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Hello all! Not quite sure how to start this off so I'll just jump right in. First of all, I am very interested in philosophy. Currently, I have a class about ancient Greek philosophy. When we were going over Plato's forms, it struck me that this idea is incredibly similar to the Cognitive Realm. If you're not familiar with the idea, Plato essentially believed that the Forms were what was most real about an object. If you break down a table, it it just made out of wood. However; there is some sort of thing about a table that makes it a table. That "tableness" is distinct from the wood, stone or metal that makes it up. For Plato, there is another realm, a real of ideals, where things such as Justice, Table, Triangle, ect. all exist at their most real. This sounds incredibly similar to the Cognitive realm and I think that may have been a major source of inspiration for Brandon Sanderson. I'm curious to see if he has said anything on the matter. Additionally, it seems this is not the only thing that he has drawn from ancient Greek philosophy. Now, I haven't read all the Cosmere literature at this time, so this may be completely wrong, but here goes. Heraclitus believed that all things were constantly changing. Sanderson has mentioned that Hemalurgic spikes need contact with the blood in order to actually steal power. He mentioned in a Q&A that it has something to do with the blood being in motion. Motion was tied with life for many pre-Socratic philosophers. This idea is still somewhat half-formed, but I think a discussion on it is warranted. It is possible that the spiritual realm is tied with how objects and people change through time. Something else was incredibly important to the pre-Socratic and some post Socratic philosophers. That was the notion of Arkae, or, roughly, what it means to exist. To me, no unifying theory can be complete without asking this question of the Cosmere. Clearly, for something to exist, it needs at least a Cognitive aspect. However; for something to be sentient, it needs a Spiritual aspect. Motion is life. This is supported by how we see Investiture work on Roshar. The Stormlight encourages those who hold it to move. Investiture is the stuff of life. This also follows from what we know of humanity, Investiture is necessary for the existence of humanity. In fact, I would argue that Investiture is Sanderson's Arkae. Without that, there is no connection between the Cognitive and Spiritual realms, and no impact on the physical realm. In this way then, it would seem that actual magic is largely incidental to the way that reality itself exists in the Cosmere. Thank you, if you read through the fruits of my procrastinatory ramblings. I probably got some things wrong, in fact, I hope I did so those can be pointed out and I can learn something new about the Cosmere! I appreciate any thoughts that you have on this mass of a post! Thank you so much!