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=====5.1.2.25. The Discursive Universe=====

=====5.1.2.25. The Discursive Universe=====

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,

| colspan="2" | Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

| colspan="2" | O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Wi bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,

| colspan="2" | Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi murdering pattle!

Robert Burns, To a Mouse,

| width="5%"  |   || Wi bickering brattle!

On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough,

November 1785, [CPW, 131]

| colspan="2" | I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,

| width="5%"  |   || Wi murdering pattle!

| colspan="2" align="right" | — Robert Burns, ''To a Mouse, On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough'', [CPW, 131]

This project began with the aim of articulating an aspect of intelligent activity, namely, the inquiry into inquiry that appears to be implied in the very ability to do inquiry, to learn from the impressions of passing experience, and to reason about their indications for future experience.  Inspired by the enunciation of these high aims the work proceeds in a top down fashion, though of course the rubble of previous experience is always there to suggest the orders of material to expect at the bottom.  This mode of investigation, when it works, amounts to a recursive form of conceptual analysis, starting from the barest conception of its aim, seeking the conditions necessary for the possibility of its actualization, trying to determine the functional components that allow it to operate in principle, undertaking to shore up the practical supports that permit it to prosper in reality, and working to alleviate the practical obstacles that impact on its implementation in adverse ways.   

This project began with the aim of articulating an aspect of intelligent activity, namely, the inquiry into inquiry that appears to be implied in the very ability to do inquiry, to learn from the impressions of passing experience, and to reason about their indications for future experience.  Inspired by the enunciation of these high aims the work proceeds in a top down fashion, though of course the rubble of previous experience is always there to suggest the orders of material to expect at the bottom.  This mode of investigation, when it works, amounts to a recursive form of conceptual analysis, starting from the barest conception of its aim, seeking the conditions necessary for the possibility of its actualization, trying to determine the functional components that allow it to operate in principle, undertaking to shore up the practical supports that permit it to prosper in reality, and working to alleviate the practical obstacles that impact on its implementation in adverse ways.   

A particular agent does what appears to be necessary at each moment in a succession of moments in order to achieve a particular aim, and hopes that what appears to be necessary to an agent who follows a given path cannot be totally immaterial to what is actually necessary in general.  The relationship between apparent necessity and actual necessity is the topic of another discussion later in this work, so I leave it till then.  At this point, it only needs to be observed that an apparent necessity constitutes a real force on the agent who observes it, in other words, that it constrains the acts of the agent to whom it appears necessary.  Given the freedom of intellect that comes from the reflective criticism of particular developments, a particular agent's particular inquiries are hopefully conceived in such a way as to work toward necessary truths.

A particular agent does what appears to be necessary at each moment in a succession of moments in order to achieve a particular aim, and hopes that what appears to be necessary to an agent who follows a given path cannot be totally immaterial to what is actually necessary in general.  The relationship between apparent necessity and actual necessity is the topic of another discussion later in this work, so I leave it till then.  At this point, it only needs to be observed that an apparent necessity constitutes a real force on the agent who observes it, in other words, that it constrains the acts of the agent to whom it appears necessary.  Given the freedom of intellect that comes from the reflective criticism of particular developments, a particular agent's particular inquiries are hopefully conceived in such a way as to work toward necessary truths.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

Has broken Nature's social union,