The Law of an I: Humanactions Emerge from a Contradictory Soul

Why do good people sometimes think bad thoughts, and why do people with troubled pasts sometimes do great good? This working paper proposes the Law of an I, a universal philosophical law within Kirdomicism, an action-centric philosophy: "Humanactions emerge from a contradictory soul." The law builds on the author's definition of the self, "I am the timing of an active soul." If the definition says what an I is, the law says how an I operates. Every human soul, regardless of moral character, belief or condition, is inherently capable of generating thoughts and intentions that contradict its own established positions. Humanactions, the actions through which an I manifests itself in the world, emerge from this soul. Six corollaries follow: contradiction is universal and morally neutral; a thought is not an action; an I is revealed through its Humanactions and their consequences; an I must be understood across its whole lifetime; no condition removes a person from being an I; and good done never erases harm done. The paper presents self-force, cultivated through the Kirdomic principle of Ankamayat (which originates in Than Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's Atammayata), as the trainable capability that governs the contradictory soul and narrows the gap between intention, statement and action. It compares the law with Plato, Aristotle, St Paul, St Augustine, Hume and Whitman, and with research on cognitive dissonance, thought suppression, intrusive thoughts and the intention–behaviour gap. It offers six testable propositions and states its limitations openly.