Changes

This subsection presents a broad overview of the questions raised and the conceptual needs occasioned by the prospects of constructing a RIF.  It makes no attempt to completely cover the topics it identifies and does not try to answer the questions it raises or to fill the needs it notices, but it merely points out a selective sample of the most salient concerns that need to be addressed.

This subsection presents a broad overview of the questions raised and the conceptual needs occasioned by the prospects of constructing a RIF.  It makes no attempt to completely cover the topics it identifies and does not try to answer the questions it raises or to fill the needs it notices, but it merely points out a selective sample of the most salient concerns that need to be addressed.

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The long route which I propose also aspires to carry reflection to the level of an ontology, but it will do so by degrees, following successive investigations into semantics and reflection.

Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, [Ric, 6]

<p>The long route which I propose also aspires to carry reflection to the level of an ontology, but it will do so by degrees, following successive investigations into semantics and reflection.</p>

| align="right" | Paul Ricoeur, ''The Conflict of Interpretations'', [Ric, 6]

The subject of reflection is first approached in a topical, paraphrastic, or even periphrastic manner.  The notion of a capacity for reflection is submitted to a tentative analysis, as treated in a variety of different modes of conception, by listing the duties that are typically demanded of a reflective agent, by compiling and reconciling the properties that are commonly ascribed to the process of reflection, and by contemplating the responsibilities and the results that the faculty of reflection is supposed to have in the many contexts where it is expected to serve.

The subject of reflection is first approached in a topical, paraphrastic, or even periphrastic manner.  The notion of a capacity for reflection is submitted to a tentative analysis, as treated in a variety of different modes of conception, by listing the duties that are typically demanded of a reflective agent, by compiling and reconciling the properties that are commonly ascribed to the process of reflection, and by contemplating the responsibilities and the results that the faculty of reflection is supposed to have in the many contexts where it is expected to serve.

"Reflection" is a word that is used with a wide variety of meanings in both ordinary language and technical contexts.  Some of these uses have little to do with the sorts of inquiry being pursued here.  Other uses, though related to inquiry, refer to processes that are fully as complex as inquiry itself.  Neither of these extremes of meaning falls within the present focus of discussion.

&ldquo;Reflection&rdquo; is a word that is used with a wide variety of meanings in both ordinary language and technical contexts.  Some of these uses have little to do with the sorts of inquiry being pursued here.  Other uses, though related to inquiry, refer to processes that are fully as complex as inquiry itself.  Neither of these extremes of meaning falls within the present focus of discussion.

The task for this project is to identify a coherent set of operations: (1) that fall within the scope of conceptual analysis and computational modeling, (2) that bear a recognizable and illuminating relationship to what is commonly called "reflection", and (3) that make an operational contribution to inquiry, while (4) constituting simpler components of it.

The task for this project is to identify a coherent set of operations:

I define "symbol" as any structure of signification in which a direct, primary, literal meaning designates, in addition, another meaning which is indirect, secondary, and figurative and which can be apprehended only through the first.

I define "symbol" as any structure of signification in which a direct, primary, literal meaning designates, in addition, another meaning which is indirect, secondary, and figurative and which can be apprehended only through the first.

Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, [Ric, 12]

Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, [Ric, 12]