Mattering: A Recreation of the Realism of Charles S. Peirce

Mattering' is the process and the product of Reality. It is One from nothing. Whether there is more than one universe as the string theorists argue, is beyond my ken. Fortunately I am not concerned here with epistemology but with understanding. Nor am I preoccupied with revealing Truth. Rather, my purpose is to explore the meaning and consequences of 'mattering': to be able to say that, beyond reasonable doubt, I believe that 'it' matters – that 'it' is 'mattering'. This can be made intelligible by way of reflection on the Pragmatic Maxim of the American polymath Charles S. Peirce [1839-1914] and validated with his systematic method of inquiry. Part 1 of my thesis explores and presents Peirce's work. Part 2 is an exposition of my three part hypothesis of 'mattering', that: 1. value functions as a condition of intelligibility - purpose, as the ground of 'mattering' is dependent on value; 2. power - where power is the capacity to cause - is the enabler of force functioning as actual 'mattering'; 3. 'mattering' is evolutionary realization of universal telos. For Peirce, inquiry is triggered by genuine doubt. His method begins with imagination: with the generation of a hypotheses that, if valid, will relieve the irritation of doubt. Creating my hypothesis of 'mattering' free of consideration of truth was liberating. This is what Peirce called abduction: active imagination which can be considered as reasonable, but only in so far as it can be reasoned from by deduction and induction. This is Mathematics, the first of the heuretic sciences (the branch of sciences which treats of discovery or invention) and its aim is to draw necessary conclusions; Philosophy is the next class of the heuretic sciences, followed by the Special Sciences. The first order of Peirce's second class, Philosophy, is his Phenomenology - his doctrine of categories - the purpose of which is to describe what is before the mind and to show that the description is correct. It is the beginning of discovering meaning, and involves observation of what Peirce called the phaneron (whatever is before the mind) - in my case, my hypothesis. Through differentiation, abstraction or prescision, and dissociation it identifies the three irreducible categories of reality identified by Peirce as First (possibility), Second (actuality) and Third (probability). The second order of his philosophical method is the Normative Sciences of Esthetics (aesthetics), the ideal, Ethics, going for the ideal, and Semeiotic or logic, what can reasonably be hoped for. By practicing what he preached, Peirce built the third order of Philosophy, his Metaphysics of Tychism (chance), Synechism (continuity), and Agape. [In physics, Agape arguably is gravity and the still to be discovered something that will deliver the Holy Grail: the theory of everything.] This is 'mattering'. I argue it is grounded in the values of integrity, respect and transparency, values which are expressed through the enactment (or powering) of 'mattering's' purpose or telos which grows and develops. This is, 'mattering': universal realisation of evolutionary telos. Our species, which evolved, as did the Universe, from the Universe - the process and product of 'mattering' - appears set on a trajectory of ecocide for which we are responsible. One model for understanding this travesty is Freud's scheme of Id (desire) Ego (mediator) Superego (should). If Ego, which makes choices, sides with and empowers the unmitigated, individual wanting that is Id, by ignoring Superego - cooperative imperatives for universal growth and development - Earth's evolutionary trajectory is jeopardised. We ignore the categorial values of integrity, respect, and transparency with which evolutionary universal telos is co-dependent, at our peril. The global dysfunction of Egos, especially those that have commandeered power by disempowering others, can be healed. Together, but only together, we can get back on track and reclaim Earth's and our future. This one Universe from which we evolved and with which we are evolving, can do it, and, even granted that it has been practicing longer, we too can do it: we can make it matter. It matters. It is 'mattering'

Semiotics 101: Taking the Printed Matter Doctrine Seriously

The printed matter doctrine is a branch of the section 101 doctrine of patent eligibility that, among other things, prevents the patenting of technical texts and diagrams. The contemporary formulation of the doctrine is highly problematic. It borders on incoherency in many of its applications, and it lacks any recognized grounding in the Patent Act. Yet, despite its shortcomings, courts have not abandoned the printed matter doctrine, likely because the core applications of the doctrine place limits on the reach of the patent regime that are widely viewed as both intuitively \u27correct and normatively desirable. Instead of abandoning the doctrine, courts have marginalized it. They have retained the substantive effects of the printed matter doctrine but avoided analyzing it whenever possible. This Article adopts a different approach: it takes the printed matter doctrine seriously. It reinterprets the printed matter doctrine as the sign doctrine, revealing both the conceptual coherence hidden in the doctrine\u27s historical applications and the doctrine\u27s as-of-yet unnoticed statutory grounding. The key to this reconceptualization is recognizing that the printed matter doctrine is in effect already based on semiotic principles. The printed matter doctrine purports to be about information, but it is actually about signs. It purports to curtail the patenting of worldly artifacts, but it actually curbs the reach ofpatent protection into mental representations in the human mind. To support these arguments, this Article offers a course in Semiotics 101 : a semiotics primer strategically targeted on the principles that prove to be relevant to the section 101 doctrine ofpatent eligibility. This Article also examines one unexpected consequence of taking the printed matter doctrine seriously and adopting a semiotic framework. It reconsiders the patentability of a class of software inventions which are defined here as computer models. As a matter of semiotic logic, the routine patentability of newly invented computer models under the contemporary patent eligibility doctrine cannot be reconciled with the categorical unpatentability of mechanical measuring devices with new labels under the printed matter doctrine

Semantic networks

AbstractA semantic network is a graph of the structure of meaning. This article introduces semantic network systems and their importance in Artificial Intelligence, followed by I. the early background; II. a summary of the basic ideas and issues including link types, frame systems, case relations, link valence, abstraction, inheritance hierarchies and logic extensions; and III. a survey of ‘world-structuring’ systems including ontologies, causal link models, continuous models, relevance, formal dictionaries, semantic primitives and intersecting inference hierarchies. Speed and practical implementation are briefly discussed. The conclusion argues for a synthesis of relational graph theory, graph-grammar theory and order theory based on semantic primitives and multiple intersecting inference hierarchies

What is the contribution of personal information management systems (PIMS) to the Working Model and personal work system of knowledge workers?

The thesis reports research into a phenomenon which it calls the personal working model of an individual knowledge worker. The principal conjecture addressed in this thesis is that each of us has a personal working model which is supported by a personal work system enabled by a personal information management system. For some people, these are well defined; for most they are not even explicit. By means of structured self-reflection aided by conceptual knowledge modelling within the context of a process of action learning they can be improved. That personal working model is predicted by Ashby's law of requisite variety and by the good regulator theorem of Conant and Ashby. The latter theorem states that the only good regulator of a system is a model of that system. The thesis and the work it reports result from a systemic approach to identifying the personal information management system and personal work system which together contribute to the personal working model. Starting with abductive conjecture, the author has sought to understand what models are and to explore ways in which those models can themselves be expressed. The thesis shows how a new approach to the conceptual modelling of aspects of the personal knowledge of knowledge worker was designed, built and then used. Similarly, the actual data used by a knowledge worker had to be stored, and for this purpose a personal information management system was also designed. Both these artefacts are evaluated in accordance with principles drawn from the literature of design science research. The research methodology adopted in the first phase of the research now ending also included a relatively novel approach in which the PhD student attempted to observe himself over the last five years of his PhD research – this approach is sometimes called autoethnography. This autoethnographic element is one of a number of methods used within an overall framework grounded by the philosophical approach called critical realism. The work reported in the thesis is initial exploratory research which, it is planned, will continue in empirical action research involving mentored action learning undertaken by professional knowledge workers