Reflection Spiral
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In "Model of Mind" we defined
Reflection
as follows:
[ Human Reason encompasses Lateral
Thinking
or Reflection consisting of two basic
faculties:
1. Symbolizing, or mapping Imagery
to Symbolics
2. Understanding, or mapping Symbolics
to
Imagery.
We SYMBOLIZE by mapping Patterns and
Images
of Imagery into Entity/Relation network
structures
of Symbolics which we may express with
Statements
(or Propositions) and Symbols of our
languages.
We UNDERSTAND ER network structures
as well
as linguistic Statements and Symbols
by imagining
them, by mapping them to Imagery, which
confers
on them signification and meaning.
]
In the chapter "Linguistic Inversion"
we shall discuss in detail the basic
linguistic
structure "[Entity] is [Attribute]",
eg. "my car is green". We
shall
distinguish between:
-Noumenalistic view considering Entity
and
Attribute as ontologically different
and
Entity as "Container of Attributes"
existing as such independently of containing
any or no Attributes.
-Phenomenalistic view, for which Entity
is
a collection of Attributes and nothing
else:
a single Attribute is already a full
blown,
legitimate Entity and if all Attributes
vanish,
the Entity, being nothing more than
their
collection, vanishes on the same occasion.
Noumenalism being banned from rationality
since Kant, we embrace the Phenomenalistic
view. Thus in our example "green"
is on the one hand an Entity and, on
the
other hand, a more general Entity than
"my
car", which it encompasses among
trillions
of other green Entities.
We prefer the term "Reflection"
than "Lateral Thinking" because
"Lateral" and "Thinking"
are overcharged with traditional, often
misleading
denotations. "Reflection",
less
overloaded, has the advantage of evoking
Imagery and Symbolics as reciprocally
reflecting
one another. We shall see Mind's activity
as incessant dynamic circle of Reflections
elongated along the time dimension
into a
spiral. (Fig. 1)

Symbolic structures of Fig 1 are shown
in
some detail in Fig 2. with help of
following
conventions:
1. Relation is represented by an arrow
pointing
from "Aggregate" (more general
Entity of related couple) to less general
Entity or "Part", like, for
instance,
"colour" points to "black"
and "white" in Fig 2. Relation
supports the function of "Inferencing"
in two oriented manners:
1.1. Deduction in the "Top-down",
"encompass" or "general-to-particular"
direction.
1.2. Induction in the "Bottom-up",
"be encompassed" or "particular-to-general"
direction.
Symbolic structure is organized by
Relations
and thus has two Aspects: Deductive
and Inductive.
2. Entities have 3 Aspects:
2.1. Abstract Entity or "Class"
represented graphically as red.
2.2. Concrete Entity or "Set"
represented
graphically as black.
2.3. Factual Entity or "Fact"
represented
graphically as green.
Within Deductive structure all Entities
are
Abstract Classes. Within Inductive
structure
an Aggregate Class may be "concretised"
and become a Set when it encompasses
a Fact
or, recurrently, a Set as Part.
Some of the above terms will be discussed
in detail in the part "Foundations of
Construct Theory" (RD's substitute of
Set Theory).

It's of course difficult to illustrate
the
"incessant dynamic circle of Reflections"
with an oversimplified graphic diagram.
In
reality there is no starting "Schema"
point where we would be aware exclusively
of some particular symbolic structure.
For
illustration's sake we suppose in our
example
a situation where we read or hear something
about "moon" and our attention
switches to this issue, concentrating
our
awareness on the corresponding substructure
of the global symbolic structure of
our knowledge,
of our Universe of Discourse.
NOTE: Such terms as Inferencing, Deduction,
Induction imply the domain of Logic.
It will
be discussed in the part "Modeling
versus
Logic", particularly in its parts
"Crisis
of Noumenalism " and "RD's
Phenomenalistic
Logic". The present chapter deals
with
RD's Epistemological Foundations of
Logic.
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