NEW333H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Affordance, Sensory Deprivation, Autopoiesis

77 views6 pages
25 Oct 2012
Lecture 4
Translating Darwin’s concepts to cognitive science: Phenomenology
Relevance realization satisfies the naturalistic imperative: it can be multi-apt and profound.
Phenomenology: how events are structured to make sense to you
Let’s lay a framework to RR
RR is prerational: using logic can not produce RR. RR has no logical precedence. Rationality is a product
of your ability to do RR rationality comes from relevance realition
RR is preempirical, preexperiential: RR sets up the structure in which you experience events. Your
experiences (as a cognitive agent) are a product of your RR.
RR is pre-conceptual: representations are always subjective to something (symbols are not intrinsic)
RR is prenormative: you cannot make a judgement about something without the realization that it is
Your sense of REALNESS is preceded by RR. The metavalue of realness, legitimacy, truth, is via RR.
RR is preegoic. Your RR produces your sense of identity.
RR produces your fundamental framing of the world your metameaning.
All structures of meaning are produced in this FF
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-2 of the document.
Unlock all 6 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in
3 important dimensions of RR phenomenology
Organisms have needs: things are relevant TO an organism (needs subject and object)
Quick distinction: a chemical system is self-organized. But it does not have needs. It does not make itself
A biological system is autopoetic.
Autopoesis is a subset of RR with the function of making oneself, taking care of itself.
Bacteria finds relevance in sugar, an inert chemical.
It gives relevance to sugar, perceives it as FOOD. Sugar is not intrinsically food. Food becomes
important: it imports (brings toward) sugar
A system that cares about itself cares about the environment
Is the bacteria being intelligent? Hard to say.
1) Information and importance
Information: a reduction in the uncertainty for the receiver. Info selectively constrains the possibilities. It
rules possibilities out.
Information is always polluted (noisy), partial (not complete), and is a plethora (a lot of info).
The difference between signal and noise is not intrinsic, depends on relevance.
If organisms are exposed to too much nonsensical information, it becomes anxious (without any direct
Is something a signal or is it noise? When a message gets sent, you can react two ways. Imagine an
antelope on the plains. You react two ways:
-this is signal: this is a predator! Dash away! The risk: mistake the signal
-this is noise: this is the wind. Relax. The risk: miss the signal
Which reaction is more key to survival? Of course, react to the noise! Ignoring the signal gets you killed.
Organisms are designed to mistake the signal many times, sacrificing accuracy to reduce misses.
2) Co-relevance
What do organisms do to interpret the partial polluted plethora of info? They seek patterns.
Not only that! But they seek to complete them. We get satisfaction in predicting the system:
Salt and ___, black and ___, left and ___. There is distinct pleasure in finishing patterns.
Patterns are what make up corelevance. Two objects are relevant, and also relevant to each other.
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-2 of the document.
Unlock all 6 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in

Get OneClass Notes+

Unlimited access to class notes and textbook notes.

YearlyBest Value
75% OFF
$8 USD/m
$30 USD/m