CCR March 1985 Theory 12
(Note: This theory is constructed from the perspective of an omniscient observer. Since the author is not an omniscient observer, it represents his hypothesis as to what an omniscient observer would say about the following subjects.)
Self: A normal conscious human being considered as semi-attached to his/her body, and to some degree an independent agent.
Body: A personal material intermediary between a self and its universe.
Universe: Everything a self believes to exist outside its body.
Only three kinds of things exist for the self: 1) One’s self, 2) One’s body, and 3) One’s “other”: the universe. This is the egocentric predicament.
The basic functions of a self are volition, feeling, thinking and acting.
- Volition is the choices of the self for feeling, thinking and acting.
- Feeling is value placed on ideas, which value 1) stimulates thinking, and 2) generates emotions in the body. Feeling and emotion increase the power of the self to act.
- Thinking is the creation and ordering of ideas.
- Acting is deporting the body relative to the universe.
A self is a will, a volition. Aspects of a well-furnished self:
- A set of desires. Used for:
Preferring: Selection among alternative concepts in the realm of the ideal (“other things being equal”).
Choosing: Selection among percepts or alternatives believed by the self to represent real alternatives believed by the self to represent real alternatives of the universe.
Feeling: Value intensity attached to preferences or choices accompanied by emotions in the body. - An imagination: an arena for creation and processing of concepts, percepts, constructs, and assertions including a construct of the universe (the latter being a taxonomized [chunked, with each category named] construct constructed by the self which is believed to be a good representation of the real truth about the universe. This image is created and is continuously repaired and amended in accordance with the preferences and choices of the self as the self interacts with the universe through its body).
- A logic processor. Concepts are related in whatever systems of order the self has mastered and finds expedient to use.
- A language processor in which assertions are encoded and signals are decoded using whatever systems of code which the self has mastered.
- An action processor in which choices are made for deporting the body of the self, these choices then being triggered into motion.
- A memory bank in which are stored:
- Beliefs about the true universe (past, present and future).
- Hypotheses under consideration and on the shelf.
- All concepts ever created by the self.
- All assertions ever created by the self.
- A lexicon of codes.
- A repertoire of systems of order.
- Sets of habits of the self created by consistent patterns of choice for:
- Preferring, choosing and feeling.
- Thinking, including imagining, believing/disbelieving, memorizing, forgetting, etc.
- Patterns of acting (deporting one’s body to relate to the universe to fulfill the desires of the self).
Thinking: Creating and processing ideas in the self.
Processes of thinking:
- Sensing: Receiving ideas from one’s body. Product: Sensation
- Conceiving: Creating and acting upon ideas in the imagination. Product: Concept.
- Perceiving: Interpretation of sensation by pairing a sensation with a similar concept. Product: Percept.
- Desiring: Placing a value on an idea by pairing it with a concept member of a value continuum. Product: Desideratum.
- Constructing: Creating possible selves, bodies or universes by concatenating concepts (repeated pairing). Product: Construct.
- Asserting: Creating hypotheses about self, body or the universe by pairing concepts in a relationship of prediction. Product: Assertion.
- Believing: Pairing a construct or assertion with a concept on a real-unreal continuum.
Principal constructs created by the self:
- The self. (Structure and functions)
- The body. (Structure and functions)
- The universe. (The present structure and functions)
God
Other selves.
The past.
The present.
Basic capacities and concepts of the self:
Root capacities:
- Ability to abstract patterns from ideas.
- Ability to differentiate similar patterns from dissimilar patterns.
- Ability to distinguish contiguous patterns from non-contiguous patterns.
- Short-term memory (seven items or less).
- Long-term memory.
Concept Development: (“®“ = “yields”):
- Cognition of a pattern. (Stored in short-term memory.)
- Repeated recognition of pattern ® an essence, type, class, substance (stored in long-term memory.)
- Dissimilarity of recognized pattern ® an accident (a quality).
- Recognition of patterns of accidents ® qualities
- An essence + context ® (dissimilar background) ® existence
- Essence 1 + Essence 1 + common context ® number (quantity established on the basis of contiguity/noncontiguity).
- Number + Number ® patterned relations of numbers
- Patterned relations of numbers + imagination ® arithmetic, other systems of order, including different concepts of space (established on basis of contiguity/noncontiguity).
- Essences + space ® structure (a type of essence).
- ( [Essence 1 + context 1) + (Essence 1 + context 2]) ® (possibility of) change (time). (Other changes also contribute.)
- (Structure 1 + space 1 + time 1) + (Structure 1 + space 2 + time 2) ® function 1 (locomotion).
- (Structure 1 + space 1 + time 1) + (Structure 2 + space 1 + time 2) ® function 2 (metaphysics).
- (Structure 1 + accident 1 + time 1) + Structure 1 + accident 2 + time 2) ® function 3 (action).
- ((Structure 1 + function (1v2v3)) ® (Change of function (1v2v3) of structure 2) in a recognized pattern ® cause
Summary: Basic kinds of concepts:
- Patterns established on basis of similarity/dissimilarity and contiguity/non-contiguity
- Essences (substances, classes, types)
- Accidents (qualities)
- Structures
- Functions
- Relationships
- Spaces
- Times
- Causes
Concepts are classes used in the imagination of the self.
True: That property possessed by a construct or assertion wherein it is held by its creator self to represent correctly the universe created by the self. May or may not be based on evidence.
Really true: That property possessed by a construct or assertion wherein it represents correctly the universe as seen by the omniscient observer.
Individuation: Determination of the uniqueness of an idea.
- A concept is individuated when it represents a single, unique property or when it represents the unique intersection of a set of properties (is dissimilar to all other essences or concept patterns).
- A percept is individuated when it is clearly differentiated from its perceptual context by figure/ground comparison.
- A construct is individuated by the uniqueness of its attributed structure and function.
- An assertion is individuated by the unique intersection of ideas created by the predicated pairing.
Existence: That property of a concept, percept, or construction wherein it is deemed by its creator to have been successfully individuated in the creator’s mind. To be thought is to exist.
Really existing: That property of a concept, percept or construct wherein its nature as individuated by its creator is seen by the omniscient observer to be correctly and sufficiently individuated.
Real: That property of concepts, percepts or constructs wherein its imagined referents in the universe are believed by the creator of those concepts, percepts or constructs actually to be instantiated in the real universe.
Really real: That property of concepts, percepts or constructs wherein its imagined referents are real to the omniscient observer.
Assertions are of three types, each with several subtypes:
1. Disclosure: The characterization of self.
- Exclamations: Wow!
- Valuations: That is a good lad.
- Preferences: Quiche is the greatest.
- Choices: I’ll have the sirloin.
- Plans: I’m getting up at five in the morning.
- Intentions: Someday I’ll get around to doing genealogy.
2. Directive: Attempting to control the actions of others.
- Commands: Stop!
- Questions: What time is it?
- Definitions: Escargot means snail.
- Maxims: A stitch in time saves nine.
- Art forms: Devices to attract and hold the attention.
3. Description: Portrayal of the nature of the body or of the universe. (For the intent of constraining the beliefs of other selves.)
- Fact: Identification of a present phenomenon (percept). This is an albatross.
- Law: An inductive generalization about a body of perceived or reported facts. Albatrosses lay eggs.
- Theory: The creation or non-perceptual constructs as mechanisms to explain and deduce the laws and facts of an area of inquiry. Albatrosses lay eggs because they are descendants of reptiles. (Naturalistic theory construction.)
- Principle: The adduction of fundamental postulates to guide theory construction in an area of inquiry. All life forms are differentiated descendants of simple life forms. (Naturalistic principle adduction. The desires of the self control which theories are constructed and which principles are adduced. Theistic or other principles and theories could be used to accomplish the same logical ends.)
Structure of assertions
All assertions consist of:
- A single class (concept or construct) which is the subject class: Adult geese.
- Another single class (concept or construct) to serve as predicate, with which the subject is paired: Creatures which mate for life.
- A specified relationship of predication asserted to hold between the two classes. The parameters of predication are:
- Specification of a class relation: inclusion, exclusion, coextension.
- Specification of which members of the subject class are asserted to have said class relation to the predicate: all, none, some, three, etc.: All who can find a mate.
- Specification of the time frame during which the said predication is asserted to hold: Beginning when geese came to be real, ending when geese cease to be real.
- Specification of the area or volume of space in which the said predication is asserted to hold: The planet Earth.
Finished example: Since geese came to exist on the earth and until they cease to exist, all adult geese which can find mates, mate for life.
Note on assertions: The sentence above is not an assertion because assertions exist only in the self and are ideas only. A well-formed assertion is the most careful, exact and defensible idea that a given person can form. An assertion is of value as it aids the self in thinking or as it helps the self to accomplish a specific objective when that assertion is encoded and launched into the universe.