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  • Llull's 16 divine attributes
      • Ask Claude
        • Here's a consolidated map of the Buddhist lists and Llull's system as prior art for the eigenvirtues project:

        • Buddhist Lists

        • Buddhism is unusually rich here because it generates multiple orthogonal decompositions of the same underlying space — which is exactly what makes it interesting as prior art.

        • 1. The Four Brahmaviharas ("Divine Abodes" / "Immeasurables")

        • The Brahmaviharas, or "divine abidings," are: compassion, loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.
        • These are described as "sublime qualities" of the awakened heart — warm, balanced, and responsive to the world.
        • This list is notably relational — all four are orientations toward beings, not intrinsic qualities of the self. That's a distinctive structural feature.
        • Note:
        • Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the metta-concept containing the four Brahmavihara practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition"
        • — it predates the Buddha.

        • 2. The Six Paramitas (Mahayana) / Ten Paramis (Theravada)

        • The six Mahayana perfections are: Generosity, Ethics/Virtue, Patience, Energy, Concentration, Wisdom.
        • The Theravada list extends to ten, adding: Renunciation, Honesty, Resolve, Loving-kindness, and Equanimity.
        • Some lists expand further to 10 by adding skill in means of helping others, profound resolution to produce enlightenment, perfection of powers, and transcendent knowledge.
        • This is interesting structurally: the lists disagree, and the disagreements are principled — different schools made different factoring decisions.

        • 3. The Seven Factors of Awakening (Bojjhangā)

        • The seven factors (satta bojjhaṅgā) are seven interrelated mental qualities cultivated to overcome suffering and realize profound peace and insight.
        • They are: mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, equanimity.
        • This list has a notable internal structure:
        • they are grouped into one balancing factor (mindfulness), three energizing factors (investigation, energy, rapture), and three calming factors (tranquility, concentration, equanimity).
        • That's not just a list — it's a dynamical structure with opposites in tension.

        • Cross-list observations

        • Equanimity (upekkhā) appears on all three lists.
        • Equanimity is situated at the end of many of the Buddha's lists, including the seven factors of awakening and the ten perfections.
        • That's a signal that it may be doing something foundational — possibly a candidate eigenvirtue in the strict sense.

        • Llull's 16 Dignities

        • When Llull talks about the goodness or greatness of something, he expresses a quality that corresponds to a divine attribute. These attributes are called Dignities, though sometimes referred to as "reasons" or "virtues."
        • Figure A of the Ars is composed of 16 terms that correspond to the Dignities: Goodness, Wisdom, Glory, Simplicity, Greatness, Will, Perfection, Nobility, Eternity, Virtue, Justice, Mercy, Power, Truth, Generosity, Dominion.
        • The key structural claim Llull makes: each Dignity may be converted into another, by the principle of the unity of all divine attributes.
        • This is almost the opposite of an eigenvector decomposition — Llull claims the basis vectors are mutually convertible/identical at the divine level, only appearing distinct from the human vantage point.
        • Llull understood his lists of attributes as open lists to which attributes can be added, distinguishing between attributes quoad Deum (in relation to God) and attributes quoad nos (in relation to us).

        • Structural comparison for eigenvirtues

        • System

          of elements

          		Internal structureOperator/transformation
          Cardinal virtues4Unified through prudence (Aquinas)Practical wisdom
          Brahmaviharas4Relational; all directed at beingsExpansion in all directions
          Six Paramitas6–10Sequential/cumulativePath toward enlightenment
          Seven Awakening Factors7Energizing vs. calming poles, with mindfulness as balanceMeditative deepening
          Llull's Dignities16Mutually convertible; combinatorialDivine unity
        • The Buddhist lists are particularly interesting because they offer multiple non-equivalent factorings of the same underlying space — which raises the eigenvirtues question sharply: do different decompositions reflect different operators (transformations), or are they all pointing at the same basis from different angles?

Ramon Llull

07 Nov 2026 - 07 Nov 2026
Open in Logseq