Fact as resistance. Applying Ludwik Fleck s Views to Contemporary Cognitive Science. The bedrock of reality (normally invisible to mortals)

Transcription

1 Applying Ludwik Fleck s Views to Contemporary Cognitive Science The genesis and development of a scientific fact Fact as resistance [the scientist] looks for that resistance and thought constraint in the face of which he could feel passive. p.94 The general aim of intellectual work is therefore maximum thought constraint with minimum thought caprice. p.94 In the field of cognition, the signal of resistance opposing free, arbitrary thinking is called a fact. p.101 The bedrock of reality (normally invisible to mortals) A network of ideas enjoying the caprice of thought When theory contacts the world, as in an experiment, the fact is perceived as resistance to the caprice of thought A Central Fact in Cognitive Science The capacity of human short-term is limited to about 7 ± 2 distinct items. What would it take to verify or demonstrate this fact? 1

2 A psychologist needs an experiment What counts as an item? A minimal concept? A meaningful group of elements? A chunk? What stimuli will work? Digits? Colors? Nonsense syllables? Shapes? What is being measured? Capacity of short-term Note the role of the storehouse metaphor. It gives us the concepts of storage and retrieval, yet, it cannot be confirmed or disconfirmed. It orients the construction of the experiment. Fleck calls it an active element in observation. Active elements in observation Observation without assumption is impossible. p. 92 All discovery is development of a thought style. p. 92 The necessity of being experienced introduces into knowledge an irrational element, which cannot be logically justified. p. 96 What is short-term? What other kinds of are there? What are their properties? How can we be sure we are only probing short-term? Is short-term really a single process? The result is a fact Memory as constructed in the human information processing community Item When all these issues are resolved we can do the experiment. No matter what we may wish to think, we will be compelled to think (to see) that the capacity of human short term is about 7 ± 2 items. Our thought about this question will be passive. The world of experience resists other thoughts. stimulus Chunk storehouse Long-term capacity Short-term 2

3 The demonstration of the fact that the capacity of human short term is 7±2 chunks The fabric of facts Item stimulus Chunk storehouse Long-term capacity Short-term Every fact must be in line with the intellectual interests of the thought collective. The resistance must be effective within the thought collective. It must be brought home to each member as both a thought constraint and a form to be directly experienced. The fact must be expressed in the style of the thought collective. every fact reacts upon many others. Each new fact harmoniously - though ever so slightly - changes all earlier facts. An expanded statement of a FACT of Cognitive Science When human is treated as a storage device, and when certain classes of stimuli are briefly presented, the so-called capacity of human short-term is limited to about 7 ± 2 distinct chunks, where a chunk is... The bedrock of reality There emerges a closed, harmonious system within which the logical origin of individual elements can no longer be traced. This interwoven texture bestows solidity and tenacity upon the world of facts and creates a feeling both of fixed reality and of the independent existence of the universe. A future FACT of cognitive science The construction of short-term by the dynamical systems community event emergence networks A system of at most 7 ± 2 periodic attractors can be formed by the human short-term system. stimulus activation Dynamical system Energy landscape attractors bifurcation Flow field Is this the same fact as the earlier one? 3

4 The demonstration of the fact that the human short-term system can form at most 7±2 periodic attractors. The fabric of facts event stimulus activation emergence networks Dynamical system Energy landscape attractors bifurcation Flow field Every fact must be in line with the intellectual interests of the thought collective. The resistance must be effective within the thought collective. It must be brought home to each member as both a thought constraint and a form to be directly experienced. The fact must be expressed in the style of the thought collective. every fact reacts upon many others. Each new fact harmoniously - though ever so slightly - changes all earlier facts. Once upon a time it was obvious that is a container Whatever is known has always seemed systematic, proven applicable, and evident to the knower. It is not possible to label proto-ideas right or wrong, because correctness or incorrectness cannot be established outside of a thought style. The genesis of scientific facts Every age has its own dominant conceptions as well as remnants of past ones and rudiments of future ones. Concepts are not spontaneously created, but are determined by their ancestors. Neuroscience students learning to see visual areas in a functional brain image Meanwhile, we are learning to see cultural practices Ethnography of brain imaging practice Field site: 4 laboratories of cognitive neuroscience (UCSD, Salk Institute, SDSU) Data corpus: 13 hours of video tape (scientific and apprenticeship practice) 4

5 In science, just as in art and life, only that which is true to culture is true to nature. Example: retinotopy Example : retinotopy EXCERPT 1 E: So take these two meridians and as just as if you were squeezing them together into the pie shape So you took this space and turned it into that space ok? 5

6 CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION Fauconnier and Turner (e.g., 2002). EXCERPT 2 E: So probably this is the center right here And when we look at this map it looks something like that So V1 is gonna be in the center it's gonna be this pie shape it's probably covering approximately this area Ok? EXCERPT 3 E: So now it s going from re::d (.) red to pink to blue (3.5) and maybe it goes out to red to pink again and back to blue (and up there where it breaks down) ((briefly points again onto the upper portion of the map)) V2 V3 (1.0) V4 So ok so so: one theory is that hahaha ((silently laughs)) ok V1 (.) so pink to blue is V2 (2.0) ventral then blue to pink (1.0) is V3 ventral and then pink back to blue is V4 That s my best guess based on the data N: ((tries unsuccessfully to take the floor)) E: Even though it s very unclear N: So V1, V2v, V3, and V4 EXCERPT 4 E: Again so you have now it's yellow orange right? N: Mhm E: Mmmm ((hesitates)) then it goes out to purple and then back to orange and then out to purple again ((still pointing and tracing the lines) N: I actually I can see that now Hhhh E: You kind of see some of that intermediate (stuff where) it goes from orange to end to purple right? ((points on the computer screen N: (I guess that is better) E: Yeah ok. Right. If you (would) believe me (it would be) very nice haha ((laughs)) N: No I see it I see what you are saying I see what you are saying E: Haha ((laughs)) Ok. Wishful Thinking All theories contain some element of wishful thinking by their scientific proponents. That s my best guess based on the data Discovery is inextricably interwoven with error. Cognition is not an individual process. Rather it is the result of a social activity, since the existing stock of knowledge exceeds the range available to any one individual. If you (would) believe me (it would be) very nice haha ((laughs)) 6

7 Reproducing the culture of brain science The meaning and truth value of [a finding] is a function of the community of those who, maintaining intellectual interaction on the basis of a shared intellectual past, made the achievement possible and accepted it. No I see it I see what you are saying I see what you are saying Cognition means to ascertain those results which must follow, given certain preconditions. The preconditions correspond to the active linkages and constitute that portion of the cognition belonging to the collective. The constrained results correspond to passive linkages and constitute that which is experienced as objective reality. The act of ascertaining is the contribution of the individual. Cognition is the most socially conditioned activity of man, and knowledge is the paramount social creation. The greatest error of individulaistic psychology is the assumption that a person thinks. The ability to perceive scientifically is only slowly acquired and learned. The objective cannot be separated from the subjective. 7