{"id":7017,"date":"2023-12-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7017"},"modified":"2023-11-18T16:08:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-18T16:08:26","slug":"looking-at-daniel-dennetts-book-2017-from-bacteria-to-bach-and-back-part-2-of-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7017","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Daniel Dennett’s Book (2017) “From Bacteria To Bach and Back” (Part 2 of 20)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0006 Unlike the cat, the dog has a tool of the intellect,<\/em> whose application is so relevant that it fashions the ways that the species adapts into its niche<\/em>.  This raises the question, “What is a niche?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0007 First, an aside.  The interscope for the Darwinian paradigm<\/em> is developed in Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the Genome<\/em> and is represented in other e-books and blogs by Razie Mah.  The two-level interscope<\/em> is presented in A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction,<\/em> available at smashwords and other e-book venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0008 Second, an answer to the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A niche<\/em> is the (situation-level) potential1b<\/sub> of a (content-level) actuality that is independent of the adapting species2a<\/sub><\/em>.  As such, the niche1b<\/sub> underlies the actuality of adaptation2b<\/sub> in the normal context of natural selection3b<\/sub>.  Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0009 On the situation level, the normal context of natural selection3b<\/sub><\/em> brings the actuality of an adaptation2b<\/sub><\/em> into relation with its niche1b<\/sub>,<\/em> which is the potential1b<\/sub> of an actuality independent of the adapting species2a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned earlier, the dog has a tool of the intellect<\/em> and this tool must be an adaptation2b<\/sub>.  What is the dog’s niche1b<\/sub>?  It must be us, humans, of course.  We are the actuality independent of the adapting species2a<\/sub><\/em>.  When we look at the dog’s adaptations2b<\/sub><\/em> from our point of view, we call the result, “domestication”.  The dog finds a pack in the human household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0010 Of course, the dog’s domestication is a recent process.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did it happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain wolves, empowered by humans, learn to identify the human as a candidate for a pack leader.  Surely, humans are more… um… humane, depending on how one defines the word, “humane”<\/em>.  When a dog is treated like a member of the family, more or less,<\/em> its descent from wolves serves it well, since a wolf knows that it belongs to a pack.  A lone wolf is unlikely to survive on its own.  Dogs know this and therefore, accept the leash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0011 I wonder whether Dennett would call the dog’s affection for its new-found pack leader “an evolved user illusion”.  Whatever label one wants to apply, the dog’s affection serves as a conviction, or rather, a judgment.  A judgment is a triadic relation with three elements: relation, what is<\/em> and what ought to be<\/em>.  A relation (in the dog’s being) brings what is<\/em>(a human, especially when it provides food and family) into relation to what ought to be<\/em> (a pack leader for the domesticate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dog signifies its joy, as well as its distress, through its tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a tale the dog’s tail tells!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0012 No matter what the content-level normal context3a<\/sub> or potential1a<\/sub>, the dog’s tail specifies its consciousness of whether its gambit2b<\/sub> is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, with that said, I seem to have entered a different paradigm.  This paradigm belongs to old-fashioned Latin schoolmen, called “scholastics”, who prospered between say, 800 to 1700 AD, from the very end of the Roman empire to the start of the modern era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0013 If I say that the canine’s tail tells me something about what is going on in the dog’s mind,<\/em> irrespective of what is happening3a<\/sub><\/em> and the potential of ‘something’ happening’1a<\/sub>,<\/em> then I may conclude whether the dog is happy or not2b<\/sub>, by situating a dog’s tail action1b<\/sub> in the normal context of what it means to me3b<\/sub><\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The specifying sign is a triadic relation where a sign-vehicle (SV) stands for a sign-object (SO) in regards to a sign-interpretant (SI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dog’s tail action2a<\/sub> (SVs<\/sub>) is the sign-vehicle for a specificative sign-relation<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The happiness or unhappiness of my dog2b<\/sub><\/em> is the sign-object<\/em> (SOs<\/sub>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it means to me3b<\/sub><\/em> and the potential of ‘situating content1b<\/sub><\/em> is the specifying sign’s interpretant<\/em> (SIs<\/sub>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If my dog wags its tail (SVs<\/sub>), then I know that my dog is happy (SOs<\/sub>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If my dog tucks its tail between its back legs (SVs<\/sub>), then I know that my dog is not happy (SOs<\/sub>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0014 I wonder whether one dog notices the tail-action of other dogs.  After all, for all dogs, only content and situation levels matter.  So, I suppose that they do.  The tail-wagging and tail-tucking business may have been enhanced because humans are receptive to such signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0015 Would Dennett call a dog’s tail action<\/em> a “meme”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that he would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0016 Meanwhile, premodern scholastics call the above two-level interscope, “specificative extrinsic formal causality”.  I call it “a specifying sign”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tail-action2a<\/sub> is the sign-vehicle (SVs<\/sub>).  My dog’s apparent attitude2b<\/sub> is the sign-object (SOs<\/sub>).  The normal context<\/em> of what it means to me3b<\/sub>,<\/em> operating on the potential of ‘situating content’1b<\/sub> is the sign-interpretant<\/em> (SIs<\/sub>).  The subscript stands for “specifying”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sign-relation is discussed in detail in Razie Mah’s blog for November 2023, Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) Semiotic Animal,<\/em> as well as A Primer on Natural Signs<\/em> and related e-articles available for sale at smashwords and other e-book venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0006 Unlike the cat, the dog has a tool of the intellect, whose application is so relevant that it fashions the ways that the species adapts into its niche.  This raises the question, “What is a niche?” 0007 First, an aside.  The interscope for the Darwinian paradigm is developed in Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,417,419,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological-cultural-evolution","category-book-review","category-scholastic-interscope-for-the-way-humans-think","category-the-evolution-of-talk"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Daniel Dennett's Book (2017) "From Bacteria To Bach and Back" (Part 2 of 20) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=7017\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Daniel Dennett's Book (2017) "From Bacteria To Bach and Back" (Part 2 of 20) - 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