06/16/23

Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2018) “Where Are We Heading?” (Part 11 of 15)

0081 Needless to say, Hodder proves a variety of examples in his excellent work.

Some of the examples carry moral overtones.

0082 For example, the making of thread starts during the Neolithic with spinning whorls. These distinctly shaped cylinders twist strands of wool or flax fiber together. They take some skill to use. One must turn the whorl in a particular way in order to produce thread. The thread may not be fine. It is thread nonetheless.

By the medieval period of Europe, “spinsters” use fairly sophisticated pedal-powered spinning wheels, where the rotary motion is powered by a foot pedal and the cylinder-aspect of the whorl is performed by a spinning wheel. Obviously, explicit abstraction plays a role in the technical separation of the spin from the fiber holding aspects of the old-fashioned whorl. Now, finer threads are made.

So, the whorl to spinning-wheel transition belongs to our current Lebenswelt.

0083 What about fire?

The domestication of fire, accomplished hundreds of thousands of years ago, occurs in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in,when hand talk favors implicit abstraction. Note that there are no “fire specialists” apparent in the fossil record for the ensuing millennia. Making fire involves tacit knowledge. Making fire is procedural. Making fire is an embodied experience. Do we have a spoken word to label the making of fire as a cooperative effort?

0084 In contrast, the specialty of running a kiln occurs in our current Lebenswelt. Kilns are used to cook things, such a pottery, at particularly high temperatures. Indeed, in this instance, two specialties are apparent: the one who makes pots out of clay and the one who fires the pottery using a kiln. Expertise is required for both specialties. Explicit abstraction is required for expertise.

0085 Perhaps, the fact that humans can be objectified as things in our current Lebenswelt accounts for Hodder’s moral intonations.

Or, perhaps a feeling of moral indignation arises from his examples, include opium, which starts as a thing, a poppy plant.

06/15/23

Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2018) “Where Are We Heading?” (Part 12 of 15)

0086 In our current Lebenswelt, explicit abstraction allows humans to be objectified.

Objects can be treated as things in Hodder’s H-T, T-H and T-T dependencies.

The result?

H-H dependencies include H-O, O-H and O-O dependencies.

0087 Plus, H-H dependency carries moral implications.

Why?

Dependencies on things is intuitively natural for humans. We adapted into a niche filled with these dependencies.

Dependencies on objects requires explicit abstraction. Once implemented, these dependencies start to feel intuitively natural. Once established, they feel intuitively natural.

But, they are not.

0088 Perhaps, I am starting to appreciate the implications of Hodder’s title: Where are we heading?

Imagine what happens when I replace the term, “things”, with “objects” (that includes humans).

0089 Here is a diagram.

06/13/23

Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2018) “Where Are We Heading?” (Part 14 of 15)

0096 Here is another picture.

0097 Whatever surrogate for complexity that one uses, an inflection point occurs around 7800 years ago. Once speech-alone talk influences and then replaces hand-speech talk, explicit abstraction adds to implicit abstraction. H-T, T-H, T-T entanglements expand to H-H entanglements (H-O, O-H, O-O). Explicit abstraction is required. But, once humans are objectified, then implicit abstraction kicks back in. One would never know that a distinction defined by spoken wordsbecomes… well… intuitively natural.

Yes, once an objectification is implemented and routinized, then humans become things.

0098 The masterwork, An Archaeology of the Fall, mentions Dr. Ian Hodder as lead investigator at the Catal Hoyuk archaeological site (point 0206).

A mother poses a question, saying (more or less), “Don’t you think that Dr. Hodder would benefit from knowing the hypothesis of the first singularity?“

The son says, “He can figure it out for himself.”

What a reply.

0099 Catal Hoyuk flourishes as a hand-speech talking culture. It belongs to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, right at the cusp, before the start of the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia.

The site is abandoned as soon as our current Lebenswelt begins.

0100 Surely, the end of Catal Hoyuk can be attributed to climate changes at the start of our current interglacial, in the same way that the formation of a creole-speaking Ubaid culture can be attributed to rising sea levels.

But, climate explanations are not enough. These comments add value to Hodder’s argument. Entanglement theoryundergoes a fundamental change once speech-alone talk enters our world.

Hodder proposes that human-thing entanglements enslave us. They do. However, human-thing entanglements pale in comparison with human-object entanglements. The hypothesis of the first singularity enriches Hodder’s entanglement theory by adding a Peircean relational foundation, then depicting how objects_2a may be treated the same as things_2a. Objects_2a are products of explicit abstraction. Things_2a are not.

0101 Slavery begins in our current Lebenswelt with the objectification of humans.

06/12/23

Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2018) “Where Are We Heading?” (Part 15 of 15)

0102 Where are we heading?

Where have we been?

Once Hodder’s entanglement theory encounters the hypothesis of the first singularity, everything we know turns inside out. Hodder attempts to generate an explicit abstraction that, given time, will convey the essence of implicit abstraction. The category-based nested form is instrumental in displaying the relational theatrics that Hodder performs.

0103 Hodder is clever.

Things are content level.

Humans are situation level.

A third level, the perspective level, appears as a complication in points 23 to 31. Here is a wrinkle worth exploring. A good place to start is A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

0104 My thanks go to Dr. Ian Hodder for opening an inquiry that nudges open the door to a new age of understanding. These comments show that the latch is already unlocked.

0105 Where are we heading?

We are moving towards a fourth age of understanding: The Age of Triadic Relations.

05/23/23

Looking at Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s Book (2020) “A Hunter Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” (Part 6 of 16)

0031 How should I specify the elements in the prior diagram?

A little history may assist.

State colleges spring up to train returning soldiers after the Hot War Among Fraternal Ideologies (1938-1945 AD). The authors are employed by one of these colleges, located in the State of Washington. Then, the institution changes in 2017

0032 Let me consider Evergreen State College prior to 2017.

The adaptations_2V?

Obviously, the term goes with the faculty. Professors_2b(2H) are selected for by the college_3b(3H) for their disciplinary expertise_1b(1H). Disciplinary expertise_1b expresses the potential of empirio-schematic inquiry_2a, characteristic of such fields as physics, chemistry, biology, quantitative sociology, cognitive and evolutionary psychology, and so on. Empirio-schematic inquiry_2a is a style of rational thought_2a.

Diagrams for empirio-schematic inquiry are developed in Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural History. The empirio-schematic judgment is rational thought. However, it is not rational in the same way as Aristotelian or scholastic thought. Empirio-schematics characterize the modern Age of Ideas, which starts around 1600 AD. Scholastics characterize the Latin Age, stretching from around 300 to around 1600 AD.

0033 Here is the two-level interscope for the axis corresponding to Darwinism, for Evergreen State College, before 2017.

0034 Heying and Weinstein are selected as professors_2b and serve well, for one and one-half decades, until a shift in both cultural selection_3b and the actuality_2a virtually underlying their positions_2b.

0035 What happens leading to 2017 and beyond?

On the content level, an imitation empirio-schematics_2a fashions itself as a style of rational thought_2a. Consider the blog for April at www.raziemah.com, titled Looking at Gad Saad’s Book (2021) “Parasitic Mind”. Like all fashions, inquiries pursuing social construction, critical theory and social justice take on the appearance of ‘something’ beautiful in order to adorn the one who wears the fashion.

Something beautiful?

Think of an adornment that signals one’s virtue, while sparkling with the certitude that accompanies empirio-schematic research.

On the situation level, the ones who fashion themselves as “righteous, in addition to rational” are instructors_1b. Why? Instructors are defined by the potential of the faux empirio-schematics of social construction, critical theory and social justice_2a. Their reward is in a fascination of their own varieties of righteousness.

In contrast, administrators_2b exploit instructors_1b, just as adaptations_2a exploit a niche_1b, in the normal context of cultural selection_3b.

Here is a picture of the horizontal axis after 2017.

0036 In 2017, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein resign their professorships at Evergreen State College.

05/22/23

Looking at Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s Book (2020) “A Hunter Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” (Part 7 of 16)

0037 What about the vertical axis?

0039 The vertical axis of biological evolution goes with body development_3b, the phenotype_2b and the genome_1b. The genome_1b is the potential_1b of DNA_2a, an internal actuality that is defines the lineage. DNA_2a manifests descent with modification.

0040 How that translates into a metaphor for cultural development depends on the species… er… I meant to say… the institution.

An institution_2b is like the phenotype_2b. Traditionally, an institution_2b virtually situates a traditional mission_2a. So, a mission statement_1b manifests the potential_1b of a traditional mission_2a and supports the institution_2b.

Here is the corresponding two-level interscope.

0041 All this changes, leading to the trauma of 2017 at Evergreen State College.

Rather than a mission_2a, whose normal context_3a and potential_1a should be protected by long-standing tradition, the content-level actuality_2a changes to advocacy.

What is advocacy_2a?

I could say advocacy_2a is a type of mission_2a. However, it is the type of mission where the normal context_3a and potential_1a are generated by another institution (safely hidden offstage, so to speak). Advocacy_2a is like modified DNA_2a. Advocacy_2a supports indoctrination under the name of “education”. Advocacy statements_1b manifest the potential_1b of advocacy_2a.

Here is a picture of the two-level interscope.

0042 Now, I combine the above situation-level nested forms to visualize interscopes for pre-2017 and post-2017 higher education.

The following diagram presents the system that selected for Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein as professors_2H.

After the resignation of these professors, Evergreen State College may be portrayed by the following intersection.

0043 Higher education is a single actuality.

Before 2017, faculty_2H are selected on the basis of their expertise_1H.

After 2017, administrators_2H are selected for on the basis of their ability to manage instructors_1H (as well as other abilities).

The metaphorical niche_1H changes and so does the metaphorical genome_1V.

05/19/23

Looking at Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s Book (2020) “A Hunter Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” (Part 8 of 16)

0044 Where did I leave off?

After 2017, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein find that they no longer have jobs. But, surely, they remain professors.

0045 So what happens next?

The culture of podcasting on the internet_3H values (selects for) people_2H with disciplinary expertise_1H.

Yes, the podcasting “culture” is looking for pre-2017 types of professors_2H.

0046 Bret Weinstein launches the Darkhorse podcast, a very attractive production in the internet arena. He remains a professor. Now, he also professes more than biology.

And, that brings me to the book, which applies lessons from evolutionary theory to life in the 21^stcentury.

Podcasting and book-writing are very similar to higher ed. Each podcast has its own mission statement. Each podcast format displays a certain expertise. Advertisers support well-subscribed podcasts. Patrons support the podcast directly.

0047 Here is a picture of what (I suppose) podcasting looks like, in terms of an intersection that appropriates the relationality of biological evolution for cultural evolution.

0048 What label applies to the single actuality that is the union of professor_2H and podcaster_2V?

How about the term, “guidance”?

One watches podcasts for guidance.

0049 On that note, allow me to recall the full title of Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s book, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21^st Century: Evolution and The Challenges of Modern Life.

If the single actuality is “guidance”, then I ask the reader how phrases in the title associate to elements in the above intersection.

05/18/23

Looking at Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 1 of 4)

0001 According to Neoplatonic legend, the descent of the soul starts with a small immaterial gem resting on an undefinable pillow in the presence of transcendental beauty. Then, a trap door opens and the little source of illuminationbegins to fall. As it descends, it accrues matter. Matter enters form.

One may say that the matter is evil and the soul, good, and conclude that the immortal soul becomes encased in corruptible matter. But, the story is more complicated, because the term, “matter” slyly includes the capacity to become entangled with purely relational being. Matter holds the capacity for meaning. Matter substantiates form. So Christians, following the complication, witness the baby as bearing a message. The message? Baptize me.

0002 The book before me is Brian Kemple’s The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology: Peirce and Heidegger in Dialogue, published in 2019 by Walter de Gruyter Press (Boston/Berlin). The masterwork is dedicated to the memory of John Deely (1942-2017 AD), who served as Kemple’s professor.

0003 The book presents a complex argument. I, a simpleton, fixate on the titular word, “intersection”.

For me, the term has a technical definition, as formulated in the chapter on message in the e-book How To Define The Word “Religion” (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues). An intersection is a single actuality composed of two actualities, each with its own category-based nested form.

Say what?

See A Primer on the Category-based Nested Form.

0004 A photon is an example of an intersection of two actualities: a wave and a particle. The normal context of a diffraction apparatus₃ brings wave properties of light₂ into relation with the potential of ‘observations of wavelengths’₁. The normal context of a metal plate₃ brings particle properties of light₂ into relation with potential ‘observations of the photo-electric effect’₁.

0005 Here is a picture.

0006 Here is another way to look at the photon as intersection.

0007 In the following blogs, I will endeavor to visualize whether Kemple’s use of the term, “intersection”, coheres with this technical definition.

In order to do so, I will locate two category-based nested forms, one for both Peirce and one for Heidegger, and see whether the two actualities meld into one.

05/17/23

Looking at Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 2 of 4)

0008 The intersection is a technical term describing a single actuality constituted by two seemingly independent actualities.

Now I collect two nested forms from prior works by Razie Mah.

0009 For Peirce, I consider A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction. Point 0062 presents a three level interscope, depicting Peirce’s social construction. Here is a diagram of the virtual nested form in the realm of actuality.

0010 The content-level actuality_2a is the discovery that signs are triadic relations_2a. Triadic relations are luminous_2aand Peirce cannot situate that luminosity_2b within the modern philosophies of his day. This difficulty_2b situates the content-level actuality_2a and demands social construction_3c. Peirce realizes that three categories contextualize all experience_2c(because all experience utilizes signs_2a). The categories of firstness, secondness and thirdness are discussed in detail in chapter four of Kemple’s book.

0011 For Heidegger, I turn to Comments on Alexander Dugin’s Book (2012) The Fourth Political Theory. Point 0037 presents a three-level interscope for Heidegger’s construction of Being (Sein). Once again, the virtual nested form in the realm of actuality captures my attention.

Here is a diagram.

The normal context of inzwischen_2c (in between-ness) brings the actuality of Dasein_2b (the realization that Being is there (da-)) into relation with the possibilities inherent in Sein_2a (Being Itself).

0012 For these two virtual nested forms to serve as the nested forms for an intersection, the perspective-level actualities_2c, must take on the character of thirdness (over and above their location in secondness). This makes sense in so far as the perspective_c level corresponds to thirdness, the realm of normal contexts.

The same “taking on” applies to the content-level actualities_2a. They take on the character of firstness (over and beyond their location in secondness). This makes sense because the content_a level corresponds to firstness, the realm of possibility.

0013 Here is the resulting intersection.

05/16/23

Looking at Brian Kemple’s Book (2019) “The Intersection” (Part 3 of 4)

0014 Unbeknownst to author, Razie Mah proposes a technical definition of the term, “intersection”, that adorns the title of Brian Kemple’s book. An intersection is a single actuality composed of two actualities. Every intersection is riddled with unresolved, and unresolvable, contradictions. The intersection is inherently mysterious. The philosopher strives to delineate these contradictions, not to resolve them.

0015 Here is the intersection derived from Peirce’s social construction and Heidegger’s construction of Being in the prior blogs.

0017 To me, the coincidence is amazing. Kemple identifies the category-based structure that brings Peirce and Heidegger together and, in the subtitle, suggests a name for the single actuality. The name is “dialogue”.

I wonder if “dialogue” is the same as “delineating a union of two actualities without resolving their contradictions”.

The word that labels the single actuality should intimate the difficulty of Kemple’s task and perhaps, the genius of his approach.

0018 At first, Kemple tempts the reader by mentioning an author who, early on, inspires both Peirce and Heidegger. A manuscript by Thomas of Erfurt, long attributed to the scholastic philosopher Scotus, discusses modes of signification for a speculative grammar. Speculative grammar? Look at the above figure. Should the single actuality be labeled, “speculative grammar”?

Yes, Peirce and Heidegger are inspired by Thomas of Erfurt.

0019 After that tease, Kemple devotes a division (chapters two and three) to Heidegger, followed by a division (chapters four and five) to Peirce. In these two divisions, Kemple introduces a term that takes a step beyond the German compound-words of Umwelt and Lebenswelt. The Umwelt is the significant world for each type of animal. The Lebenswelt denotes the world of signification for our kind, to which I add a caveat.

There are two Lebenswelts. The first is the Lebenswelt that we evolved in (characterized by hand- and hand-speech talk). The second is our current Lebenswelt (characterized by speech-alone talk). In one more step, Kemple introduces the compound-word, “Bildendwelt”, for civilizations within our current Lebenswelt, such as the one discussed in Looking at Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s Book (2021) A Hunter-Gather’s Guide to the 21^st Century.

An Archaeology of the Fall

A Horror Story by Razie Mah

Category Archives: Interscope & Intersection