Wave-Particle Duality Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [8]

Edelman (1992: 215):

Quantum theory is the most generally applicable of all theories. In dealing with enormous energies and very small particles, this theory has revealed behaviour that confounds ordinary expectations. For example, one particle cannot be identified as distinguishable from another. Particles show duality of behaviour: Under one set of circumstances they are best described as waves, in others as particles. Indeed, as Max Born first suggested, the fundamental wave function ψ in the Schrödinger wave equation, when taken as an absolute value and squared, is a measure of the probability of finding a particle in a given position of space — anywhere!

Blogger Comments:

As previously explained, from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics, wave-particle duality is the duality of potential and instance.  Probability measures potential (wave), statistical frequency measures instances of that potential (particles).

The Epistemology Of Physics Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 214-5):

But let me sketch out one aspect of the quantum measurement problem to show why these scientists were tempted to bring consciousness in to physics. As I do so, however, please keep in mind that physics is concerned with formal correlations of the most general properties of things in spacetime. Theories of physics are not concerned with the senses proper, with categorising nameable macroscopic objects, or with intentionality. If one delves into quantum mechanics, it is easy to forget these restrictions, because the decisions of the observer appear to affect the measurements he or she makes. To understand this, we have to consider a few salient features of quantum theory.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the reason why theories of physics are not concerned with 'the senses proper' is because they are founded on the Galilean assumption that scientific inquiry is concerned only with the material-relational domain of meaning ('primary qualities'), and not the mental-verbal domain ('secondary qualities').

However, what quantum mechanics demonstrates is that the mental-verbal domain cannot be ignored, since it is this that construes experience as the meaning of the material-relational domain.

The Intervention Of Consciousness In Quantum Measurement Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 214):

Such notions of physics, with their generality and predictive power, are beguiling. As powerful as they are, however, profound problems arise in understanding their application. An example comes from the theory of quantum measurement, which must be taken into account when one attempts to measure the position or momentum of a fundamental particle. In facing the paradoxes that arise from these attempts, distinguished mathematicians such as John von Neumann and equally distinguished physicists such as Eugene Wigner were tempted to propose that consciousness itself causally intervenes in the process of quantum measurement.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, in quantum measurement, the participation ('intervenes') of consciousness is not as agent ('causally'), but as the medium of a process of the mental-verbal domain that construes experience as an instance of meaning potential of the material-relational domain.

(Critiques Of) Berkeley's Idealism Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 212):

Such a position [panpsychism] "scientises" another view originally based on the philosophy of idealism. In it the world is perceived only through the mind and thus perhaps, as Bishop Berkeley proposed, there is no matter, only mind. On hearing this, Dr. Johnson kicked a stone and stated, "I refute it thus." A better refutation comes from the theory of evolution: If natural selection gives rise to sentient animals, it is difficult to see how the selecting environment and the brain can both be mental events in a single sentient animal that also has progeny undergoing natural selection. The mind reels trying to comprehend how such a complication would ever come to pass.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, both matter and mind are construals of experience as meaning: the material-relational domain and the mental-material domain.

A stone is a construal of experience as first-order meaning of the material-relational domain, whereas "I refute it thus" is construal of experience as second-order wording: a projected locution of the mental-verbal domain.

However, whereas the brain is also a construal of experience as first-order meaning of the material-relational domain (data), the selecting environment is a reconstrual of first-order meaning of the material-relational domain as meaning of the language of evolutionary biology (theory).

The Place Of Conscious Observers In Scientific Descriptions Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 209):

The solution to the problem of how we know, feel, and are aware is not contained in a philosophical sentence, however profound. It must emerge from an understanding of how biological systems and relationships evolved in the physical world. 

When that evolution resulted in language, the imaginable world became infinite. There is great beauty and much hope in the realisation of this open-endedness of imagination. But we must continually return from that world to the world of matter if we are to see how as conscious observers we are actually placed within our own descriptions. Analysing that placement will be one of the major goals of the science of the future.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the world of matter is the world of the material-relational domain of first-order meaning (phenomena), whereas the world of imagination is the world of second-order meaning (metaphenomena): the projected ideas and locutions of the symbolic processing of the mental-verbal domain.

The place of the conscious observer in scientific descriptions is as the mental-verbal medium through which the meaning of language, construed of experience, is reconstrued as the meaning of the language of science.

Because the mental-verbal domain ('secondary qualities') is not the concern of Galilean science, it is limited to understanding the place of conscious observers in its descriptions only in material-relational terms.

The Evolution Of Science Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 207-8):

Memory underlies meaning. With the transformation of meaning made possible by the embodiment of concepts as described by the TNGS, it became possible within human cultural history to develop true information-processing systems. The historical development of science by social transmission in human culture has made it possible for us to loop back into the truth through chains of knowledge. But unlike the development of memory, this explosive transmission is no longer Darwinian. It follows Lamarckian rules because of the character of informational systems and the nature of meaning itself. The contents of informational systems are transferred by use; no genetic hereditary principle is needed. The transfer is to somatic systems, each one unique, and the results have been stunning — the transformation of the environment by the human mind in ways that are both valuable and horrendous.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is the construal of experience as the meaning of language that made it "possible within human cultural history to develop true information-processing systems".

The "explosive transmission" of science in human culture is indeed Darwinian, and not Lamarckian, because the material basis of (change in) meaning is the (change in) somatic selection of variant neuronal groups in populations in individuals — as described by Edelman's TNGS — in human populations, over generations.

The Measurements Of Observers Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 199):

Beginning with Planck's discovery of the quantum, and continuing through the early formulations of quantum theory by Bohr and Heisenberg and of the theory of relativity by Einstein, observers were no longer seen as fully detached from their measurements. In quantum measurements, the way in which observers choose to arrange their apparatus determines the outcome. In relativity theory, observers' measurements of time and length depend on their relative velocity and acceleration. Thus, the observers' conscious choices in the one case and their physical location in the other must explicitly be taken into account.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, measurements are construals of experience as material-relational domain of meaning by the mental-verbal domain of meaning (conscious observers).

The reason why measurements depend on the arrangement of the apparatus (Quantum Theory) and the relative velocity of the observer (Special Relativity) is because the potential meanings that can be instantiated as measurements vary with material-relational conditions of the phenomena (Quantum Theory) and conscious observer (Special Relativity).

The Relation Of Physics To Biology Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 198):

Physics and biology will "correspond" with each other in an intimate way, certainly in the next century and possibly even sooner than that. At the very least, they will have an exchange about how the human observer influences physical measurements and how the observers' perceptions relate to their physical descriptions. This is a key problem in quantum mechanics.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the relation of 'correspondence' between physics and biology can be understood in terms of symbolic abstraction (stratification), such that the meanings of biology are realised by the realisation of the meanings of chemistry in the meanings of physics. Or, from the reverse perspective, the meanings of physics realise the realisation of the meanings of biology in the meanings of chemistry.

The human observer 'influences' physical measurements by construing them of experience.  The observers' perceptions are construals of experience as the meaning of language, whereas their physical descriptions are reconstruals of such meaning as the meaning of the language of physics.

Science, Mathematics And Logic Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 198):

Higher-order consciousness leads to a rich cognitive, affective, and imaginative domain — feelings (qualia), thought, emotions, self-awareness, will, and imagination. It can construct artificial mental objects such as fantasies. In culture, it leads to studies of the stable relations among events (science) and among mental objects (mathematics), as well as to studies of the relations among sentences that refer to events and mental objects (logic).

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is language that provides self-awareness of higher-order consciousness and its mental processes, the most general being those of perception (of 'qualia'), cognition ('thought', 'imagination', 'fantasy'), desideration ('will') and emotion.

Through mental processes of cognition, the meanings of language that are construed of experience become reconstrued as the meanings of the specialised registers of science, mathematics and logic.

Cosmology Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 197):

Cosmology has formed part of the myth and the science of many civilisations. In it the mind has always played a central role, whether interior, exterior, or ulterior. It is natural for creatures like ourselves to wonder how everything came about, how we ourselves got here, and how we could come to be aware of the world in which we find ourselves. 

The religious cosmologies of the past have been replaced in some cultures by a scientific cosmology, one with remarkable ties to the farthest reaches of theoretical physics. But as grand and mysterious and beautiful as this scientific cosmology is, it has no inherent principle that would lead us to ourselves: observers who are conscious, who formulate physics and relate it to cosmology, and who have the urge to place ourselves within the scientific world view we have constructed. Even a "theory of everything," as some physicists call it, would be incomplete if it did not provide us with such a principle.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, cosmologies are reconstruals of the material-relational meanings of language, construed of experience, as the meanings of the language of mythology or science.  The reconstruals of meaning in the language of mythology deploy lexical metaphor, words as tokens of mythic values, whereas the reconstruals of meaning in the language of science deploy grammatical metaphor.

The rôle of the mind, of conscious observers, is to reconstrue the meaning of language as the meaning of the language of cosmology.

With regard to mythology, Joseph Campbell interprets its general function as putting humans in accord with their natural and social environments, and distinguishes four general functions: mystical, pedagogical, sociological and cosmological, with the sciences as the development of the last of these functions.

The Comprehensibility Of The Universe Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 197):

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.

— Albert Einstein

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, comprehending the universe scientifically is comprehensible as the construing of experience as the meanings of the language of science.

Art Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 176):

What is perhaps most extraordinary about conscious human beings is their art — their ability to convey feelings and emotions symbolically and formally in external objects such as poems, paintings, or symphonies. The summaries of conscious states constrained by history, culture, specific training, and skill that are realised in works of art are not susceptible to the methods of scientific analysis. Again there is no mystification in this denial, for understanding and responding to these objects requires reference to ourselves in a social and symbolic mode. No external, objective analysis, even if possible, supplants the individual responses and intersubjective exchange that takes place within a given tradition and culture.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, human art, like higher-order consciousness, is made possible by language.  The construal of experience as linguistic meaning provides the raw material for, not only the expression of those meanings across various artistic forms, but also for the reconstrual of meaning as the meaning of theories of art, such as music theory, thereby further expanding the potential of artistic expression.

The reason why such matters are not susceptible to the methods of scientific analysis is that Galilean science is only concerned with the material-relational domain ('primary qualities'), not with the mental-verbal domain ('secondary qualities') that processes meaning.

Feelings And Emotions Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 176):

Feelings are a part of the conscious state and are the processes that we associate with the notions of qualia as they relate to the self. They are not emotions, however, for emotions have strong cognitive components that mix feelings with willing and with judgments in an extraordinarily complicated way. Emotions may be considered the most complex of mental states or processes insofar as they mix with all other processes (usually in a very specific way, depending on the emotion). They are not made simpler by the fact that they also have historical and social bases.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, emotions are construed in two complementary ways: as mental processes ('enjoy') and as attributed qualities of mental projection ('joyous').

Edelman's 'feelings associated with qualia' are mental processes of perception, whereas Edelman's 'emotions' are the mixture of the remaining three types of mental processes: emotion, cognition and desideration.

Processes Of The Mind Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 173, 175):

How can a book on the matter of the mind pay so little attention to thinking, willing, and judging, or to feeling, emotion, and dreaming? Partly, this has to do with my original intentions, which were to describe the necessary bases for consciousness and meaning in a scientific fashion. I have attempted this in the faith that further and more sufficient psychological explorations can be launched once this description is substantiated. … 

At a certain practical point, therefore, attempts to reduce psychology to neuroscience must fail. Given that the pursuit of thought as a skill depends on social and cultural interaction, convention, and logic, as well as on metaphor, purely biological methods as they presently exist are insufficient. In part, this is because thought at its highest levels is recursive and symbolic. Because we are each idiosyncratic sources of semantic interpretation, and because intersubjective communication is essential for thought (whether with a real or imaginary interlocutor), we must use and study these capacities in their own right.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, Edelman's scientific model of the mind is Galilean science, and so models the mind in terms of processes of its material-relational domain: a socially embedded, embodied brain.  The complement of this model is a model of the mind in terms of processes of its mental-verbal domain, and the contents of consciousness — meanings and wordings — that mental and verbal processes project.

Limitations In Our Thought Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 161):

That consciousness arose in the material order does not restrain intellectual trade; philosophy itself is witness to this conclusion. But it does limit us, despite our capacity to extend our senses and our powers of calculation through physical devices. Given how meaning is defined in this book, we must accept a position of qualified realism. Our description of the world is qualified by the way in which our concepts arise. And although there may be infinite freedom within a grammar, our language and our ideas of meaning go far beyond the rules of grammar. … Despite the remarkable extensions of meaning by our calculations and our experiments, we must admit that we may well be limited in our thought by the way in which we are constituted as products of evolutionary morphology.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, our description of the world is a construal of experience as the meaning of language, with these meanings reconstrued in the language of science, philosophy, mythology, etc.  It is the grammar of language that construes — and so, makes possible — the types of meanings we can make, the ideas we can think, in the fields of science, philosophy, mythology, etc. — augmented by other semiotic systems, such as the pictorial, made possible by language.

The functioning of this mental-verbal domain of construing experience as meaning — higher-order consciousness — depends on the functioning of its material-relational domain; that is, on the functioning of an evolved, species-specific, socially embedded, embodied brain.

Realism And Materialism Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 161):

By taking the position of biologically based epistemology, we are in some sense realists and also sophisticated materialists. … And by assuming that the brain is a somatic selective system, we rule out the idea of the little man or homunculus in the head. He is no more necessary to the sciences of somatic recognition than special creation or the argument from design is to evolution. If he is res cogitans, he is exorcised.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, both realism and materialism assume that meaning is transcendent of semiotic systems.  Realism assumes that reality exists independent of the mind; materialism assumes that materiality is the basis of reality.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, meaning is a property of semiotic systems, and on this basis, reality and existence are construals of experience as meaning.  By the same token, materiality is the construal of experience as the material-relational domain of meaning.

Galilean science is concerned with a realist interpretation of the material-relation domain ('primary qualities') at the expense of the mental-verbal domain ('secondary qualities').  Cartesian philosophy justifies the material-relational domain (res extensa) by the certainty of the mental-verbal domain (res cogitans).

Exorcising the res cogitans is consistent with Galilean science, but it leaves the mental-verbal domain only accounted for in terms of the material-relational domain.

The Epistemological Lesson Of Quantum Physics Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 160):

What can we say constructively about science and about the possibility of a theory of knowledge based on biology — a biologically based epistemology? 

To construct a reasonable account, we must recognise that modern particle physics and field theory have eliminated the notion of the world as a deterministic or clockwork mechanism. This does not mean that mechanisms cannot be described or be useful (as they are to both macroscopic physics and biology). It means simply that the universe cannot be sensibly considered at all scales in such terms.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the world that is modelled (reconstrued) by particle physics and field theory is meaning construed of experience in language.  As explained earlier on this blog, what quantum theory actually demonstrates is that the construal of experience as meaning (e.g. as an electron) is itself probabilistic, rather than a deterministic mechanism.

For example, as previously explained, wave-particle duality can be understood as 'potential-instance duality', with the wave perspective accounting for the potential — measured as probability — of construing experience as a photon, and the particle perspective accounting for actual instances — measured as statistics — of construing experience as a photon.

Similarly, field theory identifies the extent of space-time to which these varying probabilities of being instantiated apply.

Assumptions Of A Scientific View Of The Mind Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 159):

We should first state the assumptions of a scientific view [of the mind]:

There is a real world — one described by the laws of physics, which apply everywhere. (This is the physics assumption.) 

We are embedded in that world, follow its laws, and have evolved from an ancient origin. The mind arose on the basis of new evolutionary morphology. (This is the evolutionary assumption.) 

It is possible to put the mind back into nature. A science of mind based on biology is feasible. The way to avoid vicious circles and dead ends is to construct a brain theory based on selectionist principles. (This is the central argument of this book.)

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the real world described by the laws of physics is a construal of experience as the material-relational domain of meaning.  The laws of physics are reconstruals of such meanings as the meanings of theory.

The laws of physics, as reconstruals of meaning, are not obeyed by the construals of experience that they describe, any more than a map is obeyed by the terrain it reconstrues.

The 'we' that is embedded in the material-relational domain of meaning construed of experience is the construal of experience as the mental-verbal domain of meaning.

Putting the mind back into nature would entail not only identifying the processes of its material-relational domain, an embodied brain, but also identifying the processes of the mental-verbal domain.  This distinction of domains largely corresponds to the Galilean distinction between primary and secondary qualities, and the Cartesian distinction between res extensa and res cogitans.

The Human Implications Of The Theory Of Neuronal Group Selection Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 155):

This final set of chapters asks about the implications of our new brain theory for human (and some inhuman) concerns. It pleads for an open-mindedness about the mind. It suggests that our knowledge is not incorrigible, that we are deeply embedded in the matter of the world as well as in the matter of the mind, that we are each of us unique as individuals (and importantly so), that our thinking in a culture is a critical matter for our being human and for our grasping of meaning, and that, even in disease, our minds are marvellously adaptive. … Above all, it suggests that constructing an adequate theory of the brain promises to offer bases for new harmonies, including those according to which we may place ourselves in the universe.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, knowledge is meaning construed of experience, meaning which may then be reconstrued, for example, as the meaning of scientific theories.

Such systems of meaning are evolving socio-semiotic systems whose material base, on Edelman's model, is the selection of neuronal groups in global mappings in the brains of individuals, who exchange meanings with each other in communities, by expressing such meanings in wordings.

It is the specific evolution of systems of meaning in each individual human, on this material base, that makes each individual human unique.

What is embedded in the matter of the world and the matter of the mind is a symboliser that mediates symbolic processing: whether as a senser that mediates 'interior' mental processes or as a sayer that mediates 'exterior' verbal processes.

It is the emergence of language that is the 'critical matter for our being human and for our grasping of meaning' and it is language that construes the culture of human thinking and saying.

Interestingly, from the perspective of comparative mythologist, Joseph Campbell, putting humans in harmony with Nature is a primary function of the prescientific reconstruals of experience known as mythological systems.

A Scientific Connection Between The Mental And Physical Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 153-4):

In Modes of Thought, Whitehead pointed out that philosophy is the attempt to make manifest the fundamental evidence as to the nature of things. In the same work, he remarked that scientific reasoning is completely dominated by the presupposition that mental functionings are not properly part of nature. He deplored this and hoped that a proper connection between the mental and physical could be forged within science itself.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, science since Galileo has been concerned with the outer material-relational domain of meaning (Galileo's 'primary qualities'), whereas mental functionings are those of the inner mental-verbal domain of meaning (Galileo's 'secondary qualities').  Consistent with Galilean science, Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection provides a model of the inner domain in terms of the outer domain that makes the emergence of the inner domain possible.

Models Of How The Mind Works Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 153):

Why have I rejected as a basis for mind the apparent elegance of axiomatic and syntactic systems? Axiomatic systems often seem to provide the right clue as to how the mind works, especially when taken together with physics. But they are social constructions that are the results of thought, not the basis of thought. Their roots lie in the mathematical logic of the nineteenth century. They flowered with David Hilbert, were modulated and circumscribed by Gödel, and are often conceived of in a typological or essentialist fashion. They are not a good model for the mind, for the mind must preexist to create and drive them. Consciousness is essential for their formulation and also for the Platonism that they sometimes inspire, but the facts show that consciousness arose by evolutionary, not typological, means. Darwin was right: Morphology led to mind, and on this issue Wallace, who felt that natural selection could not explain the human mind, was wrong. Plato is not even wrong; he is simply out of the question.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, all models of how the mind works are "social constructions that are the results of thought", and "the mind must preexist to create and drive them", and "consciousness is essential for their formulation".

This is because models of the mind are reconstruals (intellectual reconstructions) of the meanings of language construed of experience, and it is language that is the basis of the thinking of higher-order consciousness.  Such models are social in the sense that they are intersubjective, since the expression of their meanings as wordings enables the exchange of such meanings in a community.

Perception Of An Open-Ended Environment Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 152):

Categorisation mechanisms work through global mappings that necessarily involve our bodies and our personal history. Perception is therefore not necessarily veridical. In our behaviour we are driven by a recategorical memory under the influence of dynamic changes of value. Beliefs and concepts are individuated only by reference to an open-ended environment, the description of which cannot be specified in advance.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, perception is not necessarily veridical, and the description of an open-ended environment cannot be specified in advance, because perception involves construing experience ("an open-ended environment") as perceptual meaning, in terms of an individuated system of perceptual potential, previously established on the basis of the varying adaptive value of each of the previous instances of perception.

Objectivism Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [1]

Edelman (1992: 152):

The world with which the brain interacts is not unequivocally made up of classical categories. (It is true, however, that some "natural objects" appear to follow these categories because of the interactive features of our phenotype and the physical properties of these objects.) … Physics, which studies such a world, describes its formal correlative properties but does not contain a theory of unique categories for the partitioning of macroscopic objects. As I point out in the Postscript, objectivism fails.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, 'the world of categories' is the world of meaning construed of experience.  'Natural objects' and their physical properties are construals of experience as material order meaning (phenomena).  Physics involves reconstruing the material order meanings of language as the meanings of the language of theory.  Objectivism fails because meaning is immanent within semiotic systems, not transcendent of them.

The Construction Of An 'Imaginative Domain' Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 151-2):

For now, we can only speculate on such matters. But we do know that higher-order consciousness leads to the construction of an imaginative domain, one of feeling, emotion, thought, fantasy, self, and will. It constructs artificial objects that are mental. In culture, these acts lead to studies of stable relations among things (science), of stable relations among stable mental objects (mathematics), and of stable relations between sentences that are applicable to things and to mental objects (logic). One possible reason for the incompleteness of such domains, as shown for mathematics by Kurt Gödel, is that pattern formation in the mind always requires the higher-order bootstraps that are necessary for consciousness. Thinking occurs in terms of synthesised patterns, not logic, and for this reason, it may always exceed in its reach syntactical, or mechanical, relationships.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is the meaning potential of language that provides higher-order consciousness. Through the mental processes of consciousness, afforded by language, a universe of meaning (phenomena) can be perceived, felt, thought and desired — meanings which can then be reconstrued as the meanings of science and other theoretical fields. Through the verbal processes of consciousness, the wordings that realise these meanings can be exchanged between individuals in a community. Any "incompleteness" in the domain of meaning relates to the fact that it is an evolving system whose material basis is the selection of variant neuronal groups in global mappings in the brains of individuals in communities, continuously down the generations.

The Qualia Of Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Edelman (1992: 151):

To remain scientific, the extended TNGS must assume that both the human subject and the human scientific observer who studies that subject experience qualia. This assumption is necessary to assure that meaningful intersubjective scientific exchange occurs. According to the theory, qualia are categorisations by higher-order consciousness of the "scenes" and "memories" provided by primary consciousness. They involve recategorical relationships that are ultimately governed by how evolutionarily selected values interact with memory. Creatures that have primary consciousness alone can neither report qualia nor reflect on them. If they experience them (and we can only infer that they do), they experience them solely in the remembered present.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the "scenes" and "memories" provided by primary consciousness are value-weighted systems of perceptual meaning.  The qualia of higher-order consciousness are the linguistic values assigned to such perceptual tokens, through the correlation of systems of perceptual meaning with systems of linguistic meaning.

'Objects In The Physical World' Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 150-1):

"Objective" science and language both depend on the metastability or constancy of objects in the physical world. The consciousness theory assumes that physics and evolution, supplemented by the assumptions of the TNGS, are sufficient to construct a science of mind. No scientific theory of a single actual mind is possible, however, any more than a scientific account of all historical events in the world is possible.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, 'objects in the physical world' are construals of experience as perceptual meaning, which in humans, is correlated with the meaning of language, the content of higher-order consciousness.  By the same token, the meanings of the field of science are reconstruals of the meanings of language.

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.

Blogger Comments:

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.

Blogger Comments:

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. 

Blogger Comments:

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.

Blogger Comments:

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.

A Conceptual Model Of Selfhood Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 131-2):

How does one become "conscious of being conscious"? In order to acquire this capacity, systems of memory must be related to a conceptual representation of a true self (or social self) acting on an environment and vice versa. A conceptual model of selfhood must be built, as well as a model of the past.  A number of steps of developmental learning that alter the individual's relation to the immediate present are necessary for this to take place.

Brain repertoires are required that are able to delay responses. (Repertoires of this type are known to be present in the frontal cortex.) These repertoires must be able to categorise the processes of primary consciousness itself. This is achieved largely through symbolic means…

Long-term storage of symbolic relations, acquired through interactions with other individuals of the same species, is critical to the self-concept. This acquisition is accompanied by the categorisation of sentences related to self and nonself and their connection to events in primary consciousness.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the ontogenesis of the social self relates to the interpersonal dimension of language, in which the self and intersubjective relations are enacted as meaning.  In terms of Edelman's TNGS, this suggests a correlation of systems of linguistic meaning potential with the systems of value-weighted perceptual potential that enable primary consciousness.

The Actualisation Of Meaning Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 130): 

It is not the case that the language centres "contain" concepts or that concepts "arise" from speech. Meaning arises from the interaction of value category memory with the combined activity of conceptual areas and speech areas. 

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, systems of linguistic meaning potential correlate with systems of perceptual meaning potential (conceptual value-category memory).  Linguistic meaning arises for the speaker when such potential is instantiated, and for the hearer when such instances are correlated with potential.

The Notion Of A Genetically Programmed Language-Acquisition Device

Edelman (1992: 126):

Speech is special and unique to Homo sapiens. Can we account for its evolutionary emergence without creating a gulf between linguistic theory and biology? Yes, provided that we account for speech in epigenetic as well as genetic terms. This means abandoning any notion of a genetically programmed language-acquisition device. It does not mean, however, that specialised heritable structures were not necessary for speech to arise. Indeed, the evidence for the existence of specialised heritable structures related to speech is not hard to find.

Blogger Comments:

The notion of a genetically programmed language-acquisition device is the sine qua non of Chomskyan Formal Linguistics, a theory couched in terms of Platonic Essentialism and the Cartesian res cogitans.

The Necessary Bases For Linguistic Meanings Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 126):

I propose that before language evolved, the brain already had the necessary bases for meanings in its capacities to produce and act on concepts. The evolution in primates of rich conceptual memories, and in hominids of phonological capabilities and special brain regions for the production, ordering, and memory of speech sounds, then opened up the possibility of the emergence of higher-order consciousness.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the systems of value-weighted perceptual potential (Edelman's 'concepts'), which opened up the possibility of the emergence of primary consciousness, are the necessary bases for the emergence of the meanings of protolanguage, from which the meanings of language later emerged, opening up the possibility of the emergence of higher-order consciousness.

Primary Consciousness As A Prerequisite For Language, Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 126):

The considerations presented so far suggest that a model for speech acquisition requires primary consciousness. Furthermore, the development of a rich syntax and grammar is highly improbable without the prior evolution of a neural means for concepts. If this turns out to be true, it will be obvious why computers are unable to deal with semantic situations. Their embodiment is wrong; it does not lead to consciousness.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, in requiring primary consciousness, the emergence of language, phylogenetically and ontogenetically, thus requires the prior ability to correlate current construals of experience as instances of perceptual meaning with systems of value-weighted perceptual potential.

(Semiotic) Prerequisites For (Proto-)Language Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 125-6):

To trace how these abilities may have developed through the evolutionary emergence of a symbolic memory, it will be necessary to consider how speech evolved and how it is acquired. Therefore, I will first consider how the emergence of true language required the evolution of the vocal tract and the brain centres for speech production and comprehension. I then will confront an issue central to this essay: whether concepts are formed prior to speech. In doing so, I will conclude that a model of self-nonself interaction probably had to emerge prior to true speech.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, concepts — in Edelman's sense of self-nonself interactions — are systems of value weighted perceptual potential, and as such, must evolve even before the social semiotic systems of protolanguage that come to be correlated with them.

The Ability To Construct A Socially Based Selfhood Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 125):

Higher-order consciousness obviously requires the continued operation of the structures serving primary consciousness. In addition, it involves the ability to construct a socially based selfhood, to model the world in terms of the past and the future, and to be directly aware. Without a symbolic memory, these abilities cannot develop.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the ability to construct a socially based selfhood is afforded by social semiotic systems, and begins in protolanguage, where a systemic distinction is made between the intersubjective and the objective.

The Means Of Transcending Primary Consciousness Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 125):

How can the tyranny of this remembered present be broken? The imprecise answer is: By the evolution of new forms of symbolic memory and new systems serving social communication and transmission. In its most developed form, this means the evolutionary acquisition of the capability for language.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the limitations of primary consciousness are transcended through the emergence of social semiotic systems, from protolanguage to language.

Primary Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 125):

Perceptual categorisation, for example, is nonconscious and can be carried out by classification couples, or even by automata. It treats signals from the outside world — that is, signals from sensory sheets and organs. 

By contrast, conceptual categorisation works from within the brain, requires perceptual categorisation and memory, and treats the activities of portions of global mappings as its substrate. 

Connecting the two kinds of categorisation with an additional reentrant path for each sensory modality (that is, in addition to the path that allows conceptual learning to take place) gives rise in primary consciousness to a correlated scene, or "image." 

This image can be regenerated in part by memory in animals with primary consciousness, but it cannot be regenerated in reference to a symbolic memory. By this I mean a memory for symbols and their associated meanings. And so an animal with primary consciousness alone is strongly tied to the succession of events in real time.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, perceptual categorisation is the construal of experience (signals from sensory sheets and organs) as perceptual meaning.

By contrast, conceptual categorisation is the organisation of such perceptual meanings into systems of perceptual potential, differentially weighted, during experience, according to evolutionarily selected values (e.g. attractive vs repellent).

The correlation of ongoing construals of experience as instances of perceptual meaning with the system of value-weighted perceptual potential yields a scene or "image" that is the range or cause of a mental process unfolding through a senser (primary consciousness).

Human Primary Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 124):

It is curious that we, as human beings with higher-order consciousness, cannot "see the world" with our primary consciousness alone. Creatures with primary consciousness, while possessing mental images, have no capacity to view those images from the vantage point of a socially constructed self. Yet one who has such a self as a result of higher-order consciousness needs it to link one mental image to the next in order to appreciate the workings of primary consciousness! Higher-order consciousness cannot be abandoned without losing the descriptive power it makes possible.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, in humans, the systems of perceptual meanings of primary consciousness are correlated with the systems of linguistic meanings of higher-order consciousness, thereby making it impossible to "see the world" — construe experience as meaning — through primary consciousness alone. The descriptive power made possible by higher-order consciousness is the descriptive power of language.

The Efficacy Of Primary Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 121):

Consciousness is not merely an epiphenomenon. According to the TNGS, primary consciousness helps to abstract and organise complex changes in an environment involving multiple parallel signals. Even though some of these signals may have no direct causal connection to each other in the outside world, they may be significant indicators to the animal of danger or reward. This is because primary consciousness connects their features in terms of the saliency determined by the animal's past history and its values.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, primary consciousness 'helps to abstract and organise' construals of experience as perceptual meaning, and connects current instantiations of perceptual meaning with the system of perceptual potential, differentially weighted for adaptive value, as accumulated through the animal's past history of construing experience as perceptual meaning.

The (Primary) Conscious Process Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 121):

In the conscious process, current value-free perceptual categorisation interacts with value-dominated memory. This occurs before perceptual events contribute further to the alteration of that memory. When such events do contribute to the alteration of that memory, they are, in general, no longer in the specious or remembered present, that is, they are no longer in primary consciousness.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, in the conscious process, current construals of experience as instances of perceptual meaning are correlated with systems of value-laden perceptual potential.  This occurs before the instances alter the probabilities of the system of perceptual potential.  When such instances do contribute to the probabilities of perceptual potential, they are, in general, no longer in primary consciousness (since they are no longer being instantiated).

Primary Consciousness As A "Remembered Present" Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 119-20):

To summarise: The brain carries out a process of conceptual "self-categorisation." Self-categories are built by matching past perceptual categories with signals from value systems, a process carried out by cortical systems capable of conceptual functions. This value-category system then interacts via reentrant connections with brain areas carrying out ongoing perceptual categorisations of world events and signals. Perceptual (phenomenal) experience arises from the correlation by a conceptual memory of a set of ongoing perceptual categorisations. Primary consciousness is a kind of "remembered present."

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, primary consciousness is the correlation of systems of individually valued perceptual potential ("remembered") with current construals of experience as instances of perceptual meaning ("present").

Mental Images Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 119):

My use of the word "scene" is meant to convey the idea that responses to roughly contemporaneous events in the world are connected by a set of reentrant processes. As human beings possessing higher-order consciousness, we experience primary consciousness as a "picture" or a "mental image" of ongoing categorised events. But as we shall see when we examine higher-order consciousness, there is no actual image or sketch in the brain. The "image" is a correlation between different kinds of categorisations.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, a 'scene' is a correlation of perceptual meanings construed of experience.  In humans, this is further correlated with linguistic meanings construed of experience.

The Interaction Of Perceptual Categorisation and Value-Category Memory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 118-9):

A third and critical evolutionary development provides a sufficient means for the appearance of primary consciousness. This is a special reentrant circuit that emerged during evolution as a new component of neuroanatomy. This circuit allows for continual reentrant signalling between the value-category memory and the ongoing global mappings that are concerned with perceptual categorisation in real time. 

An animal without these new reentrant connections can carry out perceptual categorisations in various sensory modalities and can even develop a conceptual value-category memory. Such an animal cannot, however, link perceptual events into an ongoing scene. 

With the appearance of the new reentrant circuits in each modality, a conceptual categorisation of concurrent perceptions can occur before these perceptual signals contribute lastingly to that memory. This interaction between a special kind of memory and perceptual categorisation gives rise to primary consciousness. 

Given the appropriate reentrant circuits in the brain, this "bootstrapping process" takes place in all sensory modalities in parallel and simultaneously, thus allowing for the construction of a complex scene. The coherence of this scene is coordinated by the conceptual value-category memory even if the individual perceptual categorisation events that contribute to it are causally independent.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the interaction between ongoing perceptual categorisation and value-category memory, that gives rise to primary consciousness, is the correlation of ongoing construals of experience as instances of perceptual meaning with the value-weighted system of perceptual potential.

Value-Category Memory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 118-9):

The appearance of primary consciousness, according to the model, depends on the evolution of three functions. Two of these evolutionary developments are necessary but not sufficient for consciousness. 

The first is the development of the cortical system in such a way that when conceptual functions appeared they could be linked strongly to the limbic system, extending already existing capacities to carry out learning. 

The second is the development of a new kind of memory based on this linkage. Unlike the system of perceptual categorisation, this conceptual memory system is able to categorise responses in the different brain systems that carry out perceptual categorisation and it does this according to the demands of limbic brain stem value systems. This "value-category" memory allows conceptual responses to occur in terms of the mutual interactions of the thalamo-cortical and limbic-brain stem systems.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, conceptual functions entail the organisation of perceptual meanings into systems, and the linkage of these to the limbic system is the material means by which perceptual meanings are assigned values that have been evolutionarily selected as adaptive for the species.

Since memory is the ability to repeat a performance, the value-category memory that is based on this linkage is the ability to instantiate such value-weighted perceptual systemic potential.

The Weighting Of Construals Of Experience With Evolutionarily Selected Values Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 118):

The advantage provided by the ability to construct a scene is that events that may have had significance to an animal's past learning can be related to new events, however causally unconnected those events are in the outside world. Even more importantly, this relationship can be established in terms of the demands of the value systems of the individual animal. By these means, the salience of an event is determined not only by its position and energy in the physical world but also by the relative value it has been accorded in the past history of the individual animal as a result of learning. It is the evolutionary development of the ability to create a scene that led to the emergence of primary consciousness.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the ongoing pairing of construals of experience with evolutionarily selected values entails that the ontogenesis of systems of perceptual potential is differentially weighted according to the values of different species, and according to the different experiences of individuals within species.

Edelman's 'Scene' Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 118):

But in some animal species with cortical systems, the categorisations of separate causally unconnected parts of the world can be correlated and bound into a scene. By a scene I mean a spatiotemporally ordered set of categorisations of familiar and non-familiar events, some with and some without necessary physical or causal connections to others in the same scene.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, such a 'scene' is an ongoing instantiation of perceptual meanings, construed of experience, that are the range, or cause, of mental processes unfolding through a senser.

Qualia As Forms Of Higher-Order Categorisation Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 116):

As it will turn out after we consider models for primary and higher-order consciousness, qualia may be usefully viewed as forms of higher-order categorisation, as relations reportable to the self and then somewhat less satisfactorily reportable to others with similar mental equipment.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, qualia can be understood as a senser mediating mental processes that range over, or are caused by, systems of perceptual meanings (± linguistic meanings) construed of experience.  That is, they are not the meanings (categorisations) alone.

Orders Of Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 115-6):

Higher-order consciousness is based on the occurrence of direct awareness in a human being who has language and a reportable subjective life. Primary consciousness may be composed of phenomenal experiences such as mental images, but it is bound to a time around the measurable present, lacks concepts of self, past, and future, and lies beyond direct descriptive individual report from its own standpoint. Accordingly, beings with primary consciousness alone cannot construct theories of consciousness — even wrong ones!

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, if primary consciousness involves a senser sensing perceptual meanings, and higher-order consciousness involves a senser sensing linguistic meanings, then, between the two poles, are various orders of consciousness that involve a senser sensing protolinguistic meanings, as in the case of social species.

The Notion Of 'Qualia' Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 114):

Qualia constitute the collection of personal or subjective experiences, feelings, and sensations that accompany awareness. They are phenomenal states — "how things seem to us" as human beings. For example, the "redness" of a red object is a quale. Qualia are discriminable parts of a mental scene that nonetheless has an overall unity. They may range in intensity and clarity from "raw feels" to highly refined discriminanda. These sensations may be very precise when they accompany perceptual experiences; in the absence of perception, they may be more or less diffuse but nonetheless discernible as "visual," "auditory," and so on. In general, in the normal waking state, qualia are accompanied by a sense of spatiotemporal continuity. Often, the phenomenal scene is accompanied by feelings or emotions, however faint. Yet the actual sequence of qualia is highly individual, resting on a series of occasions in one's own personal history or immediate experience.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the notion of qualia embraces

• mental processes actualised through sensers and 
• the phenomenal ranges or causes of such processes.  

Such phenomena are construals of an individual's experience as perceptual meanings, which, in humans, are correlated with the meanings of language.

Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 112):

In contrast, higher-order consciousness involves the recognition by a thinking subject of his or her own acts or affections. It embodies a model of the personal, and of the past and the future as well as the present. It exhibits direct awareness — the non-inferential or immediate awareness of mental episodes without the involvement of sense organs or receptors. It is what we as humans have in addition to primary consciousness. We are conscious of being conscious.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional linguistic theory, these features of higher-order consciousness are provided by language.

Higher-order consciousness involves a senser mediating mental processes — of perception, cognition, desideration, emotion — that range over, or are caused by, the meanings of language (phenomena) construed of experience, or a sayer mediating verbal processes that range over the wordings that realise the meanings of language.

However, more than this, higher-order consciousness involves the projection of the meanings of language into existence through a senser mediating cognitive or desiderative mental processes, or the projection of wordings that realise the meanings of language, through a sayer mediating verbal processes.

Through the projection of wordings, higher-order consciousness also involves the enactment of the self and intersubjective relations as interpersonal meaning (propositions, proposals, and assessments).

And from a textual perspective, higher-order consciousness involves the weaving together of the ideational and interpersonal dimensions of consciousness in ways that are coherent for a given context.

Primary Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 112):

I have made a distinction, which I believe is a fundamental one, between primary consciousness and higher-order consciousness. Primary consciousness is the state of being mentally aware of things in the world — of having mental images in the present. But it is not accompanied by any sense of a person with a past and future. It is what one may presume to be possessed by some nonlinguistic and nonsemantic animals (which ones they may be, I discuss later on).

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, primary conscious involves senser-mediated mental processes — of perception, cognition, desideration, cognition — ranging over (or caused by) the contents of consciousness, these being the systems of perceptual meaning potential that an organism has construed of experience.

Mental Images As A "Mirror Of Reality" Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 112):

Some psychologists suggest that consciousness is marked by the presence of mental images and by their use to regulate behaviour. But it is not a simple copy of experience (a "mirror of reality"), nor is it necessary for a good deal of behaviour. Some kinds of learning, conceptual processes, and even some forms of inference proceed without it.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, mental images are construals of experience as perceptual meaning.  In protolinguistic species, these are correlated with the meanings of the respective protolanguage, and in post-infant humans they are correlated with the meanings of language. The experience of mental images involves a senser sensing the contents of consciousness, prototypically through processes of visual perception or cognition (imagination).

The reason mental images are not a copy of experience (a "mirror of reality") is that meaning is a property of semiotic systems, not a property of the experience that is transformed into meaning.  That is, there is no meaning outside semiotic systems that can be copied or reflected.

One reason physicists regard Quantum theory as strange is that the Laws of Physics are seen as a "(mirror of) reality" instead of a semiotic reconstrual of experience.