0082 So far, the structural coincidence between Darwin’s paradigm and the specifying sign covers Part I of Dennett’s book and a couple of chapters in Part II.  The title of Part I is “Turning Our World Upside Down”.  The title of Part II is “From Evolution to Intelligent Design”.  The chapters covered in Part II include seven (“Darwinian Spaces: An Interlude”) and eight (“Brains Made of Brains”).

From this coincidence (or is it from Dennett’s argument?), I learn that a lot of what goes on in my neocortex supports a user-end illusion, which I label “my mind”.  The method behind this neuromechanical marvel employs a Darwinian paradigm, where neurons act like selective breeders and their synapses are the creatures that they breed.  This method strikes me as a little weird, since short-lived synapses are extensions of long-lived neurons.

Maybe it is not as weird as me walking Daisy around on a leash.

0083 I also learn that scholastic inquiry into human knowing provides a nested picture of the actualities that participate in manifest images held by individual human minds.  A three-level interscope contains three virtually nested actualities.  The three-level interscope is delineated in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

Here is a picture, highlighting the three actualities₂ of the manifest image, and downplaying their respective normal contexts₃ and potentials₁.

0084 The content-level actuality, species impressa_2a, goes with the terms “sensation”, “impression”, “feeling” and “qualia”.  In terms of ontology, this actuality_2a may be portrayed as active body [substantiates] sensate soul.

The situation-level actuality, species expressa_2b, goes with perceptions_2b, phantasms_2b, emotions_2b, trained responses_2b, along with other expressions.  In terms of ontology, this actuality_2b may be portrayed as perceptive soul [informs] reactive body.

The perspective-level actuality, species intelligibilis_2c, goes with judgments_2c, explicitly, and convictions_2c, implicitly.  A conviction is a judgment where the relational elements are not labeled.  So, the triadic structure operates holistically.  In terms of ontology, a judgment is a triadic structure consisting of three elements: relation, what is and what ought to be.  When we associate each of the elements with one of Peirce’s categories, the judgment becomes actionable.

0085 These three actualities are discussed in Razie Mah’s blogs for October 2023, titled Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) Semiotic Animal.  Of course, in order to understand these three actualities, I must divine their normal contexts and potentials.  This divination will proceed as I examine the sign-relations that are embedded in the scholastic manifest image.

0086 Let me start with the basics.

We (humans) encounter actuality₂.

We understand that encounter when we have elucidated the appropriate normal context₃ and potential₁.

The elucidation may proceed using Aristotle’s four causes.

0087 But, what if two of Aristotle’s causes are outlawed by the positivist intellect?

Well, the positivist intellect cannot achieve understanding.

Instead, the positivist intellect (which is the relation in the Positivist’s judgment) uses disciplinary language to construct mathematical and mechanical models of observations and measurements of psychological and social phenomena (what ought to be in the Positivist’s judgment).

Then the Positivist sells these models under the label, “scientific conclusions”.

0088 Typically, when a clinical psychologist mentions the term, “manifest image”, the referent is a species expressa_2b. Why?  People tend to seek the services of a clinical psychologist when they cannot control their emotions.  An emotion may be portrayed by the hylomorphe, perceptive soul [informs] reactive body.  Perceptions [trigger] emotions.

The client suffers the actuality of a phantasm_2b.

The clinician suspects that the client will understand that actuality_2b when a virtual normal context_2c and potential_2a are elucidated.

0089 The following figure portrays the virtual nested form in the realm of actuality for the scholastic’s manifest image.

0090 This nested form is virtual because it runs down a column in a three level interscope.  The qualifier, “virtual”, means “in virtue”, in regards to the mind, and “in simulation”, in regards to the brain.

The perspective-level normal context of judgment_2c virtually brings the situation-level actuality of a perception_2b into relation with the content-level potential of sensations_2a, impressions_2a and feelings_2a.  Each of these actualities conveys its own sense of realness.  But, the phantasm_2b seems to be the most real because it occupies the slot for secondness in both the situation-level nested form and the virtual nested for in the interscope. 

0091 Often, the species intelligibilis_2c and the species impressa_2a do not register.

Even less apparent are the normal contexts and the potentials for all three actualities.

No wonder the catholic schoolmen spend centuries debating the causalities involved in how humans think.