THE MODAL SWITCH
JUD EVANS
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One of the existential modalities of a human
can be that of being a doctor, whilst one
of the existential modalities of a doctor
CANNOT be that of being a human.
The AITist system is connected linguistically
and semantically to the very core of the
way that the human mind grasps that which
is actualised
(a) He or she sees that which is experienced
as real in the universe.
(b) The linguistic methodology with which
he/she describes the way in which that presence
is experienced whilst he/she and 'it' exists.
The 'modal switching' that goes on in language
is actually a transfer of the attributed
predicational information, which is in effect
the existential modality of the subject -
to the object and vice versa. The keys that
open this particular door are:
(1) The strange use of the: "there is/there
are. . . " mechanism to avoid the ambiguous
modal toggle effect of attribution transfer.
(2) The inadmissibility of semantic toggling,
as in the admissible sentences: "A cat
is an animal" or "An elephant is
an animal," but we cannot throw the
semantic switch and reverse the relationship
to say: "An animal is a cat" or
"An animal is an elephant. " or
"A doctor is a human, "because
plainly there are millions of other animals
that fall into this animal classification
which are not cats or elephants, and therefore
the sentence: "An animal is a cat"
is flawed, because an animal could be a snake
or a chipmunk. Similarly there are thousands
of other humans who are not doctors, and
therefore to say that a doctor is a human
being is to subsume the whole class as being
doctors and to suggest that the 'doctor class'
is just another name for the 'human class.'
Everybody knows that the world is not populated
by animals all of which are squirrels and
monkeys acting as doctors, but by human beings
some of whom enjoy or suffer the occupational
existential modality of doctorhood.
I have come to understand that the whole
concept of AITism is actually subconsciously
'felt' by humanity, and that many of the
linguistic mechanisms are already recognised
and are responsive to specific linguistic
stimuli but have not been comprehended sufficiently
to have been explicated. Languages have however
automatically adjusted themselves to accommodate
many glaring existential conflicts. In formal
writing. For example 'passivity' is condemned
in the interests of 'forceful writing and
objectivity, ' but the reason for this instinctive
distaste is little understood - though some
feminists see it as a manifestation of a
male dominated literary establishment in
the past. Now that 'model switching' is comprehended,
the implications of toggling between: 'Josephine
was beaten by the policeman" and: The
policeman beat Josephine" are suddenly
thrown into clear focus, for the modal switch
changes the existential experiential modality
of Josephine to that of the policeman. In
other words from the point of view of emphatic
'masculine' narrative - a story which is
carried along by the unfolding of fresh energetic
and 'vigorously expatiated' events, the passivity
often shown by the more sensitive male and
female writers and poets is condemned as
'passive, ' and as demonstrating inactiveness,
inertia and submissiveness, and as concentrating
too much on the 'feelings' of the main protagonist
or hero and heroines of the story, rather
than in 'the job at hand. ' A modal shift
into a passive existential configuration
is thought to bestow a manner of torpidity,
submissive fecklessness upon Josephine's
existential modality, and hand the baton
of pragmatic experiential modality to the
macho and 'objective' policeman, [who we
may have never encountered before in the
story. ]
How do we know a doctor is a human being?
We know that a doctor is a human being because
ONLY human beings can be doctors. Squirrels
and monkeys can't be doctors. When the day
arrives when we have computers sufficiently
well programmed to diagnose and treat and
dispense pills etc to human beings, it may
well be that those machines will have the
appellation 'Doctor' bestowed upon them,
but I am contradict that the 'machine doctor'
will have some designatory title to differentiate
it from its human equivalent. For me being
human could never be classified or construed
as being one of the existential modalities
of being a doctor. Being human is certainly
an existential modality of all the constituent
atoms that form a human and being a doctor
is ONE of many existential modalities of
being a human. As I see it this is definitely
a 'bottom up' classificatory system from
the point of view of logic. Being a human
is NOT one of the classificatory preconditions
for being a doctor because if the entity
wasn't a human [if it were a squirrel for
example] or it didn't exist at all, then
there would be no question of it being considered
for the title of DOCTOR, or being admitted
to medical school whether he/she/it was educationally
and legally qualified or not - because it
would be a squirrel or not exist in the first
place.
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