10/15/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 15 of 23)

0973 How is that for a Gestalt switch?

But now, I walk the soggy ground of theology and scientists wriggle in their seats.

0974 Here are my claims.

The story in Genesis 2.4 through Genesis 3 may be regarded as a fairy tale about the way that speech-alone talk potentiates unconstrained social complexity, by changing the character of both language and reality.

Furthermore, I submit that this fairy tale unlocks the background of Enfield’s scientific treatise.

In order to demonstrate these two points, I must conjure an alternate Gestalt for Enfield’s interscope.

That means… an alternate interscope… to the scientific?

0975 I begin by associating the story of the temptation of Eve and the subsequent Fall with Enfield’s interscope.

Here is the starting location.

Behold.

There, in the center of the garden of Eden, stands the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Eve is attracted to it, because she sees animals and birds eating the fruit, with no ill effect.  However, she knows that God told Adam not to eat of it, for on that day he will die.  So, why would the fruit be fatal for Adam and her, but not fatal to the birds and the squirrels who eat of it?

The serpent, a creature who has no hands or arms and therefore, is incapable of hand talk, replies to her query.  They begin a conversation, in speech-alone talk.

0976 The serpent’s words frame the conversation3a in terms of making a decision whether to eat the fruit or not1a.  As soon as the serpent frames the possibility of making a decision1a, Eve is primed to imagine what the fruit might mean1b. If it does not mean poison, then what?

The serpent’s suggestions as to what the fruit might mean1bgiven God’s command not to eat of it1a, soon overshadows her sensibility that the fruit is poisonous2b along with her responsibility to keep God’s command2b.  The serpent’s use of words3b characterizes theoretical discourse3b, such as the specialized discourses that build models in linguistics and cognitive psychology3b.

0977 Indeed, the way that Eve refers to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil2a changes.  Her increasing sense of curiosity1b and diminishing sense of responsibility2b, generates a potential of coordinating around the reality of God’s command1c, by getting Adam involved, not with her decision as much as her commitment to make a decision2c.

Of course, Adam eats the fruit in an act of solidarity with the one he loves.

0978 Here is a picture of the story, entered into Enfield’s interscope.

0980 Can I feel a Gestalt shift?

Does the above interscope speak to the religion side of an audience in a religion-science conference?

After all, all I have done is place elements of the Adam and Eve story into slots for Enfield’s interscope.

Plus, the associations seem to be appropriate.

0981 Now, I want to compare the two interscopes, level by level, and discern another (background) interscope.  In order to do so, I look through the science interscope at the interscope with the Adam and Eve stories.  Then, I look through the religion interscope at the science side, and voila.  The background interscope becomes more and more apparent.

I start with the perspective level from the side of science.

How does language3c coordinate reality1c?

I suppose that the actuality2c goes with a literal rendition of the Adam and Eve interscope.

The normal context of spoken language3c brings the actuality of a decision [translating into] disaster2c into relation with the possibility of coordinating around the reality of God’s command1c.

What about the view from the religion side looking to the science side?

I guess that what I see is not quite literal, and not quite allegorical, and well, more like a voice that Enfield may agree with, while at the same time, disagree with.

The normal context of language3c brings the actuality of physical reality (eating the fruit) [translating into] social reality(the recognition that they are naked)2c into relation with the potential that ‘coordination may constitute rebellion against God’1c.

0982 Next is the science side’s rendition of the Adam and Eves side for the situation level.

The normal context of theoretical discourse3b brings the actuality of speculation on what the fruit might be [overshadowing] Eve’s sensibility and responsibility2b in regards to the potential of ‘imagining what the fruit might mean’1b.

I move into the rendition through the religion side.

The normal context of linguistics and cognitive psychology3b brings the actualities of the use of spoken words2b into relation with the potential of ‘imagination’1b.

Now, something in the background seems to be moving towards the foreground.  An inversion constellates.

Why?

The religious side puts linguistic and cognitive psychology into the situation level, implying a recognition of the limitations of scientific inquiry.  Language3c puts linguistics3b into perspective.

0983 Next is the science point of view of the Adam and Eve fill-in on the content level.

The normal context of a conversation (between the serpent and Eve)3a brings the actuality of the serpent’s words [framing] the fruit of the tree of good and evil2a into relation to the potential of ‘Eve making a decision’1a.

The corresponding religious view-through on the content level brings in parties that are not cognitive psychologists or linguists.  These parties stand in the background of an initial implicit abstraction, that is invisible to Enfield’s inquiry.

The normal context of Christian revelation3a brings the actuality of the story of the fall in Genesis2a into relation with the potential of ‘the doctrine of original sin’1a.

0984 What have I accomplished?

Well, I suppose I have brought an interscope in the background into the foreground.

The explicit distinction that grounds Enfield’s work is viewed from the cloud of implicit abstraction.  The stories of Adam and Eve enter into the “body” of Enfield’s interscope, giving rise to two constellations (roughly) corresponding to Enfield’s grounding distinction.  One rendition plays out as a literal or “physical” association of the stories to elements in Enfield’s interscope.  The other rendition yields a more-comprehensive or “social” association of what the stories tell us about our current Lebenswelt.

The first rendition consists of Enfield’s interscope.

This second rendition constitutes an inversion of the first.

Weirdly, the ground beneath my feet is no longer so mushy and some scientists are leaving the auditorium.

Others remain.

10/14/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 16 of 23)

0985 Once again, here are my claims.

The story in Genesis 2.4 through Genesis 3 may be regarded as a fairy tale about the way that speech-alone talk potentiates unconstrained social complexity, by changing the character of both language and reality.

Furthermore, I submit that this fairy tale unlocks the background of Enfield’s scientific treatise.

0986 Overall, there are two gestalts.. maybe more… involved in discourse.  Speech-alone talk always primes the mind to one gestalt.  So, one gestalt is foregrounded.  The other gestalt lurks in the background.

In this case, the foreground is the general structure of Enfield’s interscope and the background associates to the stories of Adam and Eve.

0987 The association allows me to read the background interscope in more than one way.

So, what better way than one for physical reality and one for social reality?

The result is a literal first reading (similar to “physical”) and a more evocative second reading (similar to “social”).

The former appeals to the science side of a conference on religion-science dialogue.  The latter appeals to the religion side.

0988 A comparison of the resulting virtual nested forms in the realm of normal context proves interesting.

0989 Why is the comparison interesting?

The literal-reading interscope that starts as the foreground of Enfield’s argument highlights the relevance of linguistics and cognitive psychology to the modern reader interested in both language and reality.  Note the virtual nested form in the category of thirdness.  The normal context of language3c virtually brings the actuality of human discourse3b into relation with what is happening3a.

Surely, this virtual nested form describes research into linguistics and cognitive psychology. In fact, the superior nested form has always characterized these disciplines.  Enfield makes it a point to refer to early research in these fields.  Scientific advances start over a century ago.  These academic disciplines have some history.  The entire virtual nested form serves as the subject matter of these scientific disciplines.

0990 In contrast, the interscope dwelling in the background places Enfield’s academic disciplines into a situation-level nested form.  The normal context of linguistics and cognitive psychology3b brings the actual use of spoken words2b into relation with the potential of ‘human imagination’1b.

0991 So, a more salient comparison should look like this.

For the foreground, the virtual nested form in the realm of normal context describes the disciplines of linguistics and cognitive psychology.

For the background, the situation level describes the same disciplines.

0992 What does this imply?

What we (regular humans) call, “language3c“, is not the same as what linguists and cognitive psychologists call, “language3c.

Is the Gestalt switch obvious?

0993 The normal contexts for an association of the stories of Adam and Eve to Enfield’s current interscope describe the modern fields of linguistics and cognitive psychology.  Language3c is topic for scientific inquiry concerning how human discourse3b emerges from and situates what is happening3a.

The Gestalt inversion interscope portrays the disciplines of linguistics and cognitive psychology as a situationb-level nested form. So, the Enfield’s foregrounded interscope expand the situation level of an interscope lurking in the background.   But now that background interscope has entered the foreground.

Plus, language3c, is something more than a topic for scientific inquiry3b.  Language3c puts scientific inquiry3b into perspective.

Furthermore, scientific inquiry3b situates Christian revelation3a.  Surely, Christians feel that boot, because their perspective-level normal context of language3c gets reduced to a topic for researchers such as Enfield3b, leading to an expansion of the situation-level into a full blown interscope, that is then placed in the foreground by the science side of the auditorium in a religion-science conference.

0994 The theology side of the auditorium does not have the methodology to say that, what the scientists foreground is only the situation level of more comprehensive intrinsic abstraction, that is forced into the background, as scientists maintain the positivist intellect’s rule, outlawing metaphysics.

Once the inversion occupies the foreground, further reflection on Adam and Eve and the serpent strengthens associations.  The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, for Eve, is not the same as for the serpent.  Eve’s use of language3c and her role in Christian revelation3a differs from the serpent’s clinical observations of what the meaning, presence and message of the fruit might mean3b.

0995 Here, the chapter on framing and inversion ends, concluding Part II, titled “Nudged by Language”.  The terminus inspires me to conjure the following play on the title of Enfield’s book.

10/12/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 17 of 23)

0996 By now, the partial character of the titles of the three parts should be apparent.

For each, the full title would include the prescript, “Reality Is”

So Part III is fully titled, “Reality is Made by Language”.

0997 The full title of chapter eight is “Russell’s Conjugation and Wittgenstein’s Ruler”.

In this chapter, Professor Enfield cuts a few jokes.  He also mentions politics.

So, do not be surprised when I follow suit.

0998 The Russell conjugation is the first header in the title of chapter eight.

The Russell conjugation is a literary play on the conjugation of verbs in Latin and other romance languages.  I love, you love and he loves.  Well, the conjugation does not look impressive in English, but French and Spanish is a different story altogether.  So, a prankster comes up with a play that mimics conjugation and appeals to British humor.

I am hero, you are anti-hero and he watches us on screen.

0999 My example of the Russell conjugation plays on two dichotomies.  The first dichotomy is between hero and villain.  The second is between actor and viewer.  The two dichotomies seem to both apply to the same reality.  What is that reality?  The movies?  Theater?  Politics?

On top of that, the fact that there are two dichotomies but only three elements in the conjugation suggests that there is a missing term.

1000 That brings me to the Greimas square.  The Greimas square is invented by a linguist.  The Greimas square is a purely relational structure.  There are four elements corresponding to four corners of a two-dimensional box.  The first dichotomy occupies the upper two corners, A and B.  The second dichotomy occupies the lower two corners, C and D.

There are rules.  A is the focal term.  B contrasts with A.  C speaks against B and complements A.  D contrasts with C, speaks against A and complements B.

1001 Here is the Greimas square for the example.

1002 Yes, the Greimas square is a purely relational structure congruent with the purely relation structure of language.  Once rendered as a Greimas square, the Russell conjugation is actually an instruction to an audience.  Follow the intuition of the person, “he”, watching “me” and “you” on screen.

The ancient Greek chorus is an early instance of this “he” in theater.

1003 The Greimas square appears in many of Razie Mah’s blogs in 2023.  Look and see.

1004 The Russell conjugation morphs to “I say, you say, he says” in the following political example.

1005 Curiously, the Abu Ghraib story appears on page 128 (at the very start of Part III) and again on page 198 (at the end of Part III).

1006 One of the rules of thumb for reading philosophy texts is to look around the middle of the book for an esoteric message.  Also, look for topics that get revisited later.

Remember Schelling’s games of coordination?  The same applies to philosophy books.

Typically, philosophy texts are full of exoteric messages, from beginning to end.  So, a good hiding place for an esoteric treat resides right in the middle of the book.  Another hiding place is split into two locations.

Applied here, the rule of thumb says, “When you encounter an incident on page 128, and again on page 198, then be aware that it may be an esoteric message.”

The rule is fulfilled by Enfield’s split reflection.

1007 To me, this philosophical treat consists in comparing the passages concerning Abu Ghraib on page 128 and on page 198, side by side.  The comparison highlights the manipulative genius of Russell’s conjugation.

There is more to Russell’s conjugation than meets the eye.

10/11/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 18 of 23)

1008 Russell’s conjugation, a comedic British play on the I, you, he conjugation of verbs in Romance languages, may present three elements in two dichotomies.  So, the word play should be on the I, you, he and we conjugation of verbs, but the we is left out. I am the focus.  You contrasts with me.  He is not the contrast between me and you.  Plus, he contrasts with we in a special sort of way.  We are supposed to agree with him.

1009 Enfield’s example?

I am firm, you are obstinate, he is a pig headed fool.

1010 Does that imply that we agree with the pig-headed fool?

Well, he is a pig-headed fool because he does not agree with me.

So, we should agree with me.

After all, Lord knows, we are not pig-headed fools.

1012 Here is a picture of the corresponding Greimas square.

1013 Unlike the Abu Ghraib Greimas square, where the informant is in slot C, the above Greimas square has the reporter in slot A.  That is the one who “we” (D) end up agreeing with.

Okay, the audience for Russell’s conjugation is supposed to agree with the speaker.

Plus, that initial response contains an implicit abstraction that asks, more or less, “Why would the presenter lie to me?”

1014 According to Comments on Michael Tomasello’s Arc of Inquiry (1999-2019) (available at smashwords and other e-book venues, and appearing, for most part, in Razie Mah’s blog for January, February and March 2024), hand talk initially adapts to the social circle of the team.  Everything that is said in a team is sensible, because hand talk pictures and points to its referents.  Plus, the main incentives to perform hand talk are to be productive and to have fun.  Dishonesty and misconstrual are not rewarded in team work.

1015 After the domestication of fire, hand talk becomes fully linguistic as it adapts to the social circle of the community.  That includes all social circles within the community.

With fully linguistic hand talk, nonsensical statements can be made.  Some of these counterintuitive statements turn out to be very adaptive, because they provide insights that could not be rendered using sensible construction.  Indeed, social construction is not necessarily what makes counterintuitive statements adaptive.  Rather, it is the sensible constructionthat builds on social construction that produces the payoff.

Social construction is the meaning underlying the word, “religion”.

1016 My Paleolithic example has one of the deer hunting team say, in hand talk, the following.

[STORM] [TEETH][COLD][BITES]

1017 This counter-intuitive statement2a frames the referent2a, [STORM], and its sequela, [COLD], as a predator [TEETH][BITES].

We agree with the speaker by allowing the frame to prime the referent2a for our imagination1b.

And, in doing so, we activate a perspective-level potential1c.

1018 Here are the elements of Enfield’s interscope that are activated in the Greimas square version of Russell’s conjugation.

1019 So, “we” implicitly abstract agreement with the one who is talking, in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, because everyone who talks to “us” is either on our team or in our community.

Why would the presenter lie?

10/10/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 19 of 23)

1020 What does this imply?

Can I replace the content-level potential with the noun, “agreeability”?

The normal context of everyday conversation (as well as anything approaching conversation)3a brings the actuality of spoken words [framing and priming] reference2a into relation with the potential of agreeability1a.

1021 So, the content-level question, “What is happening?”3a, is answered.

The potential of ‘something’ happening1a is also addressed.

1022 Speaking of ‘something happening1a, I wonder, “What question does the potential of agreeability always avoid?”

1023 Does Eve ask the serpent, “Why would you lie to me?”

And, if she did, would the serpent have replied, “Why are you so disagreeable, today?”

This brings me to the second header in the title of chapter eight: Wittgenstein’s rule.

1024 Wittgenstein’s rule is deceptively straightforward.

A speaker’s statement may tell the listener more about the speaker than what the speaker is talking about

So, if the speaker’s motives are nefarious, then what the speaker is talking about could be misleading.

1025 Why is Wittgenstein’s rule deceptively straightforward?

It’s like telling someone that the way to get from the house to the bakery is to fly.

People don’t fly.

1026 Here is the Russell conjugation-inspired Greimas square for an argument between I (A) and you (B) that is being watched and reported on by he (C).

Now, how does Wittgenstein’s rule fit into this picture?

Oh, it fits in as the contrary of D.

1027 Here is another example.

In the introduction, Enfield mentions the sad tale of primatologist, who becomes a research scientist during the heyday of behavioralism.  The behavioralist treats the subject of inquiry as a black box.

The idea is to scientifically control the input that an animal receives and observe the animal’s behavior in response to the researcher introducing controlled input.

In order to study mother-newborn bonding in an animal model, this researcher follows a protocol that separates a newborn rhesus monkey from its mother and places it in an enclosure where inputs can be rigorously monitored.

He does this for years because behavioralists say that the results of these types of stimulus-response experiments will advance scientific understanding.

1028 Of course, the primate scientist agrees.

1029 Where does Wittgenstein’s rule fit into this picture?

Oh, it fits in only insofar as its violation explains the researcher’s inability to notice1b that all the rhesus monkeys under investigation are suffering horribly.

So, without the primatologist even knowing it, the researcher’s publications tell us more about the agreeability1a of the scientist than the actual results that are contained in the publications.

1030 Uh, I suppose that the last sentence restates Wittgenstein’s rule.

1031 Which only goes to show the value that this examination adds.

I have demonstrated that, since we evolved to be agreeable1a, we are unable to follow Wittgenstein’s rule.

1032 But, there is a bright side.

After our inability to follow Wittgenstein’s rule leads to a nightmare so horrible that we could not have foreseen it, a Gestalt switch gets thrown.

Our imagination1b transforms and we come to realize that Wittgenstein’s rule applies.

10/9/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 20 of 23)

1033 Chapter nine is titled, “Stories and What They Do To Us”.

Chapter ten is titled, “Social Glue”.

The sequence follows Professor Enfield’s argument.  Chapter eight is examined.  What comes next is a chapter on stories.  Then, these stories are treated as social glue.

However, I have already touched the tar-baby of agreeability1a.  So, the “tar” of agreeability1a must be dealt with before the “baby” of the story.

1034 Here is the current version of the ever-modulating intrinsic abstraction that I call, “Enfield’s interscope”.

1035 If conversation3a replaces the normal context of what is happening3a

…and if purely symbolic spoken words2a replace the icons and indexes of hand talk2a

…and if the potential of ‘agreeability’1a replaces the potential of ‘something happening’1a

…then language and reality become our adversaries.

Or… 

….maybe…

…we become their adversary, the “versus” standing between language and reality.

1036 In the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, hand talk is a valuable resource in team work and community coordination.  Linguistic hand talk is not our enemy.  It is a guide that opens new cognitive spaces (that today, corresponds to the meaning underlying the word, “religion”).

Language is our friend because… well… why would the talker lie to us?

Language is a key ingredient to “our social glue”.

We evolve by adapting to be agreeable1a.

Reality?

It is not so much a friend, but maybe, it is a companion.

1037 In our current Lebenswelt, speech-alone talk is a magical tool that creates realities that we never imagined, including the academic disciplines that Enfield discusses.

Yet, Enfield cannot fully and explicitly abstract the consequences of speech-alone talk.  He cannot tell us that we are the “versus” in the title.  This explains why he offers stories and story-telling as key ingredients to the human social glue.  This accounts for why he cannot recognize that Wittgenstein’s rule is as impossible as levitation.

We are not built for Wittgenstein’s rule.  We are designed to be agreeable1a.

1038 Indeed, a close reading of chapter ten shows that Enfield concurs, even though he does not draw the conclusion explicitly.

1039 Here is a diagram of the virtual nested form in the realm of possibility for Enfield’s interscope.

The normal context of coordinating our reality1c virtually brings the actuality of human imagination1b into relation with the potential of agreeablity1a.

10/8/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 21 of 23)

1040 Chapter ten is titled, “Social Glue”.

Chapter nine is titled, “Stories and What They Do To Us”.

Chapter eleven is titled, “Sense Making.”

1041 If chapter ten concerns how agreeablity1a is innate and allows words to frame what is happening3a and the potential of ‘something happening’1a

…and if chapter eleven touches base on how coordination1c fosters the translation of reference2c (such as physical reality) into big-picture sensiblity2c (such awareness of social realities)…

…then chapter nine touches base with how imagination1b supports situation-level reference2b overshadowing situation-level sensibility2b.  

1042 To some Hollywood producers, all movie stories boil down to a recipe.

The story about a particular cloud standing for a coming storm and bringing an end to an excursion of deer-hunting party, 750,000 years ago, does not quite fit.

Neither does the story of the researcher who realizes that he treats rhesus monkeys like some people treat humans.  Dehumanization works on animals, too.

1043 So, I suppose that the story that needs to be told, for my examination of Enfield’s argument, is one where human agreeablity1a allows the story’s characters to imagine1b that they can do whatever they want to do1c.

Then, they talk to a serpent, who manipulates their agreeability1a, er… gullability1a and confounds their imaginations1b, leading them to coordinate1c a rebellion against the Source of Reality.

So, they fall into ruin because of their infraction, and never quite recover, generation after generation, until the Creator of Reality sends His Only Son, to make their descendants aware that Wittgenstein’s rule applies.

If that story is made into a movie, the title should be An Archaeology of the Fall.

1044 The mythic arc is found in Genesis 3.  The scientific arc is the hypothesis of the first singularity.  The stories of Adam and Eve are fairy tales about the emergence of unconstrained social complexity in the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia, the first culture to practice speech-alone talk.  So, the dramatic turning point, following the Greimas square re-articulation of Russell’s conjugation, looks like this.

Eve does what humans evolved to do.

1045 But now, Wittgenstein’s rule applies.

And, the story of Adam and Eve leads into a Gestalt shift, or switch, or whatever one wants to call it2c.

In the following figure, I compare the content-level nested forms for Enfield’s interscope shifting, from the foreground, into the background.

1046 If Wittgenstein’s rule is to be relevant, then it should accompany the potential of  ‘a decision’1a.

From the very start, Eve is agreeable1a.  Eve is not aware that Wittgenstein’s rule applies.

Only after the incident, as Eve is confronted with her transgression, does she admit that Wittgenstein’s rule applies.  What the serpent told her said more about the serpent than the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Indeed, what the serpent said about the fruit may be a fabrication.  But, there is an element of truth.  Eve did not die immediately upon eating the fruit.

1047 Compare the situation-level nested forms between Enfield’s interscope and the background, starting to come into the foreground.

1048 What does the serpent do?

The serpent uses spoken words, which do not picture or point to their references, to create a fictive reference1b, called “all the things that we can imagine that the fruit might mean2b“.  It is as fictitious as contemporary rhetorical terms such as “illegal combatant”, “unprovoked attack” and the list goes on.  The spoken words2a seem to apply to physical reality, but they really are framing, and priming, a reference2a.

In social reality, reference2b [overshadows] sensibility2b. There is little doubt that the empty word “it” in the question, “What does it mean to me?”, refers to the reference2bwhat the perceptive soul perceives, rather than the tangle of emotional responses2b that the reference2b overshadows.

1049 Eve’s innate sensibilities2b are overwhelmed.  The animal body has three modes: approach, avoid and safely ignore. So, when something as unhinged as all the characteristics implied by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stands as the referent2b, then it is easy to accept that responsibility2b might not be the first reaction to come to mind.  Eve irresponsibly approaches the tree.

I guess “responsibility” would go with “avoid”.

10/7/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 22 of 23)

1050 Do religious traditions offer disciplinary habits that train the individual to be aware of the easy way that reference overshadows sensibility?  

Remember your vows!  Remember your training!

1051 Does a religious conceptual apparatus endeavor to train the individual to be aware of our innate grounding in acceptability1a?  

I suppose so.  Do not be lured into conversation with the serpent.  What the person says may tell you more about the person speaking than any content that comes from his mouth.  The reference itself may serve as a deception.  If it is too good to be true, then it most likely not true.  Instead, the truth rests not in what is being said, but in the honesty of the one who is saying it.

1052 Indeed, the message that Enfield attempts to capture, but cannot quite get there with the disciplinary languages of linguistics and cognitive psychology, is that, what he calls, “coordination” is really “co-ordination”.

The normal context of language3c brings the actuality of “reference as a physical reality” [translating into] “sense as a social reality”2c into relation with the potential that the material and the immaterial, co-ordinate1c.  That means that language is divine.  Only the super-natural can co-ordinate matter and form.

1053 Compare the perspective-level nested forms as Enfield’s interscope fades into the background, and a new Geist constellates in the foreground.

1055 I suspect that all the ancient civilizations of the Near East believe in the divinity of spoken words.  The utterances of “language3c are physical realities that substantially change social realities.  The technical term for a change in substanceis “transubstantiation”.  “Trans” means “across”.  “Substantiation” means “to constellate substance”.

1056 When Adam and Eve eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil2c, that act2c changes their substance from a state of original justice2c, manifesting co-ordination with God1c to a state of original sin2c, manifesting estrangement from God1c.

1057 Can one regard the garden of Eden as the first sacrament, where physical reality is transubstantiated into social reality?

1058 Of course, before the first singularity, hominins cannot gesture the term, “transubstantiation”, using hand talk.

Instead, transubstantiation is built into their bodies and souls.

1059 Indeed, the question as to whether the state of original justice corresponds to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in has been asked, on January 2, 2024, in Razie Mah’s blog.

10/5/24

Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) “Language vs. Reality” (Part 23 of 23)

1060 Chapter eleven completes Part III.  This chapter concerns sense making.

How am I to make sense of the inverted interscope that arrives after the story of Adam and Eve enters into Enfield’s science-inspired interscope?

1061 How do I capture the Gestalt shift in speech-alone talk?

For Enfield’s scientific frame, the perspective-level contiguity is [translates into].

For the inverted frame, the perspective-level contiguity is [transubstantiates into].

Does this suffice?

The Gestalt switches from one to the other interscope.

1062  What else?

The change of Gestalts reconfigures the title.

1063 What Enfield cannot say is this.

Our current Lebenswelt is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

In 2022, he simply is not aware of the hypothesis of the first singularity.

1064 What Enfield cannot say may be formulated in terms of science, as an evolutionarily recent cultural transition from hand-speech talk to speech-alone talk, starting with the emergence of the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia, nominally 7824 years ago.

One day, science may present how hand and hand-speech talk potentiates constrained social complexity and speech-alone talk potentiates unconstrained social complexity.

Science may investigate how hand and hand-speech talk facilitates implicit abstraction and how speech-alone talk has a unique ability to label anything, even referents that cannot be pictured or pointed to, even referents that are quite fantastic and alluring and that exist only in the realm of possibility.

1065 Perhaps, explicit abstraction is more cunning than any animal that the Lord God creates.

Like sin, it couches at our door.  It is our job to tame it.

1066  In conclusion, Enfield’s well-written book testifies to what he is not aware of.

The background Gestalt of his scientific discourse is a story, and this story steps forward in this examination of Part III, entitled “Reality Made By Language”.  But, the inversion does not manifest a full Gestalt shift, because that is precisely what Enfield wants to avoid.  He wants to remain a scientist, speaking the disciplinary languages of linguistics and cognitive psychology, as if they could warn us about the near impossibility of practicing Wittgenstein’s rule, because our kind evolves the trait of ‘agreeability’1a, so that our ‘imaginations’1b may align in the virtual normal context of ‘coordination’1c.

1067 Enfield’s interscope is beautiful to behold.

His interscope appears in the mirror of science.  I say this while casting a glance at Comments on Mariusz Tabaczek’s Arc of Inquiry (2019-2024) by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.  Portions appear in Razie Mah’s blogs for April through June, 2024.  When a theologian looks at Enfield’s interscope, shimmering in the mirror of science, he responds with a theological question, asking, “What is this image revealing?”

The answer cries out for a Gestalt inversion.

One Gestalt hinges on the contiguity, “translates”.

The other Gestalt hinges on the contiguity, “transubstantiates”.

1068 The invert interscope is a wonder to behold.

Saint Thomas Aquinas might chuckle.  Aquinas coined the word, “transubstantiates”.

Note how a physical reality, as simple as water, poured over the head of a baby or a child or a repenting adult,transubstantiates into the social reality of washing away the stain of original sin2c.  Water is more than physical reality.  Washing the stain of original sin is more than social reality.

1069 This is what the theologian projects into the mirror of theology, standing in the jurisdiction of science, as he contemplates the implications of what Enfield has written.

1070 In the sacrament of baptism, everyone in the ritual co-ordinates, in one particular recitation, starting with an answer to the question, “Do you reject Satan?”

Lucifer is an angel of light.  Everything that Lucifer says tells more about Lucifer than the referent that Lucifer’s words conjure.  Indeed, the referent that Lucifer’s words conjure is a lie.  Just look at the seven of cups in a deck of illustrated Tarot cards and tell me that Lucifer’s words do not conjure this image in the mind of poor, unsuspecting Eve, who, after all, is only trying to be agreeable.

1071 Perhaps, this examination is an invitation for Dr. Enfield and other linguists and cognitive psychologists, to realize that their science has isolated us in rigid containers of empirio-schematic thought.  We are creatures who evolved to live as images of God, not as subjects for the psychometric sciences.

Do not let your scientific commitments get in the way of an origin story of the ancient Near East2a, rising through the observable and measurable use of spoken words2b, and blossoming into a sacrament instituted during the most amazing revelation coming from the promised land2c.

When John the Baptist pours the waters of the Jordan over the head of Jesus, the heavens rejoice.

Here is what we evolved to be, standing at the confluence of language and reality.

1072 John Deely, the author of Four Ages of Understanding (2001), offers a label for this new world view.  Welcome to the Age of Triadic Relations.

1073 My thanks to Dr. N. J. Enfield for his book, written at the cusp (yet without awareness that there is a cusp) of a new age of understanding

09/30/24

Looking at Michelle Stiles’s Book (2022) “One Idea to Rule Them All” (Part 1 of 23)

0495 A note on blog protocol.

In the strange world of blogs, the most recent blog appears first, so the first blog in a sequence must be placed last in any given month, in order for the blogs to be read from top to bottom.

0496 A note on timing and points.

The blog for July 2024 examines a book by British sociologist, Steve Fuller.  This examination introduces the interscope for the post-truth condition, along with its embedded interventional sign-relation.

The blog for August 2024 tests the relevance of the post-truth interscope, by applying the purely relational structure to a reading of a book by American entrepreneur and um… politician (?)… Vivek Ramaswamy.  Battles among enlightenment gods shape modern history.

These constitute Part One of Original Sin and the Post-Truth Condition, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

Also, in August, the post-truth interscope is shown to be much older than one would suspect.  The sophists of ancient Greece run the same game as the modern post-truth condition.  That implies that the post-truth condition may trace to the beginning of our current Lebenswelt.  A review of an essay by Josef Pieper is the second examination in Part Two.

Now, in September 2024, the post-truth interscope is applied to a book by a physical therapist with an excellent sense of what is happening, Michelle Stiles.  Decode this book in order to find out the potential of ‘something’ happening.  This review is the first examination in Part Two.

Finally, in October 2024, an encore.  Looking at N. J. Enfield’s Book (2022) Language vs. Reality constitutes Part Three of Original Sin and the Post-Truth Condition.

0497 Here is a look at the examination of the post-truth condition and its relation to original sin.

0498 Let me sound my notes once again.

The end of Fuller’s book predicts what happens when a person in the thralls of an empirio-normative judgment2c is sacrificed to an enlightenment deity, such as the one of scientism3c.  The scrappy player3a discovers that the system’s definition of “success2c is not what he calls “success2a“. For the scientismist one3c, “success2c” is not the scrappy player’s “getting ahead2a“.  Rather, “success2c” is an exercise of an empirio-normative judgment2c.

0499 Here is a picture of the contemporary post-truth interscope.

0500 Vivek Ramaswamy’s book is a testimony to the character of expert-driven3b psychometric values2b as formalizations1b that distort what people are willing to say2a.

Oh… I did not mean to use the word, “distort”… I meant to use the word, “model”.

Psychometric studies2b demonstrate that what people are willing to say2a can be modeled according to postmodern formulations2b that encourage1c those who “trust the science”3c to render an empirio-normative judgment2c that stands for how what people think and what people say is hurtful and objectionable2baccording to criteria2b established by those3brepresenting the most vulnerable in society1b.

0501 What is a person who thinks that “success2a” means “to get ahead by hard work and an attitude of cooperation2asupposed to do, when thwarted by the accusation2b that such speech is euro-centric and ethno-supremacist?  Keep working hard and acting agreeably?  A panel of experts3b will formalize1b whatever this scrappy player says2a and does2ainto an accusation2b that stands in the way of getting ahead.

The scrappy player is tempted to say, “Screw it.  The empirio-normative judgment wins.  I am outta here.”

0502 As soon as the scrappy player lays flat and looks up, the sky offers an opportunity, a screen to paint the One who Signifies, without Us Knowing Why.

This implicit abstraction is more primordial than anything that our current Lebenswelt can offer as a perspectivec-level reality2.  The originating source of the interventional sign-relation is a sign-vehicle (SVi) that cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled.  How so?  The interventional sign-vehicle2c (SVi) stands for what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled2a, including the odors of frustration, failure and fear2a (SOi), according to an intellect that recognizes signs3a contextualizing a will that appreciates a gift in what is being encountered1a (SIi).

This is the type of mental behavior that we (humans) evolved to perform.  Humans recognize signs.  Humans appreciate gifts.  After all, both involve triadic relations.  The human niche is the potential of triadic relations.

0503 The trick (SIi) for the interventional sign-relation comes from the fact that we experience the sign-object (SOiand then must figure out the sign-vehicle (SVi.  Our experiences of things in the world2a (SOi) testifies to an actuality in the mind of a perspective-level being2c (SVi).

0504 Fuller, at the end of his practical guide, contemplates the SOi of himself [proposing] an account of how the post-truth condition comes to be2a.  Simultaneously, the One Who Signifies3c weaves the notion of original sin2c (SVi) into Fuller’s narrative.

Original sin2c (SVi) stands for Fuller telling an origin story for the post-truth condition2a (SOi) in regards to an interpretant that is within, yet transcending, Fuller’s intellect3a and will1a (SIi).

0505 Here is a picture of the interventional sign-relation residing within chapter fourteen of Fuller’s text, following Fuller’s definition of metalepsis.

0506 Does Fuller merely relate a historical account of how the post-truth condition comes to be?

Or, is he also is making a discovery?

Or, should I say… revealing an insight?

0507 On January 2, 2024, in his blog, Razie Mah proposes that the doctrine of original sin needs to be reformulated in light of a fact.  The science of genetics disproves Saint Augustine’s claim that Adam’s transgression passes from Adam to all humans through direct descent, without modification.  Genetics establishes, beyond doubt, that there is no bottleneck in human evolution that would correspond to an original human pair, unless that pair exists hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Consider Looking at William Lane Craig’s Book (2021) “In Quest of the Historical Adam” and Looking at Andrew Ter Ern Loke’s Book (2022) “The Origin of Humanity and Evolution”, appearing in Razie Mah’s blog in September, 2022, and November, 2023, respectively.  These examinations show the futility of regarding Adam and Eve as the originators of our species, Homo sapiens.

0508 Mah’s proposal launches a strange and serious enterprise.

At this moment in history, psychometric experts3b testify that their analysis2b of what people say2a shows no need for the doctrine of original sin, except for the problem that people do not understand how the system works2c.  “Religion”, once attributed to “Christian factions”, no longer has relevance compared to bureaucratic rationalizations2b that narrow formal knowledge1b into two tranches, one capitalist and one socialist, which combine into a mystery, an intersection, that is far more salient to modern society than so-called “religion”.  Value2b is a single actuality constituted by the actualities of financial transaction2H and organizational objective2V.  Or, shall I say, money and politics?

0509 Some of the more intellectually inclined scrappy players go so far as to call America’s government-occupying secular bureaucracy a “religion”.  And, it is.  But, it is not “religion” defined as “a Christian faction”.

Yes, it depends on how one defines the word, “religion”.

0510 Sophistication aside, the one of scientism3c, who rules this “system”, may well be a manifestation of… yes… original sin.  How does one account for scientism3c as a person writ large, possessing the minds of apparently regular people, as institutions writ small, turning them into advocates for the scientismist one3c?

0511 Augustine focuses on disordered desires.  Does a doctrine of disordered desires suffice to account for the disoriented minds that justify the deranged valuations2b of psychometric experts3b?  Or, are disordered desires and disoriented minds both symptoms of an evolution-twisting cultural trajectory that is portrayed in the Genesis stories of Adam and Eve, all the way to the Tower of Babel?  An affirmative answer to the second question opens the door to a second doctrine of original sin.

0512 If the early chapters of Genesis are fairy tales concerning the instigation of unconstrained social complexity during the Ubaid and the Uruk archaeological periods of southern Mesopotamia, and if the Ubaid culture of southern Mesopotamia is the first culture to practice speech-alone talk, at a time when all other cultures practice hand-speech talk,then theologians should weave the hypothesis of the first singularity into the fabric of a second doctrine of original sin.

0513 A second doctrine?

Yes, a second doctrine must account for Augustine’s first doctrine as a special application, in the same way that quantum mechanics accounts for Newtonian physics as a special application.

Inquiry into the post-truth condition may open the portal to a second doctrine of original sin.

So, I begin.

The book before me is by Michelle Stiles, the full title is One Idea to Rule Them All: Reverse Engineering American Propaganda.  The book is copyrighted in 2022 and published by the author.

0514 The cover photo depicts a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Yes, experts3b are human, just like scrappy players3a.

So, they could be the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

It is the scientismist one3c that I am not sure about.