John O'Loughlin

Maximum Truth & Truthful Maxims John O'Loughlin

If the essayistic aphorisms and aphoristic essays of the eight volumes of so-called 'supernotes' which preceded this title are of indeterminate length, then what follows here, dating from 1993, is of an aphoristic purism which allows for little or no deviation from the basic form. One could say that their author had attained to something approximating the light(ness) of Truth at this point, and the result is a vindication not only of what had preceded it, but of his entire philosophical quest to-date. Comprised of 707 maxims which have been given 'a/b' subdivisions, 'Maximum Truth' succeeds in achieving, albeit on a still-far from definitive basis, the sort of metaphysical comprehensiveness towards which John O'Loughlin had been struggling all along. One could say that it signifies a refinement upon the aforementioned 'supernotational' writings; though the tendency to recycle ideas in modified guise, by now a veritable principle of his work, persists here to even greater effect, insofar as it was this technique which made the subsequent attainment of what, punning aside, is in some respects a maximum degree of metaphysical truth truly possible. Following on from the above, however, its companion volume, 'Truthful Maxims', which is also comprised of 707 numbered maxims, was written on a slightly more straightforward, though no less truth-intensive basis, and extends beyond much if not most of the material contained in its precursor. - A Centretruths editorial