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2.5. RULES
OF REFLECTION
Initial Rules of Reflection.
We have examined the content and methods of designating the simplest
elementary acts (events) which are components of more complex acts
representing various aspects of reflection processes. In that concepts of the
"elementary" and "complex" act are themselves extremely
conditional, let us decide to call those acts complex which include at least
three elementary events of the appearance, or stimulation, type. But with this
condition, certain complex events will prove to be transitional. For example,
if an event of the type !X" - !Y" is examined, i.e. one where after
the stimulation of imprint X" there occurs the stimulation of imprint
Y", this is an elementary event; but if the fact of the stimulation of an
associative link between the imprints under examination for example, !X"
- ! xy - !Y", is reflected, then we must consider this particular event
or this particular act, made up of several parts, to be complex according to
our definitions.
From the events examined we
must consider i!A; !!Y - !!X" to be obviously complex.
Such complex acts, if they
are standard and play an important role when the parameters of even more
complex acts in the reflection process are determined, can now be examined; while those standard
reflection situations which will be described through formulae indicating
standard complex acts will be called the Rules of Reflection. We can identify
seventeen such rules.
Rule 1. "The rule of the
incompleteness of the LC Direct Imprint". We have just indicated this
rule symbolically: !!A - !!X - !!X".
This formula shows us that
the cause of the appearance of the active object A's direct imprint X" is
the influence of just this object A's active part X on the interpreter.
It is extremely important to
state this fact in spite of it being obvious and even trivial (because the
concept Itself of the active part has been defined as that which leaves a
direct imprint on the reflecting object) since it saves us from the danger of
moving towards a subjectivist explanation of the causes of the rise of even
the simplest primary deformation. For if the rise of a direct imprint is
examined from the position of just the interpretor, only from his view point,
then even by recognising the objectivity of the causes of the development of a
direct imprint, i.e. the existence of an original pattern, we can assert that
the reflected object is its active part X and nothing exists except for this
part, except for the original pattern of the direct imprint X". So by not
recognising the first reflection rule we come to deny the existence of
everything that does not have a direct Influence on the reflecting object, and
then we are close to denying the existence of the essences of objects, or to
asserting its unknowable nature (as in Spenser's, and even more so in Kant's,
philosophy).
Rule 2. "The rule of the
diversibility of the direct imprint". In the direct imprint X" one
can always find a part or a component x" which a fully determined part x
of original pattern X will correspond to, so that the appearance of this part
x of the original pattern X is the cause of the appearance of the
corresponding component x" of the direct imprint X". This can be
written symbolically thus: ((!! X - ?? X"); (x Н
x)) - (!! x";
(x" Н
X")) - where the semicolon is a symbol of the conditions
- "and" or "and also".
Rule 3. "The rule of the
rise of the intential imprint". In essence this is a brief notation of
the process which leads to the creation of a usual intential imprint as the
basis of an advance reflection after the repeated occasional rise on it of a
direct imprint of one and the same original pattern, if the number of such
developments has crossed a certain threshold value П1: ((!!1-kA
- !!1-kX-!!1-kX1 - !!1-k X");
(П1 Н
k); (x1 Н
X). ((!!A - !!x"1-!X");
(X"1 Н X").
In other words, after the
direct imprint X" of the original pattern A's part X has appeared more
than II1. times, the appearance of imprint x"1, from part x1 of the original
pattern A's part X is sufficient for the pattern X" of this original
pattern A to be stimulated, because a usual intential imprint X', i.e. pattern
X" of original pattern X, has formed in the interpretor.
Let us name part x"1 of
pattern X" - the stimulation of which as a direct imprint is sufficient
to stimulate the whole pattern X" - the active area of the intential
pattern, or the imprint of the indicator of the original pattern
X; and let us call part x1 of the original pattern X its indicator.
Rule 4. "The rule of the
growth of intential anticipation". In essence this is a natural
consequence of the preceding rule: if reflection initially occurs as a
development of only an occasional direct Imprint X" of the original
pattern A's part x, and then changes into a stimulation of an intential usual
pattern X" under the influence of the rise of part x1's
imprint x"1 of this original pattern's part X, then, when
there is repeated sequential stimulation of pattern X", crossing
threshold П2, the area of the necessary active part of the pattern
X" becomes smaller.
It is already stimulated when
the direct imprint has "achieved" part x'2 of imprint
X", where x2 Н x1 and consequently x"2
Н x"1. In other words in a certain interval of the
influences of object A's part x on the reflecting object, what proves to be
sufficient for the stimulation of imprint X" of this part X is the
appearance of an even smaller indicator and active area of the intential
pattern X" so that the relation of the anticipatory intential forming the
pattern X" to the active area x" of the anticipatory pattern X"
increases.
All these propositions in
words can be expressed far more concisely in our suggested symbols.
Rule 5. "The rule of the
general nature of the intential pattern. This rule emphasises the obvious case
that if the active parts of object A (X1X2 ---, Xk)
are not absolutely the same but have only a stable, overlapping part X0,
so that X1.X2 --- Xk = xo, (where the point
is the conjunction sign), then after object A has appeared k times only part
LC of each of the direct isogenic imprints (i.e. imprint X"1,
imprint X2",..., imprint X") will prove to be one to have
appeared all k times. Therefore the rule of the intential imprint when the
number of object A's appearance reaches the threshold number П, will be true
only for pattern LC0 of original LC0 as a statistically
averaged, general, con-curring part of all original pattern X1 -.X2-.
... Xk. Accordingly only for this intential pattern LC0 will its
part LC1 as a pattern of the indicator, exist, i.e. as the active area of this intential
pattern LC0, the indicator of whose original pattern is part X1.
The Rules of the Reflection
of Multi-component Original Patterns.
Multi-component original
patterns can be reflected in the form of multi-component patterns, and then
the linkage of the original patterns in a single whole can find expression in
the form of associations between the components of patterns. It is clear that
the basic types of linkage reflection of original patterns should also be
examined when "rules" are being adumbrated. (The numeration of the
rules will remain constant throughout the book).
Rule 6. "The rule of the
reflection of a link by contiguity association". Let there be given two
objects: object A and object B, which have some or other type of link between
them, which can be presented symbolically as A-ab-B.
Let us now examine the case
when X Н
B are active parts of these objects and are reflected on the
interpreter in the form of imprints: X" and Y". Moreover let the
link between the objects, i.e. link ab, itself leave imprints a"b",
also as something more external in reflation to the interpretor.
The end result of the
reflection of a linked unit consisting of object A, object B and the links ab
between them, is an imprint in the form of a unit of three Imprints:
imprint X", Imprint
Y" and imprint a"b". In other words !! (A-ab-B) - !!
(A-ab-B"), where (A-ab-B)" = A" (ab)" -B" = X" -
xy - Y".
But this also means that the
presence of a link between two original patterns can be reflected in the
presence of contiguity association between the imprints of these original
patterns.
Rule 7. "The Rule of the
LC Reflection of sequence of contiguity association". If the appearance
of object B regularly fallows the appearance of object A or in general if
fallowing the appearance of any of them there is a high probability of
another, then in spite of the absence of a literal linkage of these objects,
imprints of their active parts can, after a certain threshold П3
of such sequences, enter into a contiguity association.
Rule 8. "The Rule of
explication of linkage by contiguity association". If it is given that
A-ab-B, i.e. object A is linked with object B, but the active parts are
presented only as objects and not as a link, then the appearance in the
interpretor of linked objects will only be expressed as the appearance of two
non-linked direct imprints:
(!! (A-ab-B); (X Н
A; Y Н
B)) (!!X"; !! Y").
However in-so-far as these
objects are linked, the appearance of one of them presupposes with great
probability the appearance of the other. And this means that even if link LC
of these objects has no active part and does not therefore leave a direct
imprint on the interpretor, there will nevertheless appear a contiguity
association on the basis of the preceding rule, between the Imprints of linked
objects after they have appeared more than П3 times. The actual
objective presence of a link between the original patterns will accordingly
find an indirect reflection, although the link is not directly reflected by
the interpreter, and its rise can be regarded as a revelation, a discovery, as
an explication of the real link by the rise of a contiguity association.
Rule 9. "The rule of the
change of an imprint into an active area of an associative chain". A
complex imprint, consisting of independent imprints of separate original
patterns and contiguity associations between them is essentially a
multi-component pattern and the rule of the rise of an intential imprint is
applicable to this pattern, as it is to any pattern. This means that the
appearance of only one of the components of the multi-component original
pattern can prove to be sufficient for this complex pattern to be stimulated.
For example, it can be enough that the active part of just one of the objects
forming the original pattern leaves a direct imprint on the interpretor for
the whole multi-component pattern to be stimulated in the shape of an
associative chain of the objects' patterns. In this case such a direct imprint
will function as the active area of the integrally whole pattern linked
associatively, while the original pattern of this active area will function as
the indicator of the reflected multi-component chain.
In essence we have again come
to a formulation for the occurrence of intential advance reflection on the
basis of a direct reflection of an indicator, but it (the formulation)
contains notions already detailed concerning those reflection mechanisms which
must precede the onset of a restructuring of the interpretor's deformations
after which the interpreter is capable of anticipating the appearance of a
combination of interlinked objects (or parts of an object) on the basis of the
appearance of only one of these objects (or one of the many parts of an
object).
The formation Itself of a
multi-component pattern consisting of components associated by contiguity can
be effected on the basis of the reflection rules, link explication, or a
sequence by contiguity association.
Let us note what has been
stated in symbols, taking the case of the pattern which consists of two
associated components:
(!!1-k(X" -
xy - Y");(П1 Н K LC)) - (!! X" - ! xy -! Y").
Rule 10. "The rule of
the transformation of the active area of the imprint to the active area of the
associated chain". This rule is a direct consequence of the rule of the
growth of intential anticipation (Rule 5): for the imprint X" to appear
after a definite number П2 of such appearances, the active part x1
of the original pattern X of imprint X" as an indicator of original
pattern X" can be sufficient.
The Rules of Resonsances and
Preferences.
First to be examined in these
rules are resemblance associations.
Rule 11. "The Rule of
resonance stimulation as a part of a partially stimulated imprint". What
is meant here is that a certain pattern X"1 is associated by
contiguity with pattern X"2, but the degree of association is
such that the stimulations of pattern X"1 do not lead to the
stimulation of imprint X"2, but they do however
"partially stimulate" it, that is, they increase its sensitivity to
stimulation; moreover the pattern X"2 is such that its
original pattern has a resemblance foundation x0 with the original
pattern X3, i.e. X2 - X3 - x0 , so that
x"0 Н
X"2. The rule asserts that if
X"2 is not yet stimulated, but is partially stimulated under
the influence of association with the stimulated pattern X"1 ,
then the appearance of original pattern X3 and consequently of
imprint X"3 , can stimulate imprint X"3 , can
stimulate imprint X"2 , but not the whole of it, only part
x"0 , resonating with the stimulated imprint X"3.
Rule 12. "The Rule of
the degree of the average of a resonance intential imprint". In this
case, unlike the foregoing case, the presence of several imprints (X"3
,X"4, X"5, ...), interacting reasonably with
the imprint X"2 which has moreover a contiguity with the
imprint X"1 , is presupposed. It is maintained that after the
threshold number of repeats of such acts the intential imprint X"2 of
the original pattern X2 will under these conditions also correspond
not to the imprint X"2 , but only to the coinciding part
x"0 of the imprints associated by resemblance, i.e. x"0
= X"3 . X"4
. X"5 ..... where
the "point" is a conjunction sign and the "plus" is a sign
of disjunction showing that if even just one of the resonating imprints
appears it would lead to the stimulation of part x"0 of
imprint X"1 representing the averaging of what is common to
all imprints which are associated on the basis of their preceding resonance
interactions with the imprint X"2 by resemblance.
Rule 13. "The Rule of
the transformation of a regular resemblance association into a contiguity
association". Let pattern X" of original pattern X as a part of
object A be linked with pattern Y" of original pattern Y as a part of
object B by a resemblance association resulting from the fact that X" .
Y" = a. This means that X" - aa - Y" takes place, so that !
X" - ! aa - ! Y".
Let us accept also that this
chain of associative stimulations of resembling patterns is effected with
regularity.
If one puts aside the nature
of the association, one can affirm that ! .. X" - ! .. Y", i.e.
following the stimulation of imprint X" there occurs the repeated
stimulation of imprint Y". But if this is so, then on the basis of Rule 7
there must arise in the body of the interpretor after a certain threshold
quantity, П3 , of the stimulation pairs under examination, X"
and Y", a "direct bridge", a contiguity association:
((! 1-k (X"
- aa - Y"); (! 1-k X" - ! 1-k Y"));
(П3 Н
k)) - (X" - xy - Y")
After the change in the type
of association takes place, the presence or absence of a coinciding general
part in the imprints will prove to be non-essential and the degree of
"usualness" of the association increases.
Rule 14. "The rule of
the change of the intermediary pattern to a formal abstraction". This
rule is supported by the previous ones and reflects the particular features of
the specific situation when any imprint C" changes into an intermediary
pattern in the resemblance associations chain. It is intermediary in that it
has a resemblance foundation in its property X" with a certain pattern
B", and with imprints E" - of which there is a large number -it has
a resemblance foundation in its property Y", which is present in each of
the imprints E"; as a result of this the intermediate position of imprint
C" is possible in such associative chains:
!! E"1 - !!
yy - ! C" - ! xx - i B".
If the number of imprints
E" is large (E"1 E"2 ...,E"e+1...)
then, according to Rule 13, the usual association xx will change to the usual
association cb which will not occur with association yy, since, with the
appearance of each new type E, it can only develop again from the very
beginning; this is because imprints of type E" appear in various places
in the memory of the interpretor.
But further, if the
occasional imprints E" continue to appear, but the absence or presence of
the coinciding common part in imprint C and patter B", is. according to
Rule 13, non-essential, then the future transformation of imprint C" into
a usual intential pattern will occur only under the influence of its
resemblance association with imprints E" (each of which has part Y")
and in imprint C" only its part Y" will be stimulated resonantly:
this part, after the threshold number of stimulations according to Rule 3,
will change into the intential pattern Y".
In such a way, instead of the
intermediary imprint C" the intermediary Y" will form, containing
only those features which are general and typical far all the imprints E"
which have been associated with the intermediary imprint C" by
contiguity. Such an averaged representative of the combination of type E
imprints which have appeared and have the power to appear fully accords with
the generally accepted nations of the formal abstract pattern of these
imprints E" if we understand an abstraction in the way that Locke or Kant
understood it.
We should add as well that
according to Rule 3 in order to stimulate the abstract pattern Y", in due
course it will be sufficient to stimulate its active part y"0
so that the objects E can influence the interpretor only by their indicator y0.
Rule 15. "The rule of
the power of first associations". This rule is related to concepts of the
power of association of patterns, in a wide sense. For example, if one
association, having occured, is preserved without stimulation longer than
another, then the former shall be considered to be the stronger. If two
patterns have an equal degree of resemblance with a third, but one of them,
when the third is stimulated, should be stimulated resonantly before the
second, then the resemblance association between the first and third will be
considered stranger than the association between the second and third pattern.
The same is the case when there is a contiguity association of two patterns
with a third.
Taking this into account we
can formulate the rule of the power of first associations in this way: if a
certain pattern first of all entered an association with pattern A, then with
pattern B then with pattern C, each successive association is weaker than the
preceding one, i.e. it has less power at the moment of association and an
increasing rate of further weakening; first associations have accordingly a
greater power in comparison with succeeding ones.
This does not signify of
course that a succeeding association can never prove to be stronger than a
preceding one. So, for example, if the interval between the first and second
association is very great, the first one can, in spite of the rule of the
power of first associations, fade so much that although the second one can be
weaker at the moment of occurrence than the first one was at the moment of
occurrence, at the moment of the occurrence of the second association the
first association can nevertheless prove to be weaker. However it can be seen
from this example that in spite of its non-absolute nature, the rule of the
power of first associations can be broken only in rate and very specific
circumstances.
It is hardly necessary to
notate this rule in symbols in a general manner, but when specific association
mechanisms are being analysed this rule can illuminate a number of features in
reflection processes; naturally, though, like other rules it has no formally
proved basis, but if fallows as a probable hypothesis from our general ideas
concerning the connection of reflection mechanisms with universal adaptation
mechanisms.
Rule 16. "The rule of
the preferability of izaesthetic resemblance associations". If there is a
certain intential imprint kX" in the interpretor,
corresponding to the appearance of the original pattern in its reception zone,
then the occurrence of new imprints 1 - (k + n) y" 1(k+n),
which have a similarity foundation, is identical with the first, leads to a
resemblance association of the first with only those new imprints towards
which it (the intential imprint kX") is izaesthetic.
Here the patterns which have
become associated can also be non-izogenic.
Rule 17. "The rule of
the power of concasional associations". In-so-far as occasional izogenic
imprints reflect a certain integrally whole event, for example the process of
the reflected object crossing through all zones of the interpretor's
reception field, they are, according to the definition arrived at previously,
"partners in the event" and accordingly concasional. But if we
examine the whole sum total of concasional imprints, i.e. imprints which
reflect the components and processes of a certain integrally whole event, then
the transfocal sequence of izogenic imprints of the reflected object must be
enriched by the total (combination) of imprints of the change of the
interpretor's states during the formation of the transfocal izogenic multizone
imprint of the external object.
"The rule of the power
of concasional associations" postulates that in spite of the
heterogeneity of such imprints relating to both original patterns and
receptors interacting with original patterns, the fact of the concasionality,
or of the participation with a single general event, makes them further
associated and interlinked, so that, other things being equal, two solitary or
transfocal imprints which are concasional will enter an association with
greater ease than will non-concasional ones.
Since a single event
reflected as a combination of concasional imprints can have certain phases in
its development in time, this rule also asserts that the power of the link of
concasional imprints increases in those cases where, although they belong to
various transfocal sequences (e.g. one can belong to a transfocal imprint of a
reflected object, while another to a transfocal
imprint of a change of corresponding internal conditions), they correspond to
one and the same time interval of occurrence uniting their events, i.e. if
they come into the same zone of synchronisation.
A priori identification and
the formation a posteriori gestalt.
As we have seen, if the interpretor is a system adapted at a junction of the
meta-meta-system in which the local conditions are significantly modified,
then in order to increase its functioning efficiency such an interpretor must
be capable of identifying fairly varied objects, currents and their
properties. In this connection identification efficiency will become evident
in the interpretor. Among the external conditions can be included the
development of an increased sensitivity towards certain elementary properties
of the external environment which are most significant for functioning, while
among the internal ones can be included the development of both the internal
state receptors, and the means of forming the most significant and invariable
patterns of link structure between these elementary properties (external
objects and internal states). Those patterns which are inherited by evolution
can be called a priori gestalts, for example a priori gestalts of the most
typical properties of external objects requiring absolute identification.
We shall now try, by using
the reflection rules set out above, to show just some general outlines of the
formation of a posteriori gestalts, i.e. those internal standards of
link structures of elementary properties and their complexes through which are
identified and classified patterns of objects which the interpretor interacts
within the external environment, and also the change patterns of internal
states during such interactions, through the building up of their individual
experience. A priori gestalts, the presence of receptors and also modes of
behaviour which have been created in order to carry out certain functions must
be regarded as a necessary condition for the perfection of the interpretor's
reflection capabilities.
Let us first examine certain
aspects of the process of identifying external objects.
We naturally assume that in
the final analysis any act of identification must be completed by the
stimulation of the a priori gestalt under the influence of the rise of the
imprints of the identified object.
Let us start with the case
where a certain object, Ac , representing an occasional example of
the variety c of type A objects, has appeared in the interpretor's reception
field, and a corresponding occasional transfocal imprint of this object Ac
(passing through all the zones of the reception field) has been printed in the
interpretor's memory. Let it be the case here that the interpreter has an a
priori gestalt for type A objects, which has been developed on the basis of
the discovery of the properties, x, of these objects, received in the
interpretor's evolution process by its receptors k, when type A objects were
passing across zone k of the reception field. This means that such an a priori
gestalt must be indicated in our system of symbols by okX".
The appearance of the
occasional object A in the interpretor's reception field and its passing
through successive zones of the reception field, for example, from the most distant,
the most far away from the interpretor's location or situation, to the zone
with the most contact, requiring the physical interaction of the interpretor
with the object, and also the appearance of a corresponding transfocal
occasional multizone imprint of this object Ac , can be indicated
in the formula !!(k+1)-1Ac - !!(k+1)-1X"c
, where the indices (k + 1)-1 shows the order of sequence of the
reception zones (k + 1), k, k-1, k-2, ---3, 2, 1.
There is clearly, among all
the successive imprints of a full occasional transfocal imprint, one imprint kX"c,
which is izaesthetic with regard to the a priori gestalt and is at the same
time similar to it, since object A is an example of a type A object, and
through the interaction with type A objects an a priori gestalt 0kX"
(which is usual in respect of experience of the type) has been formed. we
obtain therefore, according to Rule 16, (!!(k+!)-1Ac -
!!(k+1)-1X"c) - (!!kX"c
- !!xx - !0kX").
Thus this whole chain of
events leads to the stimulation of the a priori gestalt 0kX"
and the occasional Ac will be identified by the interpreter as the
representative of type A objects, in spite of the fact that in individual
experience i.e. "subjectively", the interpreter has not yet
interacted with objects of this type.
Clearly, in what we observed
earlier about the recognition of the silhouettes of birds by chickens which
have just hatched, and also about a newly-born child drinking its mother's
milk but spitting out salty water we have something analogous.
Let us continue our
examination of an example of a priori identification of an object functionally
important for the interpreter.
According to Rule 15, the
first stimulation of the a priori gestalt through an association with imprint kX"c
increases its sensitivity to stimulation as a consequence of new
analogous associations, while contiguity associations between zonal,
non-izaesthetic imprints of a transfocal imprint also have a predisposition to
being easily stimulated again. Consequently, if a new occasional example of X
type A objects, e.g. Ae, comes into the interpretor's reception
zone, so that as a result of this there appears an occasional transfocal
imprint !!(k+1)-1X"e, then object Ae
will also be Identified as a representative of type A objects on the basis of
the interactions examined.
However, apart from this, new
processes will develop.
After the a priori okX"
gestalt has been stimulated, the izaesthetic zone imprint of the first
transfocal imprint which is strongly associated with it will be partially
stimulated, and its remaining imprints under the influence of a contiguity
association will also be partially stimulated, to some extent we can assume
the probability that generally the degree of similarity of those imprints of
the first and second transfocal imprint (the degree of similarity between kX"c
and kX"e), which are izaesthetic to the
priori gestalt, is higher than between other izaesthetic zone imprints of
transfocal imprints. For example, the degree of similarity in the taste of two
portions of milk is most often higher than the degree of similarity in the
appearance or look of these portions. Therefore, according to the rule of
resonance stimulation of a part of an additionally stimulated imprint (Rule
11), that part of it which is common between kX"c
and kX"e will be stimulated resonantly (or
partially stimulated some more) in the first izaesthetic imprint.
In principal it will prove to
be fairly close to an a priori gestalt, but it will be in fact somewhat more
detailed since the interpreter interacts with specific representatives of type
A objects and even perhaps with the representatives of a certain sub-type,
whereas an a priori gestalt contains only the most general features of all
type A sub-types, i.e. it is more abstract.
Of course the imprint kX"e
(after the identification of object Ae) also maintains a
predisposition to a resemblance association with an a priori gestalt. But
according to Rule 15 (the power of first associations) this association, being
a second one, will usually prove to be weaker than the association of imprint
X" after identification of object Ac. Moreover this
distinction must also become greater because the imprint kX"c
was partially stimulated some more by contiguity and resemblance associations,
which imprint kX"e has not yet
"experienced".
The appearance of yet another
occasional representative of type A objects, e.g. Ap object in the
interpreter's reception zones leads not only to the occurrence of a new
transfocal imprint (k+1)-1Xp and to the identification
of object A owing to the stimulation of the a priori gestalt
okX".
This new identification will partially stimulate the izaesthetic imprints kXs"
and kXs" and will partially stimulate, resonantly,
the foundation of the resemblance relationship with kX".
However the degree of such a partial stimulation in kX"s
will be, according to Rule 15, not only higher than in imprint kX"s,
but will differ from it even more strongly in intensity and will fade more
slowly.
In other words after a
certain number of occasional identifications in imprint kX"v
an intential usual stimulated imprint will form, according to Rule 12, i.e. kx"v,
since it will form only under the influence of those features in izaesthetic
Imprints of other identified objects of the given type A, which are common,
and the most frequent for them. For example, these may only be the features kX".
But this means that such an averaged, generalised pattern kX"
will represent particular features of that sub-type of type A objects
which the interpretor was concerned with in practice, i.e., the interpretor
develops an experienced a post-terior gestalt of the zonel pattern of
reception zone k.
The General scheme for
accumulating experience in the identification and search
for necessary objects.
Let us now remember that
occasional transfocal imprints of an object being identified are only a part
of the combined total of concasional Imprints. A second group, important for
the functioning of the adaptive system, is represented by imprints which
reflect the concasional, internal functional states of this system,
which are synchronic with each zonal imprint of the (integrally) whole
transfocal Imprint of the external object being identified. Since we have
examined cases of successful identification, this means that the internal
functional states of the identifying object were sufficiently
"correct", i.e. they ensured a result would be forthcoming.
We can name the total change
of functional states, which are included in the event under examination and
are therefore also concasional components of the accomplished act of
identification, the occasional behaviour trajectory of an identifying
interpreter; and we can call the imprints of the reflection of the change of
these states the occasional transfocal imprint of resultative behaviour
with their phases which are synchronic with certain zones of the transfocal
imprint of the object undergoing identification. Moreover, there is also a
third area of concasional imprints, the most passive one, also sometimes
requiring attention; the imprints of the circumstances and conditions
(external and internal) accompaying the occurrence of identification
processes.
According to the rule of the
power of concasional associations (Rule 17) the repeated a priori
identification of occasional examples of a type Ac object must
enable the creation of a usual a priori gestalt kX", and also
a generalised gestalt of resultative behaviour, synchronic with zone k, as the
final part of the full trajectory of concasional behaviour. We shall designate
this new gestalt kД". Bearing this fact in mind we can now
examine not only the process of Identifying the object which has entered the
interpreter's reception field, but also the active seeking of such an
object if first of all it is not in the reception field.
The repeated consecutive
stimulation of an a priori and a posteriori gestalt as usual patterns of type
A objects, leads, according to Rule 13, to the resemblance association between
them changing to a contiguity association: okX" -xx-kX".
Let us now imagine that the
interpreter's internal state has changed so that a need has arisen for contact
with a type A object. This internal link of the state with a corresponding
object can be fixed also a priori as a contgulty association between the
pattern of the state of the requirement and the pattern of the a priori
gestalt, e.g. 0kX". The appearance of the requirement leads in
this case to the stimulation of gestalt okX", and from it the
gestalt
kX".
In the most typical case the
type A object which is being sought is absent from the interpreter's reception
zone k at the moment of the rise of such a requirement and therefore the
occasional current imprint of what the receptors k are receiving will be
different from the usual a posteriori gestalt kX". But then a
neighbouring, more distant imprint k —1 X", can be stimulated in the
interpretor, in connection with the presence of contiguity associations
between the zonal imprints of a transfocal imprint of preceding
identifications. However, if it too does not prove to be similar to the
occasional pattern of the reception zone (k - 1), this interzonal change can
occur right up to the time when in a certain imprint from among increasingly
distant zone occasional imprints, e.g. in zone (k + c), a resemblance with a
corresponding zonal imprint of a transfocal chain of imprints, e.g. !(k + c)
X" - !!xx - (k+c)X"o, is revealed. So from the
usual pattern of the object being sought in reception zone k, for example
through its olfactory and tactile pattern, it is possible to reach a more
distant one, for example an optic imprint; and, having compared the imprint
there with the optic occasional imprint of the surrounding situation, one can
discover something similar to the object being sought in the optic reception
zone. But a further check has to be made that this is indeed a type A object
which is being sought, and for this interaction is necessary with this object
by means of less distant, more contacting receptors.
Such a check represents a
more complex type of purposeful interaction between the interpreter and an
external object than a priori identification; however there are grounds for it
to be effected in the scheme under examination.
The experience gained in
identifying type A objects is also shown in the fact that in each reception
zone there are fixed, albeit concaslonal, synchronic, imprints of those
restructurings of the interpreter's internal states which led earlier to the
Identification of these objects, i.e. the imprints of occasional resultative
behaviour in the corresponding receptive zone, and also associations of the
changes scheme the scheme of behaviour change of these behaviours, given the move
from distant zones to more contacting ones. In particular this resultative
behaviour can be simply expressed in the interpretor's approach towards the
discovered object, and when such an approach begins really to occur, a new
occasional sequence of imprints of the object under observation in the
synchronic reception zones will correspond to the sequence of behaviours: (k+c)Д"-(k+c-1)Д"-...-(k-1)Д"
- kД".
And if at each step the
occasional zonal imprints, (k+c)X" - (k+c-1)X"
- ...(k-1)X"o, will more and more resemble izaesthetic
imprints of preceding Identifications of type A objects, the, even when the
object comes into the reception zone k, judgement as to whether object A has
been correctly identified will be extremely good.
The contrary will also be
accordingly true: if at each next step the degree of resemblance of current
occasional zonal imprints of the observed object falls, then such an object will be identified as one not of type A, nor as one corresponding in its
qualities to the object being sought, and then in the most distant reception
zones there will be a requirement for another object, more or less
"similar from a distance", to be sought. All this leads us to the
fact that the number of unsuccessful cases of taking the identification
process up to an a posteriori, or a priori gestalt is reduced, and in the a
posteriori gestalt both of the objects being sought and of the resultative
behaviour, those features of the external objects and behaviour modes from the
interaction between them (which are the most significant from the functional
point of view and objectively invariable) will be fixed.
If identification took place
under several types of conditions, then among successful identifications of
type A objects, imprints will be fixed of only those of them in which changes
in conditions are compensated by certain changes of behaviour which ensure the
preservation of its "resultiveness". Accordingly there can
correspond to each zonal imprint of the Identified object which is in the
process of being formed not just one but several variants of resultative behaviour, which reflect standard variants of the external conditions of
identification. If in a certain specific act of identification the particular
nature of the conditions is not caught, then with the unsuccessful usage of
one variant of behaviour the interpreter can test another, because in such
circumstances only little sorting out is necessary.
However, according to the
accumulation of experience and the formation of variants of zonal patterns of
resultative behaviour, associations of the variants of the results of
behaviour (in one and the same behaviour variant), occurring as a result of
the non-identity of conditions, must accumulate. In this case any approach of
a non-resultative variant, not corresponding to the one for whose sake the
action has been undertaken, is itself able to serve not only as a pointer to a
change in external conditions but also as an indirect means of identifying
these very objects. The conditions can also include the interpreter's specific
internal states.
So the accumulation of
experience must lead to the development of a network of usual transfocal
patterns and occasional transfocal imprints of external objects, the means of
their identification, the conditions (internal and external) which determine
the choice of a particular variant of resultative behaviour in each reception
zone, or of a particular variant when a behaviour variant is selected where
all these transfocal patterns corresponding to a turnabout in time (i.e.
diachronic pattern) are mutually associated zonally, in (small) synchronic
areas. In the most frequently stimulated links of this cross-network of
associations, assessment of the variant becomes more accurate owing to an
increase in the depth of the advance reflection, when, according to Rules 2-4,
an active small area of the intential pattern takes shape, so that all that is
required to stimulate this pattern is just the appearance of an indicator of
the original pattern. The pattern Itself, according to Rule 5, fixes in the
intential imprint only the most usually significant features of both external
objects and modes of behaviour during interaction with them. That a chain of
imprints belongs to one external object or to one process of turn-about
behaviour is fixed in the form of contiguity associations, according to Rules
5,6 and 7. Here it is not even the direct links, observed earlier, between the
original patterns of forming imprints (see Rule 6) which may be revealed, but
the consequences of the events whose patterns are associated in this way can
be forecast owing to the transformation of one of the links of the imprint,
and then just of its small active area into an active area of the chain (Rules
9 and 10). The mechanisms of resonance stimulation of part of the partially
stimulated imprint (Rules 11, 14 and 15 ) lead, as we have already seen, to
the rise of an a posteriori gestalt as a first link of a transfocal pattern on
the basis of an a priori geatalt.
After this the a posteriori
gestalt of reception zone k itself becomes, according to Rule 11, a basis for
farming an a posteriori gestalt of a more distant reception zone (k + 1) as a
recurrent link of a transfocal pattern, where all these a posteriori gestalts
are, according to Rule 12, bearers of usually significant features of original
patterns, owing to the averaged nature of resonance intential patterns.
The rate of the spread of the
stimulations from the a priori gestalt to the first link of the transfocal
pattern and from it to the a priori gestalt increases owing to the growth of
intential anticipation (Rule 4), the transformation of a resemblance
relationship into a contiguity association (Rule 13), and also the creation of
formally abstract patterns (Rule 14). And all these processes prove to be
correlated in zones and phases, and linked according to synchronic
"sections" (see the rule of the power of concasional associations:
Rule 17).
Let us conclude with some
statements of a famous contemporary specialist in the field of nerve activity.
Professor P. Simonov; the author became acquainted with these statements after
the ideas expounded above on the existence and the role of inborn, a priori
gestalts, and the rise mechanisms of a posteriori festalts had been written.
Although the terminolgy used by us is not identical to Professor Simonov's,
the agreement in the content behind the terminology is so obvious that no
comments are required.
Here is how the idea of the
existence of two types of gestalts is formulated. "In the brain. Imprints
(models) are preserved of those signals which can direct a search towards
vitally necessary objects. One of these imprints is set into the brain from
birth - for example, the model of small resulting from the nipple of the
mother-cat. Other imprints are acquired in the process of personal
experience, by means of the (creation) of conditional reflexes. It ought not
to be forgotten however that all these external signals will start to direct
behaviour only when a need or requirement which has developed provokes a
search for a means to satisfy it, and makes devices for perceiving the
external world sensitive to the action of these particular stimuli, and
not of others".
Here is an illustration of
the position when first of all the a priori gestalt enables a certain concrete
occasional object to be identified as a representative of type A objects, and
then, according to the rule of the power of first associations and the rule of
the power of concasional associations, an a posteriori gestalt is created, and
also an ability an already concrete sub-type, of type A objects.
"In its search for food
a new born kitten finds one of the nipples for the first time. when it gets
hungry again it crawls to the nipple it knows rather than just any".
Formalo-Logical Abstractions and Essence Abstractions as forms
of Reflection.
The properties of a
generalised pattern and the formalo-logical abstraction.
We have examined several ways
usual generalised Intential patterns rise from the interaction of occasional
imprints of a certain type E", which are notable for the fact that an
indicator Y" which is common for all imprints is manifested in them in
sufficiently stable manner, and as a result of this the usual generalised
pattern itself is transformed into the embodiment of this indicator Y",
i.e. into the pattern Y", which is able to enter into a resemblance
relationship with any occasional imprint or usual type E pattern. !! E"k
- !!yy - !!Y".
Here we noted, when
discussing Rule 14, that a generalised pattern is something close to what is
called a formalo-logical abstraction. We now have to examine this question in
more detail beginning with an account of the properties of generalised
patterns.
First, let us repeat that the
generalised pattern Y" is a representative of those common features
present in any type E" imprints and patterns, and it is precisely in this
sense that it serves as a generalised pattern of representatives of
this type.
Second, the pattern Y"
contains practically no individual properties characteristic of it alone,
whereas any of the type E" patterns represented by the generalised
patterns Y", has, apart from the property Y which is contained in any
other patterns of this type, certain irrepeatable individual properties.
Third, although the
generalised pattern Y" is in origin a specific occasional Imprint of a
specific original pattern -an occasional object of the external environment -
after there are no properties left, apart from the properties Y which are
common for all representatives of type E Imprints in the process of fixing
some features and losing others in the specific imprint, no original pattern
in the external environment will correspond any longer to the generalised
pattern Y".
Fourth, although the
generalised pattern Y" has no direct correspondence with any original
pattern, it cannot, nevertheless, be included among the number of patterns
which are arbitrary in respect of the external environment, and are not
motivated by the external environment; this is because the property Y, which
is the only one for the generalised pattern Y", by
reflecting one of the properties characteristic of type E imprints and type E
patterns, can reflect indirectly both certain properties of the original
patterns of the patterns E", and also, accordingly, properties revealed
in objects of the external environment.
Fifth, insofar as the
generalised pattern Y" is a pattern, then it completely preserves, as an object
of the interpretar's internal environment, its ability to enter
associations, to be stimulated and to be extinguished, and to become an
example of a certain class of pattern combined by the presence of a common
property, and consequently to be a specific representative of the class of
patterns embodied by a generalised pattern of an even higher level. The
generalised pattern can also be characterised by such indicators as
similarity, izogeneity, "izaestheticness", usuallty, occasionality
etc.
Sixth, after the generalised
pattern Y" has formed, the composition of specific examples of type
E" imprints, embodied in a generalised pattern can be enlarged, decreased
etc. But before any of these specific imprints and patterns preserves the
property Y, the pattern Y" will join in a resemblance association with
any of the type E" imprints and patterns, and the generalised pattern
Y" will consequently remain for any of these specific patterns E"k
an
intermediary
for linking the pattern E"k (which had existed earlier or has
just appeared) with that third link of the associative chain with which the
generalised pattern Y" is linked by a contiguity association (e.g. for a
link of any E"k with B" in our scheme).
Seventh, the generalised
pattern Y" can always be formed, as we can see from Rule 14, in an
associations network, in any group of patterns, if a need arises for an
intermediary between a certain particular pattern of this group and a class of
its remaining patterns.
Whatever regular types of the
interpreter's interaction with the external environment are effected, this
will ultimately lead to the rise of associations in which generalised patterns
are used as intermediaries. And since various types of interaction between the
interpreter and the environment will lead to the formation of specific
associations' networks, then a characteristic set of generalised patterns will
be peculiar to each type of interaction.
The generalised pattern of
the type under examination can apparently be interpreted with sufficient
grounds as an abstraction in its formalo-logical meaning. It is easy to
accept for example, that, as for an abstraction, one can justifiably
postulate, for a generalised pattern, an inverse correlation between content
and volume.
If the content of a
generalised pattern is a sequence of properties, represented by this pattern,
then the more generalised the pattern, the smaller the number of features it
represents, and this means the poorer its content is. But such improverishment
leads to an increase of the generalised pattern's ability to join in a
resemblance association with an ever larger circle of specific Imprints and
patterns, and to consequently take the role of "embodier" of the
class of those specific patterns with which it enters an association, for
mediation in acts of interaction with the environment. But this is nothing
other than an increase in the volume of the given generalised patterns.
As has already been noted,
this notion concerning the formation mechanism of an abstraction, when it is a
matter of patterns in the human psyche, goes back at least to Locke and Kant,
while Spenser and others understood an abstraction only in these terms.
We have still to examine the
question of whether this is the only possible type of abstraction. For the
present we will note that the process of creating abstractions as generalised
patterns is in principle feasible in digital automated machines and even more
so in the psyche of living systems.
The Nature of the pattern of
Essence. The process of anticipation is based, as we have already established,
on the stimulation of a secondary, indirect imprint under the influence of the
appearance of a primary, direct Imprint, which has arisen as the imposition of
the properties of the reflected object's active part on the interpretor. To
whatever extent this secondary imprint is indeed anticipatory of either the
reflected object's properties not yet revealed in direct interaction, or its
states whose onset or development has not yet occurred, we can consider that
the reflecting object explicates these properties or states and makes
them evident for the interpretor.
But this process of
explication would not be possible, even if all the interpreter's anticipatory
properties were available, if the primary imprint's properties did not contain
some type or other of physically necessary linkage with the explicated
properties of the reflected object, we can speak in this sense of the primary
imprint providing, though in concealed form, conditions far revealing (through
its mediation) new explicated properties, and consequently these properties
are already represented in the primary Imprint - though only implicity.
Therefore anticipation can be understood as a process of indirect explication
of properties which are contained implicity in a direct imprint and to
whatever extent the primary Imprint bears the reflected object's properties,
the explicated properties are the anticipation of the properties of this
reflected object.
If in the interpreter
intential, usual patterns and usual associations between them are farmed, then
the process of explicating the reflected object's properties occurs very
effectively and quickly - but only in the case when these objects and the
relationships between them are regular and fixed by usage, goals, and the
interpreter's behaviour.
Now, to fill out the picture,
we must consider the question of what the identification mechanisms of an
object or a situation are, if there are no stored-up usual patterns of
indicators and integrally whole patterns, nor any previously established
associations between these patterns. In other words we must understand what
the main distinction between identification and recognition is, i.e. the
distinction between prognosing the continuation of a situation which has
already been met and prognosing the continuation of a unique, unknown
situation which has not been observed earlier, and of which an analysis is
nevertheless Important for the interpreter's functioning.
As we established previously,
anticipation, not very effective in depth, but nevertheless universal, is
possible in such circumstances. For this it is essential that the physical
nature of the interpreter's material be correlated with the nature of the
original so that stimulation of the primary imprint, similar to the
stimulation of the Indicator's pattern, provides an Impetus towards the
realisation of the potentials of the interpretor's material elements, and
towards interaction according to the laws of causality, and leads to a new scheme of
associations between these elements, which is potentially present in the
reflected object, but remains unexplicated in it. But this capacity for
universal anticipation must be strengthened if anticipation makes use of not
only the material but also the interpreter's individual experience.
It is obvious here that the
characteristics of not only the active part of the reflected object as the
cause of the rise of explicated properties, but also the obligatory conditions
for the presence of these properties in the reflected object must be reflected
in the interpretor with sufficient accuracy.
As has been shown, the degree
of an object's independence is determined above all by the degree of
"formedness" of its being or essence; the essence indeed represents
that internal structured skeleton of the object which sets the types, the
intensities, and the scheme of sources and accumulators of the substance of
the interaction currents between the object's elements, and between object and
other objects in the meta-system. In this sense an object's essence has been
earlier defined as the internal cause of its properties.
However, insofar as these
properties become apparent in Interactions, then the visibility of the object,
not as an essence, but as a phenomenon, does not remain constant,
because the unity of the cause still doesn't guarantee the unity of the effect
if the conditions for the occurrence of cause and effect processes vary.
The mechanism we examined for
creating generalised patterns related to the revelation of invariable features
of objects only as phenomena, and not as essences. If the interpretor, however, has to
forecast an object's states in various unique conditions, then the generalised
patterns of this variety are only useful for Identifying certain components of
a reflected situation, and not for establishing new effects from new
conditions. The appearance of effects can be achieved only if there are in the
interpretor generalised patterns not only of phenomena but also of essences.
Is such a reflection
possible? Apparently, it is. If the experience of an interpretor (a being or
an automated machine) is so rich that the patterns of many types of
cause-effect interactions, appearing as components or more complex
cause-effect links, have already found a reflection in it, and if also
transfocal imprints and patterns of not only external objects but also
resultative behaviours have farmed in it, then a sufficiently large set of
such components is capable of forecasting the characteristics of these more
complex links. In particular, the reflection of effects and conditions can be
such that the pattern of a cause will develop in the interpretor even
when it is not given in a direct manifestation.
Accordingly the pattern of
the internal cause of an object's properties can thus develop, i.e. a pattern
of its essence, in spite of the fact that in external reality it finds only a
many-sided indirect manifestation in the form of observable properties of this
object, varying considerably from the conditions.
If the pattern of an essence
has formed to some particular extent, then the interaction of the essence's
pattern with the pattern of the condition can anticipate, or foresee, how the
object will be seen with a given essence in the most varied circumstances. In
this case the change or transfer from the pattern of the object's condition
and the pattern of its essence to the pattern of its external (future)
prospective manifestation is not founded on contiguity or resemblance
associations but on the physical interactions of the two Initial patterns
leading to the rise of the foreseen pattern as an effect of this interaction.
The Distinction of Essence Abstractions from Formalogical Abstractions.
Naturally the generalised
pattern of the internal cause of an object's properties, i.e. the generalised
pattern of the essence, must also be related to a group of abstractions, but
this variety of abstractions is distinct in principal from formalogical
abstractions both in its formation mechanism and in its role in cognition
processes.
If formalogical abstractions
serve as the main instrument for the identification of what is already
known, or of what is usually significant, by means of foretelling what has
already been repeatedly observed, then essence abstractions provide the
recognition or the forecasting of that which is unprecedented, of what is
unique and occasional, if not in actual reality then at least for the
interpretor.
There are also other
distinctions of principle between these two types of abstractions. So although
formaloglcal abstractions are generalised, they are patterns of features
evident in the observable extential original patterns, while essence
abstractions, which are also patterns, have as their original pattern that
which is not externally manifested, but which only takes part in the
development of visibility as a cause and remains the driving force of an
intential. Consequently, if in the interpretor's memory a rich set of patterns has accumulated
which have been observed by the interpretor in external reality, then it is
practically impassible to find among them ones which would join in resemblance
associations with essence abstractions. Essence abstractions are abstractions
"which resemble nothing", although by their nature they are also
patterns motivated ultimately by external reality. But this motivation is
indirect: it moves from the concrete patterns of external objects, the
variations of conditions and the resulting Interactions with these objects,
i.e. from all these imprints of external reality as something visible, to
reconstructed patterns of not directly observable, essence characteristics of
these objects.
We must turn our attention to
another Important distinction To the extent that any abstraction is created as
a formalogical unit, its content becomes as we have already seen, watered
down, though its volume Increases.
However, if an essence
abstraction is formed, the more exact it is, the more "extracted" or
drawn it is from a large number of situations, then the more correctly this
abstraction's interactions with the forms of the conditions of the
interpreter's activity are reflected in the interpreter, and the wider the
circle of consequences resulting from a given situation becomes, i.e. the more
detailed and concrete or specific the prognosis is with the help of this
essence abstraction. Otherwise, an essence abstraction contains the embryos of
the whole completeness of the concrete or specific, while a
formalogical abstraction loses, as it forms, an ever increasing number of
details of concrete objects which it embodies, or "personifies".
The imprinting, the
restoration, the reconstruction of cause-effect links in the formation process
of an essence abstraction leads not only to the rise from the combination of
transfocal occasional imprints of the object's appearance, of a usual
generalised transfocal pattern of this object, correlated in each of its
phases with synchronic components of the occasional and usual transfocal
patterns of the resultative behaviour linked with the interpretor's
interactions with the object, and also with the transfocal usual patterns and
occasional imprints of the accompanying external and internal conditions of
this interaction. Also extremely important is the fact that from the
Imprinting of the causes of the link between such transfocal patterns
themselves, which are synchronlcally correlated, patterns of a higher order
begin to develop: the form of an initial meta-system whose functional element
is the reflected object; the pattern of the foundation whose appearance at the
meta-system's junction necessitated the rise of the reflected object; and
finally the pattern (also transfocal in a certain sense) of consecutive phases
in the evolution of this object; although in direct observation only
manifestations of an already constituted reflected object were given.
Consequently, with the
formation of an essence pattern, we are apparently concerned with a type of
recognition where the logic of the recognition process approaches the logic of
the formation of the recognised object. Here the contradictions which occur
with the formation of the object's pattern are contradictions through which
the object passed at a certain stage of its formation, so that if the object
is a deeply adapted system, "the heart or crux of the matter" then its pattern also proves
to be "the heart of the matter" i.e. not a formalogical concept, but
a concept as an effect of the laws of materialist dialectics being
applied to the recognition process. The Leninist proposition on the identity
of dialectics, logic, and recognition theory is evidently true for just such a
method of recognition.
The higher the level of the
essence generalisations examined, the more deeply specific such knowledge
implicitly is, and this deduced specific or concrete knowledge can be
extracted in occasional acts of seeking some or other solution, in spite of
the fact that this solution was not contained in ready usual patterns and
associations. In this case the Marxist concept of moving up from the abstract
to the "concrete" acquires a clear constructive sense.
The
Utilitarian and the Essence, the Formal and the Meaningful
in Abstractions during Formation.
If we recall the contrasting
properties of objects (utilitarian and essential) we can turn our attention to
the following.
In the most real object as in
a system which is sufficiently deeply adapted in a certain meta-system,
properties are divided into essential and non-essential, into those expressing
the essence and the variational manifestations of this essence independently
of in whatever "utilitarian perspective" this object is examined -
for example, in itself, or as material for the construction of a new system.
Consequently the essence of
an object can be utilitarian; so can just a certain facet (projection) of the
essence, as well as the appearance of the essence Indicating sufficiently
certainly the presence of this particular essence, and, finally, the
appearance, repeatedly "intermediated", - able therefore to be the
representative, the effect of a whole series of essences.
In the light of the
mechanisms examined for forming abstractions in the course of the
interpreter's functioning with the a priori gestalts which reflect the fact of
the presence of inborn requirements (or ones introduced by the constructor),
it is clear that the utilitarian characteristics of the patterns of external
objects can turn into two types of independent generalised patterns (i.e.
abstractions). If the external manifestations of objects are utilitarian, then
the generalised pattern must represent a formalogical abstraction, but if the
essence is utilitarian (or even certain facets, aspects, or projections of the
essence) then, insofar as the parameters of the essence are not given in a
direct manifestation, there is a requirement for the formation of an essence
abstraction on the basis of the reflection of cause-effect links between the
essence and the phenonenon. As we have already seen, the movement in this case
must be of an order contrary to the direction of cause-effect processes: from
the pattern of the phenomena as effects to the reconstruction of the pattern
of the essence as the cause.
So there form in the
interpreter utilitarian abstractions, a certain part of which consists of
purely essence abstractions, while another part consists of abstractions
reflecting only the utilitarian facets or aspects of the essences, and
finally, a third part consists of formalogical abstractions as generalised
patterns of phenomena and not essences. We emphasise yet again that although
all types of abstractions are patterns in the sense that they reflect the
structure of parameters inherent in external objects and circumstances, and
also in Internal states and the modes of the interpretor's behaviour, an
evident isomorphism is only inherent in formalogical abstractions as
generalised patterns of those object properties which "lie on the
surface".
If we now recall the concept
introduced previously of the "gnostic sequence" (symbolised in
formulae by a simple arrow) as a sequence of new knowledge from knowledge
already present, it is interesting to dwell on whether, whatever the role of
the specific, occasional pattern and the abstract, usual pattern in gnostic
processes is, there is a correlation between the abstraction being of the
formalogical or essence type and the gnostic role of the abstraction.
Let us name the initial
results of the reflections from which a new reflection is explicated by means
of a gnostic process, for example, a new imprint or pattern is developed, or a
gnostic form. or, more briefly and simply, a form, while the new
reflection (the imprint or form) explicated in such a way can be named the gnostic
content or simply the content. Then the problem set out above can be
reformulated as the problem or correlating gnostic form and gnostic content on
the occasion of the interaction of formalogical and essence imprints and
patterns.
First, it is easy to see that
all the types of abstractions in the interpreter's functioning process we have
examined appear in both roles: form and contents. For example, if the pattern
of an essence or any of its utilitarian facets only arises and develops on the
basis of the occasional or usual manifestations of this essence, then the
movement to the pattern of the essence passes from the formalogical
abstraction to the essence abstraction, and the former appears as a form in
relation to the essence abstraction as the content of this form.
But after essence
abstractions have formed to some extent or other, patterns of the effects,
i.e. patterns of the manifestation of the object's essence, can develop from
the interaction of the object's essence abstraction with essence abstractions
of the environment and of the interpretor's inner states. In this case the
pattern of the manifestation (the phenomenon) is the content, while the
essence patterns are the form. Such an understanding of the anticipation and
forecasting processes observed does not contradict commonly recognised
concepts of the correlation between the content and the volume of
abstractions. Essence abstractions which are capable of begetting a large
number of patterns of their own external manifestation in the
anticipation process, depending on the conditions which the essence enters,
and the states of the interpretor interacting with it, actually have a rich content,
insofar as the manifestations patterns which are generated here relate to the
essence pattern as the content does to its form.
Concrete patterns obtained in
such a way and stored in the memory, i.e. derivative patterns of the
manifestations of reflected essences, like the patterns of direct occasional
manifestations of real objects, can serve as a basis for the formation of new
formalogical abstractions which (with regard to concrete patterns) will appear
during the formation process in the role of the content of these patterns as
their form. And as formalogical abstractions are an essential link in acts of
the creation of essence abstractions, they are a form with regard to essence
abstractions.
And so we see that both
essence and "superficial" formalogical abstractions, and concrete,
non-generalised occasional patterns of both actually received objects and
events, and forecast objects and events are essential and mutually conditioned
elements in the interpretor's memory, the interpreter having functions, and
therefore requirements and sensors, and the mechanisms for the restructuring
of its states so that it can interact with the external environment at a
functional junction.
The Interaction of the Identification and
Recognition Processes.
We are once again convinced
that functioning based on advance reflection and anticipation in general
occurs as two interlinked regimes. One of them takes place above all when
there is a need to satisfy a typical requirement in typical circumstances. It
consists of the identification of the elements of these circumstances and the
forecasting of a typical continuation of a situation according to its typical
beginning. In this process only utilitarian abstractions take part, above all
formalogical ones.
A different regime is
essential in those cases when it is necessary to forecast possible variations
of the continuations of non-typical situations. Although identification
of the non-typicality itself is based on the same procedures of comparing
current occasional patterns of situations with generalised formalogical ones
there is a further prognosis of what has not been encountered earlier, and
therefore essence abstractions can serve as a basic Instrument for
forecasting. If, when various specific problems are being solved, not all the
necessary essence abstractions are evident among the utilitarian ones, a new
requirement arises: the requirement for creating
essence abstractions in themselves, outside any utilitarian prognosis, far the
sake of "pure recognition".
Of course in this case too an
aspect of utility is preserved: the ability to orientate in as wide a circle
as possible of non-typical situations and to be capable of forecasting their
continuation is extremely useful. But such utility requires complete and
objective ideas concerning both the manifestations and the essence of external
objects and environment, and also concerning the internal states and modes of
behaviour of the interpretor itself. Consequently, the abstractions here
created must reflect as far as possible not "useful" facets and
projections of the essence of things, but full, undistorted essences, whose
patterns can be developed more exactly, the more projections of the essence
there arc which are already ready. As we have noted, in Hegel's terms this
transfer can be regarded as a transfer from "pure recognition" (or
"pure being" - which is the same) to science proper, to the creation
of categories, to self-recognition through the objectivisation of what already
constitutes the subject's life experience and common sense.
The creating patterns of an
objective essence represents not simply the identification of something, nor
the forecasting or choice farm of the resultative activity in order to satisfy
a concrete requirement, but recognition in its very "purest" aspect,
recognition for the sake of completeness of knowledge both of the external
world and of itself.
So we come to the conclusion
that the identification activity of a being or an automated machine
with a sufficiently complex function in a meta-system is an obligatory
component part of functional behaviour and anticipation in general. With
identification, occasional patterns of objects or situations (interacting
directly with the interpretor through its sensors or recalled in the memory on
the basis of foregoing experience) became the basis of some abstraction or
other, i.e. these patterns are Included in or join an already existing class
as a new example of this class. With proper recognition forming
occurs, the explication of implicit patterns on the basis of ones already
explicated. In other words when Identification occurs new patterns appear as
the form of old content, and with recognition old patterns are the form of new
content.
Of course as soon as new
content arises as a result of recognition, it is capable of appearing in the
role of a new form so that it can be a basis for old content; and vice versa -
as soon as the old content has been stimulated it can become the form for the
revelation of new content. Consequently, cognitive and identifying processes
supplement one another, determine one another, and change into each other. But
nevertheless in a specific situation we can always determine what we are
involved with: with recognition or identification.
In concluding this section
let us note that up to now we have had no need to use the terms
"language", "sign system", i.e. typical semiotic
terms. We have managed so far with concepts of reflection, pattern,
anticipation, and intential imprint. The most "semiotic" ideas among
those introduced are the notions of informing, information, and the indicator.
Nevertheless we have been able to discuss fairly complex questions in
connection with identification processes, the manufacture of abstractions and
the use of them for resultative behaviour modes. Let us note that here we are
concerned with the interpretor's internal states and with its interaction in
the local conditions of the meta-meta-system (the interpretor having been
formed to carry out certain functions in these).
From all that has been said
it can be concluded that within the framework of our conception we must
recognise that while the interpretor functions without Interacting with other
interpretors, proper sign and, even more so, proper linguistic processes
are not essential for it, although its level of reflective capabilities can be
extremely high. It is at the same time clear that the presence of formed
reflection mechanisms allowing the interpreter to identify and seek required
objects, to store the experience of resultative behaviour and deep
anticipation, is, all of it, a necessary precondition and basis for the rise
and development of semiotic and linguistic activity.
