Philosophical And Mythological Models Of The Mind Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 148):

Is it any wonder that philosophers, thinking about the problem of the mind without this knowledge [of brain organisation], were tempted to postulate entities, that physicists have been tempted to postulate exotic new material fields, and that those in hope of immortality continue to postulate eternal spirits? It may come as a disappointment to such thinkers that the answers to many of the fundamental problems of mind will come from analysing the complexity of its organisation, which is governed by novel ordering principles.

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the entities postulated in philosophy and the eternal spirits postulated in mythology in thinking about the mind are reconstruals of the meanings construed of experience by language.

The notion of 'mind' itself, as an entity, is a reconstrual of the Medium of various types of mental Process: cognition, perception, emotion, desideration, though the Medium of the last of these has also been reconstrued in philosophy as the 'Will'.

As previously argued, the notion of an 'eternal spirit' or 'soul' in mythical symbolism is a reconstrual of individuated meaning potential itself.

As previously argued, from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, theories (ordering principles) do not govern data (brain organisation), just as a map does not govern the landscape it models.  A theory accounts for data, but it does not govern it, and its 'rules' are probabilistic statements, not obligatory commands.

From Neuronal Group Selection To Language Evolution Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 148-9):

But the brain is subjected to two processes of selection, natural selection and somatic selection. The result is a subtle and multilayered affair, full of loops and layers. From genes to proteins, from cells to orderly development, from electrical activity to neurotransmitter release, from sensory sheets to maps, from shape to function and behaviour, from social communication back to any and all of these levels, we are confronted with a system of somatic selection that is continually subjected to natural selection.

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To be clear, somatic selection in the brain — neuronal group selection — refers to the fact that the firing of a group of neurones increases the probability that the same group — rather than others — will fire again in the future under similar circumstances.  It is somatic selection that provides the material basis for semogenesis: the logogenesis of texts, the ontogenesis of meaning potential in (the lifetime of) the individual, and the phylogenesis of language in the species.  This can be explained as follows.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, logogenesis provides the 'material' for ontogenesis which provides the 'material' for phylogenesis. The logogenesis of a text involves the instantiation of options in systems of meaning potential.  The instantiation of such options increases the probability that these options — rather than others — will be instantiated in the future under similar circumstances.  The ontogenesis of meaning potential in the lifetime of the individual thus includes the continual alteration of instantiation probabilities.  The phylogenesis of meaning potential in the species thus includes the continual alteration of instantiation probabilities beyond the lifetime of individuals in language communities.

Importantly, somatic selection systems evolve through natural selection, but linguistic-cultural evolution occurs through somatic selection, not natural selection.  Natural selection merely provides the material basis that affords linguistic-cultural evolution.

Theories Of Mind Reached By Conscious Introspection

Edelman (1992: 145-6):

My general conclusion, important for all theories of mind, is that given the existence of acts driven by the unconscious, conclusions reached by conscious introspection may be subject to grave error. In other words, Cartesian incorrigibility is incompatible with the facts. Descartes, an adult genius with mastery over language, did not take several things into account. The first is the developmentally determined nature of higher-order consciousness. (Recall that French babies, even gifted ones, are unlikely to assert, "Je pense, donc je suis.") The second is that his linguistically based consciousness is not self-sufficient and beyond doubt. Given that it is linguistic, it is always in dialogue with some "other," even if that interlocutor is not present. The third is that unconscious mechanisms block and intervene with what we consider to be transparent and obvious lines of thought.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, Chomskyan Formal Linguistic Theory is couched in terms of the Cartesian res cogitans, and concerned with modelling knowledge of language.  The data on which knowledge of language is theorised are instances of such knowledge, namely: intuitions about language gained through introspection.

Limits On The Study Of The Mind Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 136, 139):

Embodiment imposes ineluctable limits. The wish to go beyond these limits creates contradiction, fantasy, and a mystique that makes the study of the mind especially challenging, for after a certain point, in its individual creations at least, the mind lies beyond scientific reach. Scientific study recognises this limit without indulging in mystical exercises or illusions. The reason for the limit is straightforward: The forms of embodiment that lead to consciousness are unique in each individual, unique to his or her body and individual history. …

Why is there a consciousness mystique — a desire for universal explanation, for conservation of consciousness as an individual experience, time without end? A reasonable answer seems to be that each consciousness depends on its unique history and embodiment. And given that a human conscious self is constructed, somewhat paradoxically, by social interactions, yet has been selected for during evolution to realise mainly the aims and satisfactions of each biological individual, it is perhaps no surprise that as individuals we want an explanation that science cannot give. It is also perhaps no surprise that we desire immortality. 

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the individual creations of the human mind are the contents of individuated consciousness: the meanings of language.  Such meanings become accessible to scientific study when they are verbally projected as instances in the form of wording (spoken and written texts).  As James Burke observed in The Day The Universe Changed:

When you read a book, you hold another's mind in your hands.

A major challenge to the scientific study of the mind is a desiderative projection (a wish), rather than a cognitive projection (a thought), namely: the construal of mind as an immaterial soul that never dies.  The origin of this model can be explained as follows.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the language of mythology constitutes the oldest surviving use of metaphor — in this case, lexical metaphor — to reconstrue experience.  As argued here, the Creator God of Abrahamic mythology can be understood as standing for the meaning potential of language itself, with God's creation standing for the contents of consciousness, the construals of experience that can be projected, mentally or verbally, into semiotic existence. (This set of metaphors might be seen as a later rendering of the earlier Hindu conception of the god Vishnu as a dreamer whose dreaming creates the world.) To be clear, on this model, it is meaning potential itself that (modestly) construes itself as God.

On a model where meaning potential is reconstrued as God, the meaning potential of an individual is reconstrued as an individuation of God, a soul.  The immortality of the god is then attributed to its individuations, souls, in contradiction to the mortality of their embodiment.

"What Lies Beneath The Self" Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 136):

With this view of higher-order consciousness, it is possible to see roughly what lies beneath the self that connects phonology to semantics in a naming sentence. Once a self is developed through social and linguistic interactions on a base of primary consciousness, a world is developed that requires naming and intending. This world reflects inner events that are recalled, and imagined events, as well as outside events that are perceptually experienced. Tragedy becomes possible — the loss of the self by death or mental disorder, the remembrance of unassuageable pain. By the same token, a high drama of creation and endless imagination emerges.

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the self of higher-order consciousness arises through the enactment of intersubjective relations as the interpersonal meaning of language; and this arises simultaneously with the construal of experience as ideational meaning of language — the transformation of the meaningless into a "world" of meaning.

Such meaning constitutes the content of consciousness: the phenomena of mental processes of perception, cognition (including remembering and imagining), desideration and emotion that unfold through a senser.  Through mental processes of cognition, thoughts/propositions can be projected into semiotic existence; through mental processes of desideration, wishes/proposals can be projected into semiotic existence.  Through verbal processes, such projected meanings can be exchanged with others in the form of wording.

The loss of each self is the loss of a world of meaning.  As Laurie Anderson observed in World Without End

When my father died it was like a whole library had burned down

The Qualia Of Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [1]

Edelman (1992: 136):

But with us, it is different. Qualia, individual to each of us, are recategorisations by higher-order consciousness of value-laden perceptual relations in each sensory modality or their conceptual combinations with each other. We report them crudely to others; they are more directly reportable to ourselves. This set of relationships is usually but not always connected to value. Freedom from time allows the location in time of phenomenal states by a suffering or joyous self. And the presence of appropriate language improves discrimination enormously; skill in wine tasting, for example, may be considered the result of a passion based on qualia that are increasingly refined by language.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the qualia of higher-order consciousness are the correlations of instances of value-laden perceptual meaning (of primary consciousness) with instances of linguistic meaning.  The correlation constitutes the material basis of a mental process and the medium through which the process unfolds constitutes a senser.

Clearly, the more linguistic distinctions, the more differentiated the qualia, the more refined the construal of experience.

The Qualia Of Primary Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguisics

Edelman (1992: 135-6):

If animals having only primary consciousness also have qualia, they cannot report them explicitly either to a human observer or to themselves, for they lack conceptual selves. Like flashlights illuminating a room, their qualia, if they occur, exist only for the duration of the remembered present of the scene. We can only adduce their possible presence by observing the behavioural responses of these animals.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the reason animals having only primary consciousness cannot report qualia to humans or themselves is because they lack the means of reporting them: language (which provides 'conceptual selves').

The qualia of primary consciousness are instantiations of value-weighted perceptual meaning potential — the correlation of current perceptual categorisation with the value-category memory established through previous experience.

This constitutes the instantiation of a mental process of perception, mediated by a senser, with perceptual meaning as its phenomenal range or cause.

The Adaptive Advantages Of Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 133-5):

Primary consciousness provides the ability to determine by internal criteria the salience of patterns among multiple parallel signals arising in complex environments. That salience is largely but not completely determined by the previous history and learning of the individual animal. Higher-order consciousness adds socially constructed selfhood to this picture of biological individuality. The freeing of parts of conscious thought from the constraints of an immediate present and the increased richness of social communication allow for the anticipation of future states and for planned behaviour. With that ability come the abilities to model the world, to make explicit comparisons and to weigh outcomes; through such comparisons comes the possibility of reorganising plans. Obviously, these capabilities have adaptive value.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is language that provides higher-order consciousness, of which 'socially constructed self-hood' is its interpersonal dimension.  It is language that enables 'the anticipation of future states' and 'planned behaviour'.  It is the ideational dimension of language that constitutes the potential to construe experience as meaning ('model the world') and reconstrue such meaning ('make explicit comparisons and to weigh outcomes [in] reorganising plans').

Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 133):

While the embodiment of meaning and reference can be related to real objects and events by the reentrant connections between value-category memory and perception (primary consciousness), simultaneous interactions can also occur between a symbolic memory and the same conceptual centres. An inner life, based on the emergence of language in a speech community, becomes possible. This is tied to perceptual and conceptual structures, but it is highly individual (indeed, it is personal) and it is also strongly tied to affect and reward. It is higher-order consciousness, capable of modelling the past, present, future, a self, and a world.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, "real objects and events" are construals of experience as meaning. Strictly speaking, 'objects' and 'events' are linguistic construals of experience as material-order meaning (phenomena), the content of higher-order consciousness.

Primary consciousness involves the correlation of instances of construals of experience as perceptual meaning (perception) with the system of potential perceptual meanings (value-category memory).

The personal 'inner life' that is higher-order consciousness involves the correlation of these correlations of primary consciousness with the systems of linguistic potential. Models of 'the past, present, future, a self and a world' are construals of experience as the linguistic content of higher-order consciousness.