Theory and Therapy of Representations

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Jon Awbrey

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Sep 5, 2022, 1:00:10 PM9/5/22
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 5
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/05/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-5/

Re: R.J. Lipton and K.W. Regan
https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/about-me/
::: Legal Complexity
https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2022/09/04/legal-complexity/

<QUOTE>
I do not pretend to understand the moral universe;
the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways;
I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by
the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.
And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

🙞 Theodore Parker
https://web.archive.org/web/20200302045624/https://books.google.com/books?id=eHgYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false
</QUOTE>

All,

The arc of the moral universe may bend toward justice — let's hope it does.
For the logic of laws to converge on justice may take some doing on our part.

Regards & Happy Labor Day,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 13, 2022, 11:00:50 AM9/13/22
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 1
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/13/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-1-2/

| Again, in a ship, if a man were at liberty to do what he chose,
| but were devoid of mind and excellence in navigation (αρετης
| κυβερνητικης), do you perceive what must happen to him and
| his fellow sailors?
|
| Plato • Alcibiades • 135 A

Responding to issues raised by Michael Harris on [Mathematical Literacy and the Good Society]
https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/tim-gowers-as-public-intellectual/

All,

Statistics were originally the data a ship of state needed for stationkeeping and
staying on course. The Founders of the United States, like the Cybernauts of the
Enlightenment they were, engineered a ship of state with checks and ballasts and
error-controlled feedbacks to achieve the bicameral purpose of representing both
reality and the will of the people. In that connection Max Weber observed how
a state's accounting systems were intended as representations of realities its
crew and passengers must observe or perish.

The question for today is —

• What are the forces distorting our representations of
what's observed, what's expected, and what's intended?

Repercussions
=============

• The Place Where Three Wars Meet
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2012/06/21/the-place-where-three-wars-meet/ )

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

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Sep 14, 2022, 3:56:32 PM9/14/22
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 2
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/14/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-2-2/

All,

In a complex society, people making decisions and taking actions at places
remote from you have the power to affect your life in significant ways.
Those people govern your life, they are your government, no matter what
spheres of influence they inhabit, private or public. The only way
you get a choice in that governance is if there are paths of feedback
permitting you to affect the life of those decision makers and action
takers in significant ways. That is what accountability, response-
ability, and representative government are all about.

Naturally, some people are against that.

In the United States there has been a concerted campaign for as long as
I can remember — but even more concerted since the Reagan Regime — to
get the People to abdicate their hold on The Powers That Be and just
let some anonymous corporate entity send us the bill after the fact.
They keep trying to con the People into thinking they can starve the
beast, to limit government, when what they are really doing is feeding
the beast of corporate control, weakening their own power over the forces
that govern their lives.

That is the road to perdition as far as responsible government goes.
There is not much of anything one leader or one administration can do
unsupported if the People do not constantly demand a government of, by,
and for the People.

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

unread,
Sep 16, 2022, 1:36:12 PM9/16/22
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 3
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/16/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-3-2/

All,

Representation is a concept we find at the intersection of cybernetics,
epistemology, logic, mathematics, psychology, and sociology. In my
studies it led me from math to psych and back again, with sidelong
glances at the history of democratic governance. Its time come round
again, I find myself returning to the scenes of two recurring questions.

Scene 1. Pragmatic Theory Of Truth • 18
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2019/11/14/pragmatic-theory-of-truth-18/

We do not live in axiom systems. We do not live encased in languages,
formal or natural. There is no reason to think we will ever have exact
and exhaustive theories of what's out there, and the truth, as we know,
is “out there”. Peirce understood there are more truths in mathematics
than are dreamt of in logic — and Gödel's realism should have put the
last nail in the coffin of logicism — but some ways of thinking just
never get a clue.

That brings us to Question 1 —

• What are formalisms and all their embodiments in brains and computers good for?

Scene 2. Theory and Therapy of Representations • 1
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/13/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-1-2/

Statistics were originally the data a ship of state needed
for stationkeeping and staying on course. The Founders of
the United States, like the Cybernauts of the Enlightenment
they were, engineered a ship of state with checks and ballasts
and error-controlled feedbacks for the sake of representing
both reality and the will of the people. In that connection
Max Weber saw how a state's accounting systems were intended
as representations of realities its crew and passengers must
observe or perish.

That brings us to Question 2 —

• What are the forces distorting our representations of
what's observed, what's expected, and what's intended?

Resources
=========

Survey of Cybernetics
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/08/survey-of-cybernetics-2/

Regards,

Jon

Jon Awbrey

unread,
Sep 18, 2022, 11:11:14 AM9/18/22
to Cybernetic Communications, Laws of Form, Ontolog Forum, Structural Modeling, SysSciWG
Cf: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 4
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/17/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-4-2/

Re: Theory and Therapy of Representations • 3
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/16/theory-and-therapy-of-representations-3-2/
Re: Ontolog Forum
https://groups.google.com/g/ontolog-forum/c/Ek_7cCCyFkQ
::: Paola Di Maio
https://groups.google.com/g/ontolog-forum/c/Ek_7cCCyFkQ/m/qI0kQv4UAgAJ

JA: What are the forces distorting our representations of
what's observed, what's expected, and what's intended?

PDM: The short answer is .... the force behind all distortions is our
own unenlightened mind, and all the shortfalls this comes with.

I think that’s true, we have to keep reflecting on the state of our
personal enlightenments. If we can do that without losing our heads
and our systems thinking caps, there will be much we can do to promote
the general Enlightenment of the State.

On both personal and general grounds we have a stake in the projects
of self‑governing systems — whether it is possible for them to exist
and what it takes for them to thrive in given environments. Systems
on that order have of course been studied from many points of view
and at many levels of organization. Whether we address them under
the names of adaptive, cybernetic, error-correcting, intelligent,
or optimal control systems they all must be capable to some degree
of learning, reasoning, and self‑guidance.

Resources

• Survey of Cybernetics
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/09/08/survey-of-cybernetics-2/ )

• Survey of Differential Logic
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2021/05/15/survey-of-differential-logic-3/ )

• Survey of Inquiry Driven Systems
( https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2022/08/12/survey-of-inquiry-driven-systems-4/ )

Regards,

Jon

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