Changes

If one accepts the idea that all of these excerpts are expressions of one and the same POV, but considered at different points of development, as enunciated, as reviewed, and as revised over an interval of many years, then they can be taken to illustrate the diverse kinds of changes that occur in the formulation, the development, and the clarification of a continuing POV.

If one accepts the idea that all of these excerpts are expressions of one and the same POV, but considered at different points of development, as enunciated, as reviewed, and as revised over an interval of many years, then they can be taken to illustrate the diverse kinds of changes that occur in the formulation, the development, and the clarification of a continuing POV.

====To Whom It May Concern====

====The Face in the Mirror====

<pre>

We cannot proceed in the question of the who without introducing the problem of everyday life, self knowledge, the problem of the relation to the other — and, ultimately, the relation to death.

Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, [Ric, 232]

<p>We cannot proceed in the question of the who without introducing the problem of everyday life, self-knowledge, the problem of the relation to the other &mdash; and, ultimately, the relation to death.</p>

| align="right" | Paul Ricoeur, ''The Conflict of Interpretations'', [Ric, 232]

It is the business of this preview to take up the initial stirrings of many subject matters that cannot hope to be completely developed, even clearly engaged, and much less fully formalized at the present stage of discussion.  At many points I can afford to pause only long enough to toss a provisional name in the direction of a subject I plan to address more fully later on, and at times I can merely indicate in cursory terms a topic that I intend to return to at several later points in this work.

It is the business of this preview to take up the initial stirrings of many subject matters that cannot hope to be completely developed, even clearly engaged, and much less fully formalized at the present stage of discussion.  At many points I can afford to pause only long enough to toss a provisional name in the direction of a subject I plan to address more fully later on, and at times I can merely indicate in cursory terms a topic that I intend to return to at several later points in this work.

There are aspects of inquiry that are difficult to address from a purely cognitive POV, that is, from a standpoint that expects agents of inquiry to behave in a strictly rational fashion.  At times it appears that there are complexities in the phenomenology of inquiry that are impossible to compass, comprehend, deal with, fathom, grasp, or tackle by means of a purely cognitive or strictly rational method of approach.  Nevertheless, it is not that the manner of proceeding ought to be anything other than what it aims to be, but merely that it cannot expect its subject matter to mirror nothing beyond its own manners of limitations, principles, and scruples.

There are aspects of inquiry that are difficult to address from a purely cognitive point of view, that is, from a standpoint that expects agents of inquiry to behave in a strictly rational fashion.  At times it appears that there are complexities in the phenomenology of inquiry that are impossible to compass, comprehend, deal with, fathom, grasp, or tackle by means of a purely cognitive or strictly rational method of approach.  Nevertheless, it is not that the manner of proceeding ought to be anything other than what it aims to be, but merely that it cannot expect its subject matter to mirror nothing beyond its own manners of limitations, principles, and scruples.

The reason that these issues have to be discussed at this particular point of this particular inquiry is simply that it cannot proceed beyond this point without facing up to them and facing them down again, that is, without addresing them in some measue and readucing the force of their obstruction.  In short, these issues present a real obstacle to the progress of this inquiry.

The reason that these issues have to be discussed at this particular point of this particular inquiry is simply that it cannot proceed beyond this point without facing up to them and facing them down again, that is, without addressing them in some measure and reducing the force of their obstruction.  In short, these issues present a real obstacle to the progress of this inquiry.

It is such a rarity for this theme of "internal opposition" (IO) to find a clear expression in the light of day that the latest and best descriptions one sees of it are not all that far removed in their basic characters and their degrees of clarity from the very first inklings one can find of it, namely, those intimations of its nature that remain wrapped up in the perennial figures of perceptive allegory and the ancient images of insightful mythology that are passed down from the foundings of every civilized culture.  Thus, I find I cannot discuss this issue, even dimly, without first invoking this class of symbols, no matter what difficulties of interpretation they bring in their train.  I can only promise to try to clarify their empirical and rational meanings as the discussion continues.

It is such a rarity for this theme of "internal opposition" to find a clear expression in the light of day that the latest and best descriptions one sees of it are not all that far removed in their basic characters and their degrees of clarity from the very first inklings one can find of it, namely, those intimations of its nature that remain wrapped up in the perennial figures of perceptive allegory and the ancient images of insightful mythology that are passed down from the foundings of every civilized culture.  Thus, I find I cannot discuss this issue, even dimly, without first invoking this class of symbols, no matter what difficulties of interpretation they bring in their train.  I can only promise to try to clarify their empirical and rational meanings as the discussion continues.

In general, one can treat the dramatic images presented by literature and mythology as not essentially different from scientific images of action, behavior, and conduct.  They all attempt to capture something about human aims and human actions in a compact, exact, and memorable image, to catch a glimmer of human behavior in a singular but still moving form, and to cache it in the coin of a common exchange so that it embodies not just a commemorative but a communerative inheritance, one that anyone with access to the store can recurrently cash in as warranted by the occasion and the development of a particular situation, that all can repeatedly bank on to their individual and common profit.  No matter what genre it is cast within, a successful image records a moment's insight into an aspect of human nature, preserving it in such a way that it can reveal itself at relevant moments in future experience, and thus avail itself in such a form that it makes this particular insight into this particular aspect available for the use of many other POV's.

In general, one can treat the dramatic images presented by literature and mythology as not essentially different from scientific images of action, behavior, and conduct.  They all attempt to capture something about human aims and human actions in a compact, exact, and memorable image, to catch a glimmer of human behavior in a singular but still moving form, and to cache it in the coin of a common exchange so that it embodies not just a commemorative but a communerative inheritance, one that anyone with access to the store can recurrently cash in as warranted by the occasion and the development of a particular situation, that all can repeatedly bank on to their individual and common profit.  No matter what genre it is cast within, a successful image records a moment's insight into an aspect of human nature, preserving it in such a way that it can reveal itself at relevant moments in future experience, and thus avail itself in such a form that it makes this particular insight into this particular aspect available for the use of many other points of view.

An image is useful if it codifies significant insights about character and conduct.  To do this it needs to indicate, descriptively or normatively, important aspects of behavior, involving the necessary structures or the contingent potentials of conduct.  An image is especially useful if it is indexed to come to mind at the times when it is appropriate, called for, and helpful.  An image begins to make itself useful in a more scientific, or a deliberately controlled way, if it can serve flexibly and not just fixedly in the act of reflecting on a present scene or a real situation.  This means that it can make itself available as a suggestive hypothesis about a situation in general and can serve as a constructive critique of the ways to proceed from that point forward, but that it does not force itself on any particular situation, does not take the role of an active ingredient in the objective problem to be resolved, and does not elect itself as the primary constituent of that very predicament.

An image is useful if it codifies significant insights about character and conduct.  To do this it needs to indicate, descriptively or normatively, important aspects of behavior, involving the necessary structures or the contingent potentials of conduct.  An image is especially useful if it is indexed to come to mind at the times when it is appropriate, called for, and helpful.  An image begins to make itself useful in a more scientific, or a deliberately controlled way, if it can serve flexibly and not just fixedly in the act of reflecting on a present scene or a real situation.  This means that it can make itself available as a suggestive hypothesis about a situation in general and can serve as a constructive critique of the ways to proceed from that point forward, but that it does not force itself on any particular situation, does not take the role of an active ingredient in the objective problem to be resolved, and does not elect itself as the primary constituent of that very predicament.

To be useful in critical reflection, an image has to remain transparently suggestive of the potentials that reside in a real and present situation.  To continue its utility in a viable process of reflection, an image cannot allow itself to be so cast in stone that it blocks contemplation of all that demands attention in a real situation, and it cannot become so blindingly opaque in its own right that it obscures and occludes any concern that does not fit within its pre cut scene.  In order to preserve its uses in feasible and viable conditions, an image cannot be allowed to coerce the satisfaction of its own application, as in the style of a self fulfilling prophecy or the spell binding picture of a prescience that predestines its own end, descriptively and prescriptively determining the form and the fact of its own fate.

To be useful in critical reflection, an image has to remain transparently suggestive of the potentials that reside in a real and present situation.  To continue its utility in a viable process of reflection, an image cannot allow itself to be so cast in stone that it blocks contemplation of all that demands attention in a real situation, and it cannot become so blindingly opaque in its own right that it obscures and occludes any concern that does not fit within its pre-cut scene.  In order to preserve its uses in feasible and viable conditions, an image cannot be allowed to coerce the satisfaction of its own application, as in the style of a self fulfilling prophecy or the spell binding picture of a prescience that predestines its own end, descriptively and prescriptively determining the form and the fact of its own fate.

In this connection, it is not just in story and fable that one finds the images of self fulfilling prophecies.  The scientific picture of human behavior embodies an equal number of self satisfying limitations and self predicting reductions, analogous to the image of a person who is looking under the lamppost for something lost elsewhere simply because the light is better there, or the image of a person with no tool but a hammer who is determined by this utility to view everything as a nail.

In this connection, it is not just in story and fable that one finds the images of self fulfilling prophecies.  The scientific picture of human behavior embodies an equal number of self satisfying limitations and self predicting reductions, analogous to the image of a person who is looking under the lamppost for something lost elsewhere simply because the light is better there, or the image of a person with no tool but a hammer who is determined by this utility to view everything as a nail.

Given the license to temporarily invoke such powerful cultural symbols, and since the issues they try to capture appear already bound together, I can organize the manifestations of this problematic under three heads:

Given the license to temporarily invoke such powerful cultural symbols, and since the issues they try to capture appear already bound together, I can organize the manifestations of this problematic under three heads:

1. The "negative onus" (NO) of inquiry.

# The "negative onus" (NO) of inquiry.

 

# The "affective mood" (AM) of inquiry.

2. The "affective mood" (AM) of inquiry.

# The "existential subjective tone" (EST) of inquiry.

 

3. The "existential subjective tone" (EST) of inquiry.

The pragmatic description of inquiry is notorious for the constellation of problematic and negative features that its account the matter points out.  In practice, this complex of negative aspects recurrently presents itself as the most difficult to steadily face up to without flinching and the most troublesome to squarely address without blanching, blinking, or otherwise to break off the approach and even to abandon the question.  By way of deriving the minimal service that the simplest name affords, I refer to this problematic aspect as the "negative onus" (NO) of inquiry.

The pragmatic description of inquiry is notorious for the constellation of problematic and negative features that its account the matter points out.  In practice, this complex of negative aspects recurrently presents itself as the most difficult to steadily face up to without flinching and the most troublesome to squarely address without blanching, blinking, or otherwise to break off the approach and even to abandon the question.  By way of deriving the minimal service that the simplest name affords, I refer to this problematic aspect as the "negative onus" (NO) of inquiry.

The NO of inquiry arises at a couple of distinct moments in its process.  It arises naturally enough at the outset of inquiry, due to the negative, problematic, and troubling aspects of doubt and uncertainty.  But again, no sooner does an inquiry get started in some hopeful direction than it runs into a host of distortions, diversions, obstacles, and resistances that act to impede its progress.  Some of these obstructions can be seen as derivative expressions of the original uncertainty that occasioned a specific inquiry, but others go deeper than the issues that stem from a particular topic.  Other obstacles, harder to address, have to do with a deficient motivation for a specific inquiry, a deficit in competence at inquiry in general, a constitutional incapacity to change beliefs once their status is fixed, or a lack of desire to make the necessary changes in belief and in conduct that are always at risk in an authentic inquiry.  Still other obstacles abide at another order entirely, arising from the necessary properties and structures of inquiry itself.

The NO of inquiry arises at a couple of distinct moments in its process.  It arises naturally enough at the outset of inquiry, due to the negative, problematic, and troubling aspects of doubt and uncertainty.  But again, no sooner does an inquiry get started in some hopeful direction than it runs into a host of distortions, diversions, obstacles, and resistances that act to impede its progress.  Some of these obstructions can be seen as derivative expressions of the original uncertainty that occasioned a specific inquiry, but others go deeper than the issues that stem from a particular topic.  Other obstacles, harder to address, have to do with a deficient motivation for a specific inquiry, a deficit in competence at inquiry in general, a constitutional incapacity to change beliefs once their status is fixed, or a lack of desire to make the necessary changes in belief and in conduct that are always at risk in an authentic inquiry.  Still other obstacles abide at another order entirely, arising from the necessary properties and structures of inquiry itself.

The fact that the pragmatic POV recognizes uncertainty as the beginning of inquiry means that the dynamic start of its process and the rational foundation of its method are energetically and logically sundered from each other, if not forever split apart, then at least until the inquiry in question is itself resolved.

The fact that the pragmatic point of view recognizes uncertainty as the beginning of inquiry means that the dynamic start of its process and the rational foundation of its method are energetically and logically sundered from each other, if not forever split apart, then at least until the inquiry in question is itself resolved.

All attempts to found inquiry on positive intellectual powers and virtues, or to chart its progress through purely rational methods and principles, always come to grief and founder on the fact that one cannot squarely address the obstructions to inquiry without facing up to the negative, troubling, and unruly aspects of truly problematic uncertainties, nor without being willing to look at the affective investments that people have in their own pet notions and their favorite group's fondest ideas.  It is neither possible nor necessary to deal with this problem, in its entirety, within the present context.  However, it is both necessary and possible to articulate the ways that it impacts on the present concerns.  In this regard, a measure of "affective investment" in a customary idea or interpretive conduct is the persistence of the custom or the strength of the habit that associates itself with that particular conduit of ideas.  This translates the notion of "affective investment" into a concept with dynamic import, giving it an operational significance and a quantifiable meaning for the current approach to a "dynamic symbolics".

All attempts to found inquiry on positive intellectual powers and virtues, or to chart its progress through purely rational methods and principles, always come to grief and founder on the fact that one cannot squarely address the obstructions to inquiry without facing up to the negative, troubling, and unruly aspects of truly problematic uncertainties, nor without being willing to look at the affective investments that people have in their own pet notions and their favorite group's fondest ideas.  It is neither possible nor necessary to deal with this problem, in its entirety, within the present context.  However, it is both necessary and possible to articulate the ways that it impacts on the present concerns.  In this regard, a measure of "affective investment" in a customary idea or interpretive conduct is the persistence of the custom or the strength of the habit that associates itself with that particular conduit of ideas.  This translates the notion of "affective investment" into a concept with dynamic import, giving it an operational significance and a quantifiable meaning for the current approach to a "dynamic symbolics".

Depending on the accidents and the inevitabilities of their historical reception, the trains of consequences that accompany them, the general drift of intervening events, and the finer shade of the mood from which the totality of this sweep is reviewed, a retrospective LOR can take on all the character of any pure choice or any mixture of options from a whole spectrum of characters.  Just by way of example, these can range from apology, casuistry, and attempts at exculpation or explanation by way of mitigating circumstances, through elegy, encomium, and eulogy, then all the way to lamentation, melancholy, panegyric, and requiem.

Depending on the accidents and the inevitabilities of their historical reception, the trains of consequences that accompany them, the general drift of intervening events, and the finer shade of the mood from which the totality of this sweep is reviewed, a retrospective LOR can take on all the character of any pure choice or any mixture of options from a whole spectrum of characters.  Just by way of example, these can range from apology, casuistry, and attempts at exculpation or explanation by way of mitigating circumstances, through elegy, encomium, and eulogy, then all the way to lamentation, melancholy, panegyric, and requiem.

Is the lack of a mirror really lamented?  And if it is literally so, then what is the source of remorseful affect that abides in this impression?  From whence does the vast but vaporous plague of advisory injunctions, censorious restrictions, circumspect suspicions, consensual admonitions, delinquent proscriptions, imminent suspensions, monitory animadversions, mundane cautions, and tardy but truant afterthoughts arise, along with the vague but vampirous unease of something forgotten, lost, or forlorn?  If one arrives at the point of asking in what sort of space does a POV reside, and what manner of a multitude does it share this manifold with, then the sense of this whole, collective, irksome host begins to appear.

Is the lack of a mirror really lamented?  And if it is literally so, then what is the source of remorseful affect that abides in this impression?  From whence does the vast but vaporous plague of advisory injunctions, censorious restrictions, circumspect suspicions, consensual admonitions, delinquent proscriptions, imminent suspensions, monitory animadversions, mundane cautions, and tardy but truant afterthoughts arise, along with the vague but vampirous unease of something forgotten, lost, or forlorn?  If one arrives at the point of asking in what sort of space does a point of view reside, and what manner of a multitude does it share this manifold with, then the sense of this whole, collective, irksome host begins to appear.

One clue arises from the circumstance that the very purpose of affects, emotions, and motives is to change a POV, to alter a state of being or a position in space, to get through a fit of pique or a point of impasse, to break out of a fixed opinion in the labyrinth of purely intellectual and speculative convictions.  And yet this presents nothing but problems for the effort to see the formal skeleton within the living body of inquiry.

One clue arises from the circumstance that the very purpose of affects, emotions, and motives is to change a point of view, to alter a state of being or a position in space, to get through a fit of pique or a point of impasse, to break out of a fixed opinion in the labyrinth of purely intellectual and speculative convictions.  And yet this presents nothing but problems for the effort to see the formal skeleton within the living body of inquiry.

Although emotion remains a pervasive factor in the informal realm, it is difficult to see, at least, at first, how its forces could be tramsmitted into and through the formal arena, even if, in spite of all appearances, there were found to be forms of good judgment that permitted it to try.  The only hint of an answer that I can see at this point is the insight that is stored up in the very etymology of "form" itself, whose often forgotten connotation is literally "beauty".

Although emotion remains a pervasive factor in the informal realm, it is difficult to see, at least, at first, how its forces could be transmitted into and through the formal arena, even if, in spite of all appearances, there were found to be forms of good judgment that permitted it to try.  The only hint of an answer that I can see at this point is the insight that is stored up in the very etymology of "form" itself, whose often forgotten connotation is literally "beauty".

The final consequence that I want to derive from these excerpts is their bearing on the differential relationships that exist between a conduct, as it distinguishes itself in action from an action, and the respective ends of this conduct and this action, all in all, which may amount to the very same object in the end.  In particular, I want to point out a remarkable implication of this approach that I call the "paradox of conduct" (POC).

The final consequence that I want to derive from these excerpts is their bearing on the differential relationships that exist between a conduct, as it distinguishes itself in action from an action, and the respective ends of this conduct and this action, all in all, which may amount to the very same object in the end.  In particular, I want to point out a remarkable implication of this approach that I call the "paradox of conduct" (POC).

Considered as action, the end of life is death, but

: Considered as action, the end of life is death, but

considered as conduct, the end of life is life itself.

: considered as conduct, the end of life is life itself.

I am attempting no definition of life here, but merely noting one of its most exemplary and elegant formal properties.  In game theoretic terms, if life is a game then its aimed for value is a robustly recursive goal.  In generic terms, the pay off, intended target, or desired value of the whole game of life is just the whole game back again.  In species terms, the aim of a form of life is to continue its life in the same form, or in what is recognizable to itself as being in its original spirit ("anima").  The content that abides in a form of life is not a satisfaction with the continual repetition of precisely the same state of being or the unending replication of perfectly identical copies of itself, as these by themselves are just different forms of death, but it takes an ability to recognize and regenerate the spirit within the letter, to promote the true content its own essential form, not merely to reproduce the shadow of its shape.

I am attempting no definition of life here, but merely noting one of its most exemplary and elegant formal properties.  In game theoretic terms, if life is a game then its aimed for value is a robustly recursive goal.  In generic terms, the pay off, intended target, or desired value of the whole game of life is just the whole game back again.  In species terms, the aim of a form of life is to continue its life in the same form, or in what is recognizable to itself as being in its original spirit ("anima").  The content that abides in a form of life is not a satisfaction with the continual repetition of precisely the same state of being or the unending replication of perfectly identical copies of itself, as these by themselves are just different forms of death, but it takes an ability to recognize and regenerate the spirit within the letter, to promote the true content its own essential form, not merely to reproduce the shadow of its shape.

To draw the conclusion:  To say that death is the end of life, in the sense of a goal, is obviously going a bit too far.  Death is merely the contingent end of life as form of action, not the intentional end of life as a form of conduct, and all the rest of the confusion is merely verbal equivocation around and about these two senses of an end.  In the light of the distinction between action and conduct it is easy to see that death is just a bit beyond the true end of life.

To draw the conclusion:  To say that death is the end of life, in the sense of a goal, is obviously going a bit too far.  Death is merely the contingent end of life as form of action, not the intentional end of life as a form of conduct, and all the rest of the confusion is merely verbal equivocation around and about these two senses of an end.  In the light of the distinction between action and conduct it is easy to see that death is just a bit beyond the true end of life.

In the same way as it is not sufficient, before beginning to rebuild the house in which one lives, only to pull it down and to provide material and architects, or oneself to try one's hand at architecture, and moreover, to have drawn the plan carefully, but one must also provide oneself with some other accommodation in which to be lodged conveniently while the work is going on, so, also, in order that I might not remain irresolute in my actions during the time that my reason would oblige me to be so in my judgements, and so that I would not cease to live from that time forward as happily as I could, I formed a provisional moral code which consisted of only three or four maxims, which I am willing to disclose.

In the same way as it is not sufficient, before beginning to rebuild the house in which one lives, only to pull it down and to provide material and architects, or oneself to try one's hand at architecture, and moreover, to have drawn the plan carefully, but one must also provide oneself with some other accommodation in which to be lodged conveniently while the work is going on, so, also, in order that I might not remain irresolute in my actions during the time that my reason would oblige me to be so in my judgements, and so that I would not cease to live from that time forward as happily as I could, I formed a provisional moral code which consisted of only three or four maxims, which I am willing to disclose.

Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, [Des, 45]

Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, [Des, 45]