07/13/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 17 of 26)

0164 According to Fuller, “research ethics” is a figment of the regulatory imagination.

It is a fig leaf for the empirio-normative university.

Why?

Imagine a school, selectively taking some of the opinions and traditions of parents2a as phenomena2a, then training their children on models of price and righteousness2b that empower the one of scientism3c.

0165 In chapter ten, titled “‘Research Ethics’ as a Post-Truth Playground”, Fuller demonstrates that empirio-normative social construction does not conform to familiar codes of conduct.

Surely, many nominally Christian parents merely want their children to seal the deal of the post-truth interscope and obtain certification2b that guarantees opportunities1c for success2c in the normal context of a scientismist godhead3c.  A Biblical parallel might be the ancient Hebrew family who sends their kids to the Canaanite College of Baal Business and Asherah Service Management.

0166 The problem is that there does not seem to be a clear way forward for reasonable3a,1a people, who want to learn how to get ahead and think for themselves.

Going back to the first rendition of the interscope of the relativist one, the intellects3a and the wills1a of individuals in community support diverse opinions2a that are then sifted, as phenomena2a, by an academy3b that formalizes knowledge1b.

0167 In general, the resulting formalized knowledge1b, which might include skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic, produces a person trained well-enough to find opportunity1c in the system of the relativist one3c of the day.

Here is a picture.

0168 The problem is subtle.

In this figure, “success” is an ambiguous term.  On the scrappy-player level, “success2a” is “getting ahead”.  On the relativist-one level, “success2c” is an actionable judgment.  The godhead does not care whether the resulting actions promote or destroy human flourishing.

Yes, gods can be capricious in this way, especially gods that don’t deal with truth.

0169 So, when the scrappy player, whose will1a operates in the normal context of the intellect3a, virtually situates his will1a with the possibility of formal knowledge1b, he makes a choice to subjugate his own facts and claims2a to the facts and claims1b required to obtain a credential2b through some educational forum3b.  He wants to get ahead and find opportunity1c for “success2a” from the scrappy-player point of view.

The scrappy player does not realize that he has also achieves success2c in the normal context of the relativist one3c, who sees “success2c” only as the manifestation of an actionable judgment2c, irrespective of whether that manifestation coincides with what the scrappy player regards as “success2a.

0170 But, that does not mean that the two renderings of “success” are completely independent.

I suppose that, before the Christians establish universities throughout Europe, an astrologer may have been a success2a in regards to the relativist one3c of the time as well as a well-renumerated2a practitioner in reading celestial indicators2c. Indeed, the fact that the astrologer is well-paid2a indicates the power2c of his expertise2b within the Zeigeist3c.

As Christian universities promote the demystification of the celestial bodies2c, to the extent that Aristotle allows, the astrologer finds less opportunities1c and soon enough, no one wants to be an apprentice to the local astrologer, because that is a lousy way to get ahead2a.  The relativist god of the alchemical sciences has to wait a few centuries for another post-truth civilizational moment to manifest.

0171 Oddly, this brings me back to Fuller’s tenth chapter, where he claims that ethics is usually grounded in two codes of conduct: one transactional and one transcendental.

To me, given this examination, which runs a complementary course to Fuller’s text, the transactional code may apply to institutional3b conduct in regards to the scrappy player3a and the transcendental code may apply to the divine3c in terms of the capriciousness inherent in defining success2c in terms of actionable judgments.

The transactional code says that credentials2b must be rewarded to a scrappy player2a who objectively masters the relevant formalized knowledge1b.

The transcendental code says that simply arriving at actionable judgments2c is not enough.  The actions of perspective-level judgments3c ought to promote human flourishing rather than destruction.

However, as this examination continues, the adjectives “transactional” and “transcendental” are repurposed as qualifiers for capitalist and socialist values, respectively.

07/12/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 18 of 26)

0172 One more point about chapter ten.

The author discloses an amazing coincidence.

In 1996, Fuller publishes an article in the same issue of the journal, Social Text, as Alan Sokal’s infamous fraud, marking the start of the so-called Sokal Hoax.  The admission is delightful, occurring as it does in a discussion that intimates that the relativist one’s interscope founding potential is the will1a, not the truth1a.

0173 Here is a picture of the interscope for the relativist one in the Fourth Battle Involving Enlightenment Gods: Empirio-Normative Domination within the Post-Truth Condition (1989 to present).

Yes, reason3a,1a is the normal context of the intellect3a operating on the potential of the will1a.  In our current Lebenswelt,we (humans) reason3a,1a and come up with diverse facts and claims2a.  These opinions are selectively observed and measured in order to produce the psychometric models2b that will be validated by the post-modern university3b through certification2b.  Certification2b is put into perspective by opportunities1c to success2c.  But, success2c for the scientismist one3c is not the same as what the person on the scrappy player level3a,1a thinks it2a is

0174 The title of chapter eleven is “Why Ignorance – Not Knowledge – Is The Key To Justice in the Post-Truth Condition”.

Fuller associates the ignorance position with John Rawls (1921-2002 AD).  Rawls is regarded as the greatest philosopher of the social democratic welfare state.

Fuller associates the knowledge position with Robert Nozick (1938-2002).  Nozick is regarded as the most philosophically sophisticated defender of modern libertarianism.

He then plays one off of the other, arriving at the conclusion in the chapter’s title.

0175 For this examiner, Fuller inadvertently re-capitulates an empirio-normative judgment in the following fashion.

0176 Yes, Fuller takes the opportunity1c to express his expertise3b.

In terms of psychometric models, justice is value2.  Rawls associates with the socialist nested form.  Nozick associates with the capitalist nested form.  For Rawls, in the normal context of order3, fairness1 provides the best righteousness for justice2.  For Nozick, in the normal context of what the market can deliver3, imposing a price… er… cost1 is the best avenue to repair justice2.  Rawls wants to impose a veil of ignorance2, thus assuring fairness1.  Nozick wants to repair2,thus assuring reconciliation1.

0177 Of course, my own associations cast Fuller as an expert3b within the very system that he is (theoretically) calling out.

Yet, that is not his intent.

Such is the revelation embedded within his work.The very stones cry out.

07/11/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 19 of 26)

0178 Chapter twelve shifts Fuller back to a guide for the post-truth condition.

0179 In 2020, he writes that there are four challenges to the psychometric sciences for the budding COVID-19 saga.

First, winning the fight against the virus.

Second, winning the fight over what ‘winning the fight’ means.

Third, winning the fight over the lessons to learn from ‘what winning the fight means’.

Fourth, winning the fight over ‘what the lessons from winning the fight’ broadly mean.

0180 Here is a guess as to the appropriate empirio-normative judgment.

Note how each challenge ends when what is (what people say) corresponds to what ought to be (a normative narrative).  As each challenge ends, the next begins.

0181 In 2024, I ask, “Where do the four challenges stand?”

First is winning the fight about the origins of the virus.  This fight is not over.

Second is winning the fight over how to really treat this particular viral disease.  This fight is ongoing.

Third is winning the fight over how the initial determination of what to do to cure the disease turned out to be a complete disaster, as well as a fraud, perpetrated as an ineffective synthetic mRNA technology and approved by experts as an experimental “vaccine”.  The public is still in shock.

Fourth is winning the fight over the broad lessons of a catastrophic success2c coming from the one of scientism3c, who now seems to be prepared to encourage more trials2c

0182 It is enough to throw one into a fit of metalepsis.

07/10/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 20 of 26)

0183 Chapter thirteen is titled, “Thinking in the Fourth Order: The Role of Metalepsis in the Post-Truth Condition”.

The fourth challenge of any crisis is a fight over what the lessons from winning the fight broadly mean.

In other words, fourth-order thinking is a fight over the meaning of success2c.

Today, success2c for the all-but-divine post-truth perspective-level normal context3c does not seem to coincide with what the scrappy player regards as the success2a that is to be attained by submitting the player’s will1a to the situation-level potential1b of formalized knowledge.

0184 Indeed, the discrepancy is palpable.

Just ask a highly indebted graduate of a well-known university who has earned a degree in a psychometric discipline,where capitalist values entail skills in manipulation and where socialist values entail skills in propaganda.

Where are the jobs?

“Oh,” say the experts at the One Economic Forum, “You are already a success because of your credentials2b in the psychometric sciences3b.  You have pleased the gods of scientism3c.  You will own nothing and you will be happy.”

0185 Then, the former student receives a thick envelope from a loan agency containing a book full of expected payments.  Here are coupons… er… I should say… your monthly bills for the loans that you took out.  You can make our work more convenient by allowing the loan agency to automatically remove the amount of the bill from your checking account on a monthly basis.

Yes, the discrepancy is palpable.

0186 The graduate begins to understand that he has already been sacrificed for the scientismist one’s success2c.

Success2c for the system is not the same as success2a for an individual within the system.

Oh, the capriciousness of the gods.

0187 What about metalepsis?

Metalepsis is a rhetorical trope where something imaginative is taken to be real.

How curious.

So, which does metalepsis go with, illusion or delusion?

Consider the following definitions, which occur in Looking at Alex Jones’s Book (2022) “The Great Reset”, appearing in Razie Mah’s blog at the start of January, 2023.

An illusion is a mind-independent being that is regarded as mind-dependent.

A delusion is a mind-dependent being that is regarded as mind-independent.

0188 Well, obviously, the rhetorical trope of metalepsis must be a delusion.

Something imaginative is taken to be real.

All the experts are satisfied.

Metalepsis is madness.

0189 Oh, wait, do I feel a Gestalt shift coming on?

Is everything that seems to be mind-dependent becoming mind-independent?

Including the labels?

Does that mean that the rhetorical trope of metalepsis may be an illusion?

The experts are satisfied that metalepsis2a (as a mind-independent phenomenon) is madness1b (a mind-dependent formalization) because they regard metalepsis2a as a reticence that questions, does not submit to, and does not want to participate in1bthe acknowledgment that the relativist one3c is scientism3c.  Outside of science3c, everything is relative.  Science3c does not dwell in the jurisdiction of all other knowledge traditions.  In fact, science3c rises above all other academic turfs3b.  Science3c eclipses all academic fiefdoms3b.

0190 But, let me re-examine the definitions of metalepsis, illusion and delusion once again.

 In metalepsis, something imaginative is taken to be real.

“Something imaginative” appears to be mind-dependent, and that is what illusion creates. When a mind-independent being (such as a decision2c by the one of scientism3c) appears as mind-dependent (as opinions of people about something2a), then something real becomes something imaginative.  That fits the definition of illusion.

“Something that is believed to be real” appears mind-independent, and that is what delusion creates.  When a mind-dependent being (such as opinions2a) appears as mind-independent (phenomena observed and measured by the experts in the psychometric sciences1b), then something imaginative becomes something real.

0191 Yes, the expert can regard metalepsis as delusional.

But, illusion is near at hand.

07/9/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 21 of 26)

0192 Is there another way to think about metalepsis?

Does the interventional sign-relation have the characteristics of metalepsis?

Something mind-dependent2c (imaginative) is taken to be mind-independent2a (real), but not in a straightforward fashion.

An empirio-normative judgment2c (SVi) stands for what people say2a (SOi)

0193 The empirio-normative judgment2c must be mind-dependent because it is a triadic relation.

Triadic relations are mind-dependent beings.

Oh, yeah, triadic relations can also be mind-independent beings.

Ugh, I forgot to add that triadic relations bring mind-independent beings into relation with mind-dependent beings, and visa versa.

This is a little confusing.

0194 Let me start with the following.

Because a judgment is a triadic relation, and triadic relations often occur in the mind, some regard the empirio-normative judgment2c as mind-dependent.

However, the empirio-normative judgment2c resides as an actuality2 on the perspectivec-level of post-truth interscope.  As such, it should be mind-independent.

0195 The same type of distinction applies to the content-level actuality.  Opinions2a are mind-dependent and phenomena2a (the observable and measurable facets of people’s opinions) are considered to be mind-independent.

0196 Okay, what about the interventional sign-relation?

How do mind-dependence (imaginative) and mind-independence (real) play out in the interventional sign-relation?

The empirio-normative judgment2c serves as an interventional sign-vehicle (SVi).  It2c does so in its role as a perspectivec-level actuality2.  Typically, sign-vehicles are mind-independent and sign-objects are mind-dependent.  So, when the empirio-normative judgment2c operates as an interventional sign-vehicle (SVi), then it is a mind-dependent being (a judgment) that appears to be mind-independent (a sign-vehicle).

Does that pretension meet the definition of delusion? Or illusion?  Or what?

0197 Here is a picture of the interventional sign-relation, so far.

Let me say that again.

Opinions2a are ubiquitous and can be experienced, while the judgment2c that arises from an opportunity1c for the relativist one3c cannot be directly witnessed by a scrappy player.

0198 However, sign-vehicles are taken to be mind-independent.  So, even though the perspective-level judgment2c of the relativist one is mind-dependent, its2c role as an interventional sign-vehicle (SVi) gives it the character of mind-independent realness.

Following the same line of thought, interventional sign-object is imbued with the character of mind-dependent imaginative-ness, even though the content-level actuality2a is plain to see and hear.  Witness peoples opinions2a.

0199 The empirio-normative judgment2c (an apparently mind-independent SVi) stands for what people say2a (an apparently mind-dependent SOi) in regards to the intellect3a operating on the will1a (SIi).  The interventional sign-interpretant (SIi) must be the mechanism whereby something apparently mind-independent (but is constitutionally mind-dependent) becomes something mind-dependent (a SOi consisting of opinions2a).

0200 Does that meet the definition of “metalepsis”?

No, something apparently mind-independent and real (SVi) stands for something apparently mind-dependent and imaginative (SOi) in regards to reason3a,1a (SIi).

Yes, the mind-dependent and imaginative interventional sign-object (SOi) next serves as an apparently mind-independent and real specifying sign-vehicle (SVs).

Overall, opinions2a seem to be mind-dependent because they are interventional sign-objects (SOi).

Then, opinions2a appear to be mind-independent because they are specifying sign-vehicles (SVs).

0201 Okay, does “metalepsis” coincide this transition?

Something mind-dependent is taken to be mind-independent.

What happens next?

The specifying sign-relation couples the content and situation levels.  Phenomena2a (SVs) stand for models of valuation2b(SOs) in regards to the disciplinary languages of the psychometric sciences3b operating on the potentials of observation and measurement1b (SIs).  Social phenomena2a (SVs) specify psychometric models (SOs).  

0202 Does Fuller’s version of metalepsis correspond to when something imaginative (SOi) is taken to be real (SVs)?

If I answer in the affirmative, then metalepsis occurs entirely within the content-level actuality, in the transition from the apparently mind-dependent and imaginative interventional sign-object (SOi) to the apparently mind-independent and real specifying sign-vehicle (SVs).

Of course, this transition is a real concern. But, it is not metalepsis.

See Looking at Daniel Dennett’s Book (2018) “From Bacteria, to Bach and Back”, appearing in Razie Mah’s blog for December 2023. 

Indeed, this transition leads me forward, towards the expert level, where I have already traveled and ended up asking the following.

Question: How do I pay off my student loans for my journalism degree when I cannot find success2a?

Answer: You have already succeeded2c by getting a degree in journalism2b, according to the psychometric models2b that your professors have taught you.

0203 So what is Fuller aiming at with the introduction of the term, “metalepsis”, where something imaginative (mind-dependent) is regarded as real (mind-independent)?

0204 Why is the empirio-normative judgment2c mind-dependent?

Triadic relation are mind-dependent beings.

Why is the empirio-normative judgment2c mind-independent?

It must be mind-independent in order to serve as the interventional sign-vehicle (SVi).

0205 What element always seems to be mind-dependent?

Opinions2a, the interventional sign-object (SOi).

But, aren’t opinions2a, as specifying sign-vehicles (SVs), taken to be mind-independent?

0206 Uh-oh,  I already went in that direction.

I must not go into the specifying sign-relation.

If I am to proceed by way of the “metalepsis” that Fuller must be intimating, I should travel backwards, tracing the structure of the interventional sign-relation, from an imaginative, mind-dependent sign-object (SOi), consisting in opinions2a, towards a real, mind-independent sign-vehicle (SVi), that is located in the slot for a perspective-level actuality2c, currently occupied by an empirio-normative judgment2c.

0207 In order to accomplish this transit, my intellect3a (SIi) must operate on a potential greater than my will1a (SIi).

Here is a picture.

Indeed, I could say that something greater than my intellect3a (SIi) is required as well.

0208 In short, something imaginative (my own opinions and the opinions of those around me2a as SOiis taken to be real(a perspectivec-level actuality2 that emanates itself2c as an interventional sign-vehicle, SVi).

Metalepsis goes backwards within the interventional sign-relation.

07/8/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 22 of 26)

0209 Now, let me flow through my discombobulated thought development, once again.

The empirio-normative judgment has the same general structure as the empirio-schematic judgment of the natural and the social sciences.

0210 The empirio-normative judgment occupies the perspective-level actuality2c is because it is what ought be for thePositivist’s judgment. 

Or, something like that.

What ought to be for the postmodern Positivist’s judgment2c puts the expertb level into perspective.

0211 On the perspective level, the normal context of the one of scientism3c brings the empirio-normative judgment2c into relation with opportunities1c to contextualize the entire expert level.

On the situation level, the normal context of postmodern forums3b, where discourse is conducted using specialized disciplinary languages (expertise), brings the actuality of psychometric models of value2b into relation with the potential of formalizing knowledge1b, where knowledge consists of observations and measurements of social phenomena, especially in regards to what people are willing to say to a surveyor2a.

0212 The expertb level contains an intersection composed of two nested forms whose actualities constitute one contradiction-filled actuality.

Here, the two aspects of research ethics are reduced to adjectives for capitalist and socialist value.

The capitalist nested form contains transactional value2 as its actuality.  Transactional value2 concerns the causalities of financial exchange2bB and applies to the actuality2 on the situationb level of the organizationB tier.

The socialist nested form contains transcendental value2 as its actuality.  Transcendental value2 concerns the causalities of organizational objects2aC and applies to actuality on the contenta level of the societyC tier.

0213 Here is a picture.

Models of value2b ought to be intelligible.

Intelligibility characterizes what ought to be for the empirio-normative judgment2c.

0214 For the content level of the post-truth interscope, the actuality2a is both what people are thinking and saying (that is, their opinions)2a and what the psychometric sciences regard as phenomena2a.  My opinion2a can be separated into what I think2a and what I am willing to say to someone asking me questions from a survey2a.  The latter serve as phenomena2a.

0215 At the same time, the content-level actuality may be formulated in the same manner as what is of the Positivist’s judgment.  What is for the Positivist’s judgment says, “The noumenon cannot be objectified as its phenomena.  Or, the thing itself cannot be objectified as its observable and measurable facets.”  This is a universal statement, so the following comparison applies.

Universality characterizes what is for the empirio-normative judgment.

07/6/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 23 of 26)

0216 For the situation level of the post-truth interscope, the actuality2b is psychometric valuation. If anything, psychometric valuations2b should be intelligible, because an empirio-schematic judgment unfolds into the situation level.

The empirio-schematic judgment goes like this.

Disciplinary language (relation, thirdness) brings mathematical and mechanical models (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with observations and measurements of phenomena (what is, firstness).

The empirio-schematic judgment unfolds into the situation-level nested form.

0217 So, what relation (thirdness) brings the intelligibility of expert-determined valuations (what ought to be, secondness) into relation with the universality of phenomena (what is, firstness)?

In the Positivist’s judgment, the relation is the positivist intellect.  The positivist intellect has a rule.  Metaphysics is not allowed.

Perhaps, I can replace the positivist intellect with another label, “the scientismist intellect”, who is at the service of the one of scientism3c.

0218 Here is the result.

0219 May I still call this perspective-level actuality2c “the empirio-normative judgment”?

I suppose so.

At this juncture, the perspective level actuality2c of what ought to be for the Positivist’s judgment shifts into what the Positivist’s judgment ought to be, in order for the psychometric sciences2b to occupy the situation level.

Is that how the one of scientism3c defines success2c?

That’s not all.

Here is a picture for the general operation of the interventional sign-relation.

An interventional sign-vehicle (SVi) stands for an interventional sign-object (SOi) in regards to an interventional sign-interpretant (SIi).

0220 Connecting all the dots, the empirio-normative judgment2c (SVi) projects the intelligibility of the results of the psychometric sciences2b as what ought to be into people’s intellects3a and wills1a (SIi) and expects to harvest what people say2a (SOi) as a universal what is.

If these connections are plausible, then the one of scientism3c attempts to exploit the evolutionarily ancient character of the interventional sign relation in order to achieve contemporary domination of its subject populations.

07/5/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 24 of 26)

0221 Domination?

Will1a underlies knowledge1b and knowledge underlies opportunity1c.

The opportunity1c for what2c?

Success2c in projecting something intelligible2c into my intellect3a and my will1a.

Where does that intelligibility2c come from?

Of course, it2c comes from the valuations2b of the psychometric sciences3b.

0222 Clearly, the Fourth Battle of the Enlightenment Gods is different from prior modern wars. This battle arrays those who think the narrative2a and whose thoughts can be objectified as what marketers and social workers can observe and measure2a, against those who realize that the Positivist godhead’s definition of success2c means something other than “getting ahead”2a.

It’s the big-government (il)liberals versus the human rats starting to realize that they are subjects in a colossal hybrid capitalist-socialist scientific experiment.

Or is it fascist-communist?

0223 May I see your vaccine passport?

The person asking the question is a “bigilib” (big-government (il)liberal) who has bought the narrative, resulting in a coherence within the content-level actuality2a.  Such coherence provides feelings of invulnerability and belonging.

0224 The person who must comply with the question is a member of the subject population, who knows that showing the passport is an act of compliance.  Compliance does not comport with the noumenon, the thing itself, and this provides feelings of vulnerability and alienation.

Can the reader identify precisely what phenomena are being observed and measured by the experts that the bigilib reports to?

0225 Fuller does not explicitly state the answer.

Instead, he describes what he thinks now that he has come to recognize the post-truth condition.

07/4/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 25 of 26)

0226 The title of chapter fourteen is “The Path From Francis Bacon: A Genealogy of the Post-Truth Condition”.  Fuller, as both professor and guide, provides an insight into how the interventional sign-relation may serve as a back door to escape the clutches of this enlightenment god.

He starts with a simple request.

0227 Only when an inquirer2a has come to realize that the current enlightenment god3c, intervenes in the way that he thinks3a,1a, can this simple request be entertained.

If the reader feels a twinge of discomfort, take a look around.  Evidence abounds.  Consider Looking at Sam Smith and Kim Petras’s Music Video (2022) “Unholy” (appearing in Razie Mah’s blog on February 11, 2023).  Who is the woman in white?  What does her choice at the end of the video imply?  Cutting edge artists portray submission to the empirio-normative judgment2c as something to be applauded.

0228 Fuller tells a story, starting with Francis Bacon (1561-1626 AD), who serves as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor under King James I.  This story serves as an interventional sign-object (SOi) that implicates an interventional sign-interpretant (SIi) and that implication suggests the presence of an interventional sign-vehicle (SVi).

0229 The interventional sign-relation is so odd.  It must be evolutionarily ancient, at least going back to the domestication of fire, when people find the occasion to hand-talk nonsensical statements after enjoying a big, well-cooked meal.

Say what?

I thought that hand-talk is sensible.

Yes, every gesture-word is sensible, but a fully linguistic statement can grammatically not make sense.

And, that opens the possibility of cogitating the interventional sign-relation.

0230 Hand talk relies on icons and indexes.  Icons (like pantomime) picture their referents.  Indexes (like pointing) indicate their referents.  The referent always precedes the gesture-word.  In a sense, the iconicity and indexality of hand-talk words guarantee reference.

The gesture-word is a specifying sign.  The gesture word (SVs) specifies its referent (SOs) in regards to what the statement means to me operating on the potential of situating the decoded content (SIs).

0231 But what of the referent?

Is the referent itself also a gesture-word, signed by the one who signifies, without us knowing why?

If so, then the referent2a itself  (or what I am thinking about the referent2a) may be a sign-object (SOi) that must have an interpretant (SIi).   That SIi more or less corresponds to the answer to the question, “What is happening3a“, operating on the possibility that ‘something’ is happening1a.

Okay, if the referent2a of a hand-talk word itself is an interventional sign-object (SOi), then where is the interventional sign-vehicle (SVi)?

I cannot see, hear, smell, taste or touch it, but I know that it is there.

0232 In other words, the gesture-word (say, MOON) already has a referent, the moon that can be pictured or pointed to.

Is the moon itself like a hand-talk word?

If so, then who gestures it?

Once hand talk becomes linguistic, counter-intuitive, grammatically correct statements can address this question.

0233 [Point to me][point to my eyes][pantomime or point to MOON][pantomime MAN].

Tonight, I will see what the moon-man (SVi) is saying (SOi).

0234 So, an awareness of the interventional sign-relation is a hominin adaptation to the nature of sign-relations.

Fortunately, we evolved long before the modern constellation of enlightenment gods enters into the picture.

0235 The interventional sign-relation is embodied.

Metalepsis requires something greater than my will1a.

The truth is greater than my will1a.

0236 Unfortunately, in our current Lebenswelt, the one of scientism3c is eager to place its actionable judgments2c in the slot for the interventional sign-vehicle (SVi).

So, “my” will1a becomes a projection of the intelligibility2c of psychometrically determined valuations2b.

0237 The interventional sign-relation is not only the front door for domination in the current Battle of Enlightenment Gods, it is also the back door to the one who signifies, without us knowing why.

Here is a picture of the interventional sign-relation that this examiner constructs from Fuller’s historical account.

07/3/24

Looking at Steve Fuller’s Book (2020) “A Player’s Guide to the Post-Truth Condition” (Part 26 of 26)

0238 Original sin?

0239 Francis Bacon (1561-1626 AD) lives at the start of the current Age of Ideas. He is a lawyer.  He accepts that lying is part of everyday life, especially in the courtroom.  He discovers that inquisitional modes of investigation force people to report in public what privately they do not hold.  In short, the inquisitorial mode of testing and observing and measuring produces what I call “phenomena”.  Courtroom phenomena do not reveal what a subject “privately” thinks.  Courtroom phenomena reveal what the subject is openly willing to disclose under inquisition.

What I privately think associates to the noumenon.

What I am willing to say associates to phenomena.

0240 What does this imply?

Just as a triumphalist scientist wants to replace the noumenon with a mathematical or mechanical model, the scientismist one wants to replace what I privately think with what the Positivist’s judgment ought to be, that is, an empirio-normative narrative.

0241 Okay, then does that mean, once I am properly credentialed, that I have bought into a lie?

Yes and no.

Yes, phenomena cannot objectify their noumenon.  If I do not testify to what I think, then I must be lying.  So, the very idea of phenomena entails, not necessarily a falsehood, but a deception.

No, phenomena can objectify a model substituting for the noumenon.  If I have successfully substituted an empirio-normative narrative for what I think, then I am always engaging in deception, even to myself.  Either that, or I am always telling the “truth” (that is, the narrative) that can be objectified as what I say.

Did I write that correctly?

0242 The Christian doctrine of Original Sin derives from a mythic account of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve are fashioned by God in a paradise near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  They disobey God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Okay, let me tweak the tree’s label to “the fruit of the tree of formalized knowledge1b“.  Mythically, this tree occupies the center of the Edenic garden.

The problem is not disobedience, per se, but a capitulation to a post-truth condition imposed by… what else?… a speaking snake.  Serpents must speak, because they cannot talk with their hands.

0243 Needless to say, the serpent has a variety of narratives to offer.  The fruit will allow Eve to own its beauty (the capitalist model of value2b) as well as make her wise (the socialist model of value2b).  Eve sees an opportunity1c.  She makes an actionable judgment2c.  And, the relativist one3c notches up two successes2c, since Adam is along for the ride.

So, the Fall in the Garden of Eden has a lot to do with disobedience (to God, but obedience to the serpent) and lying (to oneself by adopting the narrative of the serpent as one’s own).

0244 Saint Augustine associates the Fall to a permanent weakness called “concupiscence”, which transliterates to “con (with) cupi (Cupid) scence (the state of being)”.  The state of being with Cupid is a little more entertaining than the state of being scammed by a speaking snake.  But, the post-truth condition for each is pretty much the same.

0245 Why?

The foundational potential of the post-truth condition is the will1a.

By definition, the foundational potential of the prior condition is the truth1a.

0246 What does this imply?

Well, if Adam and Eve associate to the start of our current Lebenswelt, as proposed in The First Singularity and Its Fairy Tale Trace (as well as An Archaeology of the Fall, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues), then the prior truth condition must associate to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Consequently, Adam and Eve may be historical, in so far as they are fairy tale figures associated with the start of the Ubaid archaeological period of southern Mesopotamia.  The Ubaid marks the start of history (that is, our current Lebenswelt).

0247 Of course, Saint Augustine does not know this.  So, he proposes that all humanity shares in the original sin of Adam and Eve through direct descent.  All humans are subject to original sin2c because Adam and Eve are the first parents.

This turns out to be a scientific proposal.  All humans are related to an original pair of humans.  This hypothesis is debunked by modern genetics.  There is no genetic bottleneck, as would be expected for a single-pair founding our species.

0248 So, Fuller points to a post-Augustine interpretation of our current Lebenswelt as a breeding ground for the post-truth condition.  We are expected, by our inquisitors, to say only what we are publicly willing to disclose, as if that is what we are thinking.  Whenever we live up to that expectation, we deceive ourselves.  At the same time, we notch up successes2c for the relativist one3c.

On top of that, our hard-won academic credentials encourage us to utter statements based on the latest empirio-normative narratives2c, as if they2c are what we are thinking2a.

0249 Razie Mah heartily agrees.  See his blog post for January 2, 2024.

0250 Perhaps, among other things, original sin involves defying the God of Creation by publicly mouthing the normative narratives of lesser deities, relativist ones3c, who put both the human intellect3a and will1a into perspective.

The sacrament of baptism plays a role in washing away that original sin, in so far as it introduces the infant to people who offer the story of the One True God, despite the fact that the story is unbelievable, according to all relativist one-heads.

0251 That said, Fuller’s genealogy of the post-truth condition points back to the very start of our current Lebenswelt.

Here is one vista that Fuller, as a guide to the post-truth condition, allows.

0252 Each person must decide which path to follow in the fourth Enlightenment Battle.

There are two paths.

One turns the person in to a certified mask that utters empirio-normative narratives.

One turns a person into a sign-tracker on a path that leads to a sign-vehicle that does not stand for what the empirio-normative judgment is telling me to think.  This is the path of metalepsis.  If Fuller is on target, the sign-tracker will discover an interventional sign-vehicle containing both a novel doctrine of original sin (for our current Lebenswelt) and a new appreciation of the human as an image of God (for the Lebenswelt that we evolved in).

In order to appreciate original justice, one must first respect original sin.

0253 Razie Mah offers three works that reconfigure the current empirio-schematic narrative of human evolution in a way that may assist sign-trackers.  These works are titled, The Human Niche, An Archaeology of the Fall and How To Define the Word “Religion”.  These works address the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, the first singularity and our current Lebenswelt.

Indeed, these works begin where Fuller’s excellent guidebook concludes.

0254 My thanks to Steve Fuller for his daring, and brief, exposition of the contemporary post-truth condition.