0541 In section 4.2, the authors discuss the prokaryotes.  These single-celled organisms are independent and fierce.  For the most part, they operate exclusively.  But, they do have moments of compatibility, due to horizontal gene transfer.

I once got a bacterial infection after… you know… having fun in the foolish ways of a human contractile vacuole.  My body did all it could to exclude the damn things.  But, they won and… what is that?.. you call it “penicillin”?… then I was miraculously cured.  But, I learned a lesson.  No more having fun in ways that I can get bacterial infections.

0542 In section 4.3, the authors discuss the eukaryotic transition.  Here, the second column comes into play, because eukaryotes look like big bags of specialized prokaryotes.  The impediments to prokaryotic incorporation are enormous. So, empedoclements seem to be miraculous – not in the way that some people define “miracle” as “something that is not physically possible”, but in the way that a miracle is simultaneous foretold and unexpected.  The empedoclement is the inverse of an impediment.  It is as unlikely as an impediment is likely.

The eukaryotic cell is so complicated, compared to prokaryotes, that I find it hard to imagine how a transition from prokaryote to eukaryote could have happened.  Certain prokaryotes, at first independent and great at doing one metabolic trick or another, found that they are compatible.  Then, they incorporate and form an agent.  The agent reproduces.  Agents that are most capable of aligning of all the former prokaryotes, reproduce more successfully than others.

0543 Here is a picture that may look familiar.

0544 Even though the eukaryotic cell lives in the outside world, the cell as agent acts as though it is the outside world to all the organelles.  The organelles end up fully domesticated.  They all live in the big house… er… cell.  And, they cannot leave.

Sometimes, a eukaryote will “ingest” a prokaryote and not “digest” it.  The prokaryote turns out to perform a task that benefits the eukaryote.  Mitochondria and chloroplasts come to mind.  Once, ingested, the cell can exploit a compatibility, leading to incorporation, rather than digestion (which is a type of exclusion that um… when I think about it… is also an incorporation).

0545 In section 4.4, the authors discuss multicellularity within the eukaryotic tradition.  At the beginning, this looks like the second column at play, at least to the point that when the multicellular organism dies, its subagent cells die with it.

When you think about it, the whole proposition is madness.

When a multicellular agent dies, every cell dies with it.

That is so unfair, unless every cell in a multicellular organism is fully “domesticated”.

It makes me think that maybe it may not be so awesome to be fully domesticated.

0546 So, perhaps it is only to be expected that a specialized organ would be tasked with keeping the animal alive by interacting with both the environment and the body.  A nervous system allows the environment and ecology to um… “domesticate”… the animal as agent, in so far as an animal lives and reproduces in an environment (material world) and ecology (relational world).  Both offer “affordances”, that is, actualities_2a that can be exploited or need to be avoided_1b.

0547 Section 4.5 discusses the nature of the nervous system in animals.

Yes, the nervous system specializes.  Its goal is to keep the animal alive by interacting with environment, ecology and body.  Consequently, the nervous system must behave as if it is an agent.  But, it is really a subagent of the animal as an agent.  Up to around seven million years ago, this was not a problem.  Not even the chimpanzee really considers that there is a biological subsystem that behaves as if it is the whole system, even through it is not.

0548 It’s like my macronuclear boss, so keen on the inner workings of conflict and cooperation, strife and love, that he thinks that he is the institution… or is it?… the organization.  Hmmm, institution sounds like agent.  Organization sounds like a multitude of subagents, like myself.

0549 The authors do not dwell on the awkward position that the nervous system finds itself in.

The nervous system is like an institution.  The body is like its organization.  All the organs, tissues and cells are like individuals in community, who are not aware that… if the community goes… they go with it.

0550 Should the three logics of thirdness for the nervous system operate differently from earlier cases where an animal is the agent?

I suppose so, since the nervous system represents “the agent” within the environment and ecology.  Here the logics of exclusion, complementarity and alignment sound like ways to survive where natural selection is the normal context.  Exclusion goes with the fact that everyone is on the menu.  Specialization associates to various tricks that a species masters in order to exploit the environment or ecology and to avoid… back to the menu business.  Differentiation keys into a very funny innovation that the multicellular lineage discovers that gets around the problem of all the cells dying when the big house fails.

0551 Yes, I am talking about sexual differentiation.

Talk about empedoclements!

0552 But, I am talking about the nervous system, which has to take various urges into account, because it is also a subagent, even though it regards itself as “the agent”, and performs its duties reasonably well.

Exactly who (or what) is “the agent” in a multicellular organization?

0553 The nervous system represents the environment and the ecology to “the agent”.  The nervous system moves “the agent” within the environment and the ecology.  Plus, the nervous system represents all the subagents of the body to “the agent”.  And, the nervous system monitors the subunits of the body for “the agent”.  And, on top of all this, the nervous system is totally unaware that it is a subagent of “the agent” that it pretends to be.

0554 To me, it is hard to imagine that evolutionary processes would produce something so hilarious.

0555 So, riddle me this.

In section 4.5, the authors describe a simple reflex.  A finger touches a hot ember that has rolled out of a fire located on a platform of stones.  An innate reflex pulls the hand away from the hot thing.  How do the logics of thirdness play out in this little drama?

0556 Here is a figure.

0557 The nervous system acts like an agent.  For this simple reflex, the body is taken for granted as subagents (skin for touch and muscle for action).  Also, sensory and motor neurons act as subagents.

0558 Now, let me think about the logics of thirdness: exclusion, complement and alignment.

In terms of exclusion, the body tissues (skin and muscle) are excluded from the reflex loop, except for the fact that they are… um… riddled with the termini of nerve cells.  For the skin, the sensory nerve-cell termini are sensitive to all sorts of disturbances, such as pressure, temperature and all the features that go with touch.  For the muscle, the motor nerve-cell termini are prepared to impart an impulse that causes muscle cells to contract.

In terms of complement, the sensory and motor neurons directly complement one another.  One receives inputs.  The other produces results.  The skin and muscles complement one another indirectly.  In this case, they complement one another through the mediation of a simple reflex.

In terms of alignment, the skin-embedded pain receptors immediately trigger pulling back from contact with the hostile thing.

0559 Ah, is this riddle some sort of trick?

In alignment, I return to the question of how one subagent influences another.

0560 What is the nature of the dotted line connecting the exemplar sign-object (SO_e) for the sensory neural pathway to the specifying sign-vehicle (SV_s) of the motor neural pathway?

0561 What about learning, the topic of section 4.6?

A renown form of learning is the conditioned “reflex”.  It is not really a reflex.  But, the conditioning make it look like one.  Another label is “stimulus-response”.

0562 Figure 4.7 in the text has a picture of Pavlov’s famous experiment.  A dog is positioned within an sling in order to measure the amount of drool that it slobbers while waiting for dinner.

If the experimental apparatus and the captive dog are subagents of an empirio-schematic inquirer, the subagents are working in parallel, not in sequence.

Here is a picture.

0563 Is that correct?

The dog is not really captive.  Instead, the dog is so tame as to allow the pelvis to be put into a sling and the mouth attached to tubes that suck up saliva.  The bell_2a (SV_s) stands for dinner_2b (SO_s) according to the self-governance_3b of its neural system operating on possible courses of action_1b (SI_s).

According to the scientist, who is so clever as to devise a way to measure the volume that a dog drools using tubes to suck the drool as it spills between mouth and lips, the bell_2a (SV_s) stands for the expectation of food_2b (SO_s) in regards to scientific inquiry_3b into the potential of ‘a rigorous conceptualization of anticipation’_1b.

0564 Does Pavlov induce the dog to drool in anticipation?

Does the dog’s saliva fulfill Pavlov’s expectations?

What is it about dogs that allows them to go along with such foolishness?

0565 I think that dogs are adapted to believe that humans are their pack leaders.  There is a motive for this belief.  Humans are not as cruel as wolves.  An alpha wolf is downright mean and expects to be… um… top dog all the time.  A human pack-leader is wonderful in comparison.  Not only do humans not bite back, although they occasionally hit and are nasty, they tend to share their food as if the dog is part of their pack… er… family.

It’s a nice gig, if you can get it.

0566 So, by instinct, the dogs know that Pavlov is pack leader.  Pack leaders have expectations.  So, the dogs go along with what Pavlov wants because, well, they want to please their pack leader.

05670 What do Pavlov’s dogs learn?

First, Pavlov’s dogs learn how to let themselves be hooked up to that stupid sling, which obviates the use of their hind legs.  Totally awkward.  Then, the dogs learn that the drool measuring apparatus hooked to their heads is not going to hurt them.  Dogs that can not handle this lesson are cut from Pavlov’s pack.  Finally, the dogs find out what the apparatus is all about.  It is the way that master is going to feed me.

0568 So, Pavlov’s dogs learn far more than the business about conditioned response.

Indeed, the salivation is merely an exemplar sign-relation that is built into their subagency.  If food is around, prepare to eat.  

0569 Meanwhile, Pavlov achieves what he wants to achieve.  Anticipation is a model that is associated to conditioned responses.  The model soon replaces the noumenon of what those Pavlov-loving dogs endured.  Today, the noumenal overlay of “anticipation” is objectified by the phenomena of psychological experiments conducted under the labels of “operant and instrumental conditioning”.

Today’s state educators perform these experiments on young children, completely unaware that the noumenon that the children experience is not quite the same as the model that substitutes for the noumenon.

0569 Does that mean that Pavlov is an subagent for something bigger, such as science as an institution?

I wonder.  In the following figure, Pavlov’s semiotic agency touches base with all three elements of the empirio-schematic judgment.

0570 This raises a parallel between Pavlov, the scientist, and his dogs, the subjects of scientific inquiry.

0570 Okay, semiotic agency works as the noumenal overlay for both the dogs in Pavlov’s experiment and Pavlov himself.  Or should I say, “Pavlov’s scientific self”? 

0571 Why do I say this?

Recall the empirio-schematic judgment?

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

0572 Surely, Pavlov’s semiotic agency manifests within each element in the empirio-schematic judgment.

0573 What is (firstness) corresponds to the experimental setup and goes into the methods section of the scientific publication.  Ideally, Pavlov’s experiment can be performed independently by any scientist with dogs who will do anything to please their master.

In sum, the experimental apparatus and the resulting data go with the SV_s and correspond to the methods and results sections in a scientific publication.

0574 What ought to be (secondness) corresponds to analysis of the data.

Pavlov models the fact that his dogs drool measurable amounts at the sound of the bell.  The model is mechanical.  The bell initially is sounded when the food arrives, so the nervous system of the dog in the sling is conditioned to both bell and food arrival.  Later, when the bell sounds, the dog drools.

Never mind the reality that the dog is only interested in the food, not the bell.

If the food fails to come, the dog will figure out ways to get out of that drool-collecting headgear and pelvis-suspending sling.

In sum, the data is crunched and a model is proposed in the analysis section of a scientific paper.

0575 Relation (thirdness) corresponds to a discussion of the analysis and results of the experiment.

That said, a label may be attached to the type of model that the data suggests.  In this case, two labels apply.  “Anticipation” is a label designed to capture the attention of non-scientific folk.  “Operant and instrumental conditioning” is a label designed to hold the attention of scientific folk.

0576 Why two labels?

Science involves explicit abstraction.  The terminology of explicit abstraction may change depending on the audience.

For the general public, the explicit term, “anticipation”, labels a wide range of um… phenomena.   These observable and measurable behaviors are attributed to a noumenon, a thing itself, called “anticipation”.

0577 For scientists interested in psychology, the explicit term, “anticipation”, labels a suite of models for conditioned responses, produced through rigorous experiments on animals.

Here is a picture of Pavlov’s empirio-schematic judgment.

0578 In triumphalist psychology, the technical term, “anticipation”, should overshadow the common term, “anticipation”.

In the process, the application of the general term is narrowed and shifted towards the counter-intuitive.

I wonder whether Pavlov anticipates that?

Maybe he does, without even being conscious of that anticipation.

0579 Section 6.7 concerns consciousness and cognition in animals.

In this examination of Pavlov’s experiment, a question concerning consciousness and cognition arises within two agencies, that of Pavlov the scientist and that of Pavlov’s dogs.

0580 This suggests a parallel between Pavlov, the scientist, and his dogs, the subjects of scientific inquiry.

0581 Now, the above dyads represent matter where the form is a real initiating (semiotic) event. 

0582 For the dogs, the form is a serving of meat while hearing a bell.  Forget about all that apparatus business.  That is for master to decide.  The drool occurs when the bell rings₂, in the normal context of Pavlov’s apparatus₃, signifying the potential of dinner₁.  This fits the common person’s use of the world “anticipation”.

Indeed, the exemplar sign-relation depicts an innate expectation.  The master feeding me_2b (SV_e) stands for my love for master and my master’s expectations of me_2c (SO_e) in regards to the rituals of being fed by master_3c operating on the possibility that the master is pack leader_1c (SI_e).  Or, something like that.

0583 For Pavlov, the event is an experiment, designed to produce data through measuring volumes of canine slobber.  The measurements_2a (SV_s) stand for a conditioned response_2b (SO_s) in regards to the way that psychologists_3b conduct experiments that mean ‘something’_1b (SI_s).  Then, the conditioned response_2b (SV_e) stands for “anticipation”_2c (SO_e) in regards to making sense_3c of this scientifically relevant ‘something’ by offering a label_1c (SI_e).  This introduces a novel empirio-schematic term into the psychological lexicon.

0584 What does this have to do with consciousness and cognition?

0585 Obviously, I have two referents for the term, “anticipation”.

0586 So, a semiotic tool may be useful in sorting out this issue of labeling in a Lebenswelt of explicit abstraction.

0587 The Greimas square is a semiotic tool that turns out to be useful for ascertaining the location of a spoken word in a system of differences.

How does the Greimas square operate?

The Greimas square is a purely relational structure constructed of four locations.  Each location corresponds to the corner of a square.  The corners are labeled A, B C and D.  Each label represents a rule.  A is the focal spoken word.  B is a spoken word that contrasts with A.  C is a word that “speaks against” (contradicts) B and complements A.  D is a word that contrasts with C, contradicts A and complements B.

0588 Here is a picture.

0589 I can apply the Greimas square to what Pavlov accomplishes.

The focal word (A) is the common use of the term, “anticipation”.  The spoken word is an explicit abstraction.  When the bell rings, the dog anticipates a bowl of meat.  The bell brings the meat to um… consciousness.

The contrasting word (B) is the technical use of the term, “anticipation”.  When the bell rings, the dog salivates.  Salivation is not regarded as a subagent doing what it is supposed to do.  Rather, salivation is evidence of an unconscious conditioned response.  Is this where the word, “cognition”, fits in?

The word (C) that contradicts (B) and complements (A) is “consciousness”.  For common use, anticipation entails conscious awareness or a process that leads to conscious awareness.  For Pavlov’s dogs, the bell brings meat to consciousness.

The term (D) that contrasts with (C), speaks against (A) and complements (B) is “operant conditioning”.  Operant conditioning is regarded as an unconscious process.

0590 Here is a picture.

0591 What does this have to do with consciousness and cognition?

Does Pavlov’s scientific breakthrough in psychology demonstrate that an explicit abstraction, that everyone applies to human consciousness, may be grounded in unconscious cognitive processing?