0007 Okay, if the word, “niche” labels the possibility of  ‘something’₁, then what is this so-called ‘something’?

Now, I turn to A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).

‘Something’ is a content-level actuality_2a that is independent of the adapting species.

Consequently, the niche_1b is the situation-level potential_1b that virtually emerges from (and situates) a content-level actuality_2a that is independent of the adapting species.

0008 The most notable feature of this sensible construction is that the content-level actuality_2a has no apparent normal context_3a or potential_1a.  In order to understand this actuality_2a, one must ascertain its normal context_3a and potential_1a, which is a very difficult assignment.

Perhaps, this difficulty is why modern biologists say that the actuality_2a reflects environmental or ecological conditions.  Well, “conditions” also has the advantage of implying a specific material ‘something’ that a species adapts to.  Such specificity implies that all niches are proximate.

0009 When the authors use the term, “niche switching”, they are saying that humans are adapted to flourishing in a wide-variety of ecologies and environments.

How do humans accomplish this flourishing?

Well, the generalist within us solves problems.  The specialist within us modifies a skill set.  Consciousness (or, is it culture?) is adaptive because it draws out an understanding that a content-level actuality_3a has a normal-context_3a and a potential_1a that the person (along with others) can adapt_2b to.  In other words, the content-level independent actuality_2a is meaningful.

0010 There is another advantage of a category-based depiction of Darwinian evolution.  It explains the idea of niche construction.

Niche construction occurs when a situation-level adaptation_2b alters the content-level actuality_2a by introducing a content-level normal context_2a and potential_1a.  To a beaver, a rapidly moving stream surrounded by woods_2a has the normal context_3a of a place to settle_3a and the potential_1a of damming the creek to make a home_1a.  Once this happens, once beavers down enough trees to block the water’s free flow, the independent actuality_2a becomes a slow moving creek and glen_2a.

Humans are even more sophisticated, since the independent actuality_2a becomes meaningful.  Our lineage adapts to a niche_1b, where the potential of understanding comes from converting an actuality_2a into a sign, a mediation, a category-based nested form or some other triadic relation.  The sign-relation has three elements: sign-vehicle, sign-object and sign-interpretant.  The mediation has three elements: matter, form and mediator.  The category-based nested form has three elements: normal context₃, actuality₂ and potential₁.  The subscripts refer to the three categories detailed by American philosopher, Charles Peirce: thirdness, secondness and firstness, respectively.

0011 Triadic relations are real (although immaterial) beings (that entangle the material world).  Until recently, no biologist imagines that these ephemeral beings could compose an actuality independent of an adapting species_2a.  Yet, many biologists suggest that the human niche consists of niche construction, or, as with these authors, “niche switching”.

The hypothesis that the ultimate human niche is the potential of triadic relations appears in Razie Mah’s e-book, The Human Niche.  The hypothesis is tested in four commentaries.

Comments on Steven Mithen’s Book (1996) The Prehistory of Mind

Comments on Derek Bickerton’s Book (2014) More that Nature Needs

Comments on Clive Gamble, John Gowlett and Robin Dunbar’s Book (2014) Thinking Big

Comments on Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky’s Book (2016) Why Only Us?

All are available at smashwords and other e-book venues.  They are listed in the series: A Course on the Human Niche.

0012 Here is a diagram of Darwinian evolution for the Homo genus.