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Evans Experientialism
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![]() THE MODAL SWITCH | ||||
| Jud Evans | ||||
THE MODAL SWITCH 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) (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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