Reduction Reduced…
Estudia: Okay, Phi’, let me see if I can do this reduction thing.
Philo: Okay ‘Stu, tell me again what it is.
Estudia: Reduction is a way to connect some advanced concept, piece of knowledge, or cognitive item to reality, which is the perceptual level for us. Reduction involves a tracing backward of at least the essential logical steps that gave rise to the higher level concept being reduced.
Philo: Good. Now what concept are you going to try and reduce?
Estudia: How ‘bout something simple like Brother?
Philo: Well, okay, but you had better define what kind of brother you mean.
Estudia: Let’s see. Brother can be used to refer to any male acquiesce just as sister can be used for females, but I want to keep this simple so I’ll just reduce brother meaning males born from the same mother.
Philo: Okay.
Estudia: A brother designates a person or animal in a human family relationship as opposed to an acquaintance, friend or stranger. In particular the relationship involves two or more males of the same species that were born from one and the same mother. So now I have a definition to work from and the concept brother is a certain stage of conception. In this case it is the last stage and I can see that in order to understand a particular stage of any concept I have to ask myself what is it that I have to know in order to reach that stage.
Philo: Terrific deduction. You are trying to work back to the perceptual stage, right?
Estudia: Yes, so I have to know what a mother is in terms of the brothers. Here the essential concepts are female, male and giving-birth. Female and male can be defined in terms of complex concepts like chromosomes, hormones or brain chemistry but really here we can jump to the perceptual level and point out sex organ differences. You are a female in terms of the concept brother if you have a uterus and ovaries capable of producing eggs which can be fertilized by sperm from a male. Lots of concepts, but the primary one is simply observed physical features. The other perceptual level concept you would need to understand is that of giving birth. This involves lots of additional concepts like eggs, sperm, placenta, fetus and much more, but the essential is simply the observed process of producing a baby from the birth canal. You can include C-sections as well as natural births but again the perceptual level is seeing a female expel a new born. This concept of brother is rather easy to comprehend as it is not far removed from the perceptual. You need female, mother, giving-birth and male and you have it reduced.
Philo: What about a concept like lovers?
Estudia: Well that gets a bit more complex. For the concept brother, by reduction, I can now say that I mean this and give my definition, two males born from the same mother or female. For lovers, we would have to introduce things like mutual respect, caring, esteem, affection, sexual desire perhaps, and physical intimacy. They we’d have to say that these things depend on values and values depend on what one acts to gain or keep and that could be things like food, water, air-conditioning, energy, etc and those would be at the perceptual level. Am I close to understanding reduction?
Philo: Yes, you are getting there. Once you know the roots of any concept you will understand the chain of concepts that link the idea to perceptual reality. So then you will know how to use the concept and can recognize when the concept is misused. Like “brother”, you have to stretch the concept to include that “you are your brother’s keeping” when you are talking about caring for strangers. That brother is obviously much broader and all inclusive, invoking a stolen idea, males born of the same mother, and applying it to all strangers male and female. Most people don’t understand the roots of a concept. How it is grounded in things from the perceptual level. They treat most concepts as primaries and don’t consider its place in the hierarchy of concepts that led up to the concept being used. All strangers become you brother or sister and deserve the same respect and attention as a family member.
Estudia: So if I reduce all concepts I will understand its definition.
Philo: Right, and that is the only way you can make a definition fully clear. You have to take the initial definition back through each level and understand the definition of the earlier concepts all the way back to the direct perception of reality. But be aware that certain concepts can not be reduced to observational perceptions. Certain false-concepts can’t be reduced.
Estudia: Like?
Philo: Think about it and next time we’ll see if you can come up with some.
Estudia: Good, I’ve lost weight trying to grasp reduction so I need a break. See you later.
Philo: Okay ‘Stu, tell me again what it is.
Estudia: Reduction is a way to connect some advanced concept, piece of knowledge, or cognitive item to reality, which is the perceptual level for us. Reduction involves a tracing backward of at least the essential logical steps that gave rise to the higher level concept being reduced.
Philo: Good. Now what concept are you going to try and reduce?
Estudia: How ‘bout something simple like Brother?
Philo: Well, okay, but you had better define what kind of brother you mean.
Estudia: Let’s see. Brother can be used to refer to any male acquiesce just as sister can be used for females, but I want to keep this simple so I’ll just reduce brother meaning males born from the same mother.
Philo: Okay.
Estudia: A brother designates a person or animal in a human family relationship as opposed to an acquaintance, friend or stranger. In particular the relationship involves two or more males of the same species that were born from one and the same mother. So now I have a definition to work from and the concept brother is a certain stage of conception. In this case it is the last stage and I can see that in order to understand a particular stage of any concept I have to ask myself what is it that I have to know in order to reach that stage.
Philo: Terrific deduction. You are trying to work back to the perceptual stage, right?
Estudia: Yes, so I have to know what a mother is in terms of the brothers. Here the essential concepts are female, male and giving-birth. Female and male can be defined in terms of complex concepts like chromosomes, hormones or brain chemistry but really here we can jump to the perceptual level and point out sex organ differences. You are a female in terms of the concept brother if you have a uterus and ovaries capable of producing eggs which can be fertilized by sperm from a male. Lots of concepts, but the primary one is simply observed physical features. The other perceptual level concept you would need to understand is that of giving birth. This involves lots of additional concepts like eggs, sperm, placenta, fetus and much more, but the essential is simply the observed process of producing a baby from the birth canal. You can include C-sections as well as natural births but again the perceptual level is seeing a female expel a new born. This concept of brother is rather easy to comprehend as it is not far removed from the perceptual. You need female, mother, giving-birth and male and you have it reduced.
Philo: What about a concept like lovers?
Estudia: Well that gets a bit more complex. For the concept brother, by reduction, I can now say that I mean this and give my definition, two males born from the same mother or female. For lovers, we would have to introduce things like mutual respect, caring, esteem, affection, sexual desire perhaps, and physical intimacy. They we’d have to say that these things depend on values and values depend on what one acts to gain or keep and that could be things like food, water, air-conditioning, energy, etc and those would be at the perceptual level. Am I close to understanding reduction?
Philo: Yes, you are getting there. Once you know the roots of any concept you will understand the chain of concepts that link the idea to perceptual reality. So then you will know how to use the concept and can recognize when the concept is misused. Like “brother”, you have to stretch the concept to include that “you are your brother’s keeping” when you are talking about caring for strangers. That brother is obviously much broader and all inclusive, invoking a stolen idea, males born of the same mother, and applying it to all strangers male and female. Most people don’t understand the roots of a concept. How it is grounded in things from the perceptual level. They treat most concepts as primaries and don’t consider its place in the hierarchy of concepts that led up to the concept being used. All strangers become you brother or sister and deserve the same respect and attention as a family member.
Estudia: So if I reduce all concepts I will understand its definition.
Philo: Right, and that is the only way you can make a definition fully clear. You have to take the initial definition back through each level and understand the definition of the earlier concepts all the way back to the direct perception of reality. But be aware that certain concepts can not be reduced to observational perceptions. Certain false-concepts can’t be reduced.
Estudia: Like?
Philo: Think about it and next time we’ll see if you can come up with some.
Estudia: Good, I’ve lost weight trying to grasp reduction so I need a break. See you later.
posted by Rp | 11:01 PM
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