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inquiry, where the questions are posed well enough to have some
inquiry, where the questions are posed well enough to have some
hope of bearing productive answers in a finite time.
hope of bearing productive answers in a finite time.
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</pre>
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=====1.3.5.6. Analogs, Icons, Models, Surrogates=====
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<pre>
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| One should not understand this compulsion to construct concepts, species,
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| forms, purposes, laws ("a world of identical cases") as if they enabled us
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| to fix the real world; but as a compulsion to arrange a world for ourselves
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| in which our existence is made possible: -- we thereby create a world which is
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| calculable, simplified, comprehensible, etc., for us.
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|
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| (Nietzsche, 'The Will to Power', S 521, 282).
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This project makes pivotal use of certain formal models to represent the
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conceived structure in a "phenomenon of interest" (POI). For my purposes,
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the phenomenon of interest is typically a process of interpretation or a
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process of inquiry, two nominal species of process that will turn out to
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evolve from different points of view on the very same form of conduct.
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Commonly, a process of interest presents itself as the trajectory
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that an agent describes through an extended space of configurations.
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The work of conceptualization and formalization is to represent this
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process as a conceptual object in terms of a formal model. Depending
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on the point of view that is taken from moment to moment in this work,
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the "model of interest" (MOI) may be cast as a model of interpretation
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or as a model of inquiry. As might be anticipated, it will turn out
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that both descriptions refer essentially to the same subject, but
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this will take some development to become clear.
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In this work, the basic structure of each MOI is adopted from the
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pragmatic theory of signs and the general account of its operation
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is derived from the pragmatic theory of inquiry. The indispensable
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usefulness of these models hinges on the circumstance that each MOI,
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whether playing its part in interpretation or in inquiry, is always
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a "model" in two important senses of the word. First, it is a model
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in the logical sense that its structure satisfies a formal theory or
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an abstract specification. Second, it is a model in the analogical
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sense that it represents an aspect of the structure that is present
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in another object or domain.
</pre>
</pre>