of this fundamental property of matter.
  • Motion
  • Everything that exists, all physical reality, is in constant change, in continuous motion. This is not a random state but an inherent, inseparable condition of everything that exists. It is a general property of the objective reality, a fundamental property of all matter. Motion is quantified as energy.
  • Space
  • Every material object or phenomenon occupies space and can be described with dimensions like length, width, and height. Space is a general, fundamental quality of matter, and distinguishes it from non-material entities like ideas or numbers. We associate lines, shapes, figures, and 3d figures with this material quality. In the philosophical framework of SDL InnerSpace space and time are direct results of the tension and interplay between inertia and motion, which are the two original, primary, first properties of matter and physical existence.
  • Time
  • In the philosophy of SDL InnerSpace, time is an extension of existence which arises as a result of the interplay of inertia and motion. We perceive it as a continuity characterizing every object, phenomenon, or process.
  • Modularity
  • Matter tends to cluster or fragment into similarly sized, similarly featured units—coagulating under attraction (e.g., gravity) or breaking apart under entropy, impacts, or explosions. These comparable elements interact as building blocks or modules to form larger structures. In SDL InnerSpace we call this modularity, a fundamental property of matter that we locate as the basis for universal capacities for structural organization and thus for reasoning and consciousness. In physics it is quantified as amount of substance, just as inertia is quantified by mass and motion by energy.
• Idea
• As a contrasting category to matter, SDL InnerSpace adopts the philosophical concept of the idea from idealism and integrates it into the project’s mythopoetry through the concept of concept as an atomic module, and as a foundational element of the Conceptual Realm. The idea is also incorporated into InnerSpace’s philosophical and scientific speculations, largely in line with its role in idealism as a fundamental constituent of reality, with a twist: as a direct manifestation of one of matter’s intrinsic properties—its modularity, or inherent tendency toward logical organization and rationally structured form.
  • Concept
  • In InnerSpace we do not define the concept. We use it —the concept of concept as such— as the smallest possible structure that still generates worlds. It is trivial and infinite, atomic and modular, foundational and ungraspable. Every attempt to explain it merely demonstrates it. Every serious theory of concepts is correct—simultaneously—because the concept of concept, the sum of what concepts have in common, is such that it absorbs all models without being exhausted by any of them. In SDL InnerSpace, the concept of concept is treated as an axiom, not a problem. It functions as a transferable module across media and as a structural atom from which incompatible realities can be constructed. To demand a definition is to misunderstand its role. The concept does not explain meaning; it produces it.
  • The InnerSpace concept of concept is intentionally and radically multifunctional. As such, it forms the foundation of a functional idealism: a system in which the idea is the primary category, yet one that does not oppose materialism. Instead, materiality is embraced, operationalized, and treated as a module within the system itself—serving as both a necessary component and the ultimate proof of the system’s validity. It is a transcended idealism with a complex superstructural meta-layer, that treats materialism as its own realization.
    • Intension
    • In InnerSpace, the intension of a concept refers to the qualities, attributes, or properties of the object or structure or phenomenon that the concept is associated with.
    • Extension
    • Normally, the extension of a concept refers to the set of all objects, or structures or phenomena that the concept is associated with. In InnerSpace we extend the concept of concept extension with a clarification. Every concept forms a category of similar concepts. The extension of a concept is the set of concepts in this category of objects.
• Worldview
• Multifunctionalism
• Philosophy
  • Body–Mind
  • Materialism
  • Idealism
  • Dualism
• Matter
  • States of Matter
    • Solid
    • Liquid
    • Gas
    • Plasma
  • Properties of Matter
    • Inertia
      • Mass
    • Motion
      • Energy
        • Light
    • Particle–Wave
    • Spacetime
      • Space
      • Time
    • Modularity
      • Amount of Substance
  • Quantity & Quality
  • Entropy
    • Chaos
• Idea
  • Concept
    • Concept Intension
    • Concept Extension
  • Rationality
• Interaction
  • Action & Reaction
  • Reflection
    • Self-reflection
• Mind
  • Perception
    • Verbal Perception
    • Visual Perception
    • Auditory Perception
    • Haptic Perception
  • Cognition
    • Appearance & Essence
    • Conceptualization & Realization
  • Reason
    • Affirmation & Negation
    • Deduction
    • Induction
    • Abduction
    • Analysis & Synthesis
  • Sentience
    • Emotion
  • Consciousness
    • Self-awareness