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TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

On This Page You Will Find the Major Terms and Definitions.

 

Sui Generis An individual is greater than the sum of her biological/physiological makeup - The same is true for societies and cultures, they are more than the sum of individuals who establish them.  Mind allows individuals to transcend their physical environment.  Language and symbols grant societies collective consciousness. 
Sign A universal - A troop of baboons will emit warning barks if a large predator comes near, thus, signaling to each other that danger is at hand.  Signs are very effective forms of communication.  However, they do not vary - they are always used in the same way and have the same meaning to all who use them.  Honeybees are known to communicate with each other using signs - the sign is a waggle dance which signifies how far off, and in what direction, a food source lies.  But the dance is genetically fixed and never varies.  It is not necessary to have "mind" to use signs. 
Symbol Humans mediate their environment almost totally through symbolic means.   The meaning of a symbol grows out of interaction.  The meanings may be agreed upon but are mutable and arbitrary.  For example, the U.S. flag may be a symbol of patriotism, for some, and a symbol of oppression for others.  Symbols allow for the creation of abstract concepts which have no existence whatsoever outside of collective thought - love, beauty, good, bad, etc., have no existence outside of our thinking about them.
Mind Based on symbolic intelligence without a biological component. To have a brain and central nervous system is necessary, but not sufficient to achieve the level of a sentient being.  To be conscious of one's self as possessing a self requires symbolic reason and human interaction.  To possess mind requires language, interaction, and the capacity for symbolic communication.  To imagine a task prior to completing it.  Nonhuman animals do not reflect upon the processes through which they have become what they are.  To interpret the world symbolically. 
Self To take one's self as an object - that is to evaluate one's self, to feel remorse, guilt, hate, love, empathy, etc. To measure one's self against one's self, i.e., to set goals, to evaluate one's progress. To differentiate between the "ideal" self and the "real" self.  To be self-critical.  The self can be both the subject and the object of its own behavior.
Projection Observing animal behavior and ascribing humanlike determinants to it.   For example, it is well established that higher primates can be taught a limited number of words in "sign" language, and even, in some cases, to count.   Animals are quite capable of learning under human direction (or projection of human qualities onto the animals).  Sign language, however, is based upon signs, not symbols.  Moreover, the animals do not teach each other the human signs nor use them to communicate with each other.  In the absence of projection it is doubtful that the animals would have developed sign language based on human signs.  The same ability to communicate through signs is true of dolphins and whales. 
Ecological Consciousness Not to be aware of possessing a self but to be aware of possessing a body.   Sensory perception.  Responding to stimuli which affects one physiologically.   Physical pain, physical pleasure, satisfaction from eating (satiation), relief (evacuation), sensing heat, cold, seeing, hearing, touching, and so on.  Humans and animals both have highly developed ecological perception.  Most animals have much better ecological consciousness than humans.  This is because humans depend more upon symbolic consciousness.
Symbolic Consciousness To be aware of one's self as a human.  To think in abstract terms, to ponder meaning in the universe, to experience love, to sacrifice (animals do not commit suicide of any form, let alone altruistic suicide - to sacrifice one's self for the sake of the group), To carry out a series of steps for which the conclusion is not in the immediate future, i.e., as in building something. To synthesize - combine elements to come up with new elements, to combine abstract concepts into new abstractions, etc.  To use symbols to mediate physical reality.  To rely on symbolic media to process information and to communicate.  To reflect by using symbolic media.  Humans communication is intersubjective - we cannot communicate without inserting ourselves as subjects into the conversation.
Instinct Innate knowledge which is not learned and does not need to be acquired.   The inborn solution to the problems of existence.  Do humans have instincts?   Instincts may be modified but not denied.  That is to say, when a nonhuman male responds to the secretion of a particular chemical from a female sexual gland, and attempts to mount and penetrate the female in question, over time he may become more proficient at the behavior.  But when the female secretion occurs, he will always attempt to mount her.  Reproductive behavior in humans is entirely symbolic and cultural.  Instincts are not to be denied - a female mammal is not going to punish a male by withholding herself from him.  A human female might.  A female animal will instinctively attempt to mate with the strongest males.  Human females regularly mate with male weaklings. Believe it or not, humans also regularly refrain from sexual activity even in a state of extreme arousal!  Is there a "mothering instinct"? Remember instincts cannot be denied.  If there was a mothering instinct in human women they would not only be born knowing how to mother, they could not commit such atrocities as drowning their children in a lake, frying them in a pan, or dumping them in the garbage!  Thus, abortion and abuse negate the possibility that human mothering is instinctual.  No human is born knowing how to copulate, when to, or under what circumstances. That knowledge is acquired socially and culturally.   Suicide negates the possibility that humans have an instinct for self-preservation.  
Reflex An action which requires no thought, such as grasping, blinking, flinching, breathing, suckling, rooting, and so on, but which provides positive functions for the organism.  Many people confuse reflexes with instincts.  However, engaging in the reflect does not necessarily solve any problem.
Drive An "urge" to do something for which the accomplishment must be learned - the sex-drive is an example.  Humans desire to have sex, no doubt.   But an astonishing amount of socialization and learning precedes the act. 
Positivism A fundamental set of assumptions which forms the basis of the philosophy of science - yes, science is but one of many different philosophies concerning the nature of reality. Nomothethic: it seeks generalized, universally applicable laws.   Predicated on the ability to predict or objectively master the environment, Related to religious philosophies which suggest that humans should subdue and populate the earth.   Committed to determinism and empiricism.
Empiricism A doctrine which holds that sensory perception grants objective knowledge of the  world as it really is independent of our knowing it.  That is to say, sight, sound, touch, taste, etc., are said to yield objective knowledge which does not have to be interpreted and is a pure reflection of the world.  However, because humans possess mind all such information must be interpreted within the larger context.  Humans do not possess the ability to experience the world in a manner which is not mediated symbolically.  Humans do not rely upon instincts or chemical reactions to understand what is happening around them.
Reductionism Another major philosophy related to positivism.  Positivists assume that what exists at lower levels - such as genes - rather than that which exists at higher levels - such as language - is more concrete.  Reductionism occurs when science tries to explain phenomena in terms of more elementary units.  Many scientists, particularly biologists, attempt to explain human behavior in terms of extremely low levels of analysis - at the genetic and hormonal levels.  An extreme variation of reductionism, popular among geneticists and evolutionary biologists, is that all animals, including humans, are not much more than the vessels which allow genetic structures to reproduce themselves across generations.  Nevertheless, genes do not think, they do not have will, they do not experience desire, they do not have agency or volition, and cannot express themselves. 
Categories of Mediation Since humans must rely upon symbolic mediation to understand their environment there are a multitude of lenses through which to look at the world: one can look through the lens of reductionism, empiricism, positivism, theological lenses, materialistic, patriarchal, ideological, individualist, collectivist, etc., capitalism causes people to adopt a particularly severe form of individualism. These lenses provide a framework for organizing experiences such that they make sense to the participant.   Through the process of interaction one or more categories of mediation become dominant.  In U.S. culture the philosophy of positivism is dominant at the time being.
Reification The process of turning numbers into objective facts - allowing a numeric value to take on a life of its own or to stand for that which it cannot possibly be.   A classic example of reification is IQ.  Is it possible that a single number can accurately reflect an individual's intellectual worth or intellectual potential?   Can a single number accurately reflect, or convey meaning about, every single aspect of a person's intelligence?  Reification is a form of worship often practiced in the absence of traditional religion.  That is to say, god may have disappeared from science, but the ritualistic aspects of religion have not.   Reification allows scientists to practice forms of differentiation formerly practiced by religions: the assignment of worth.  Those with higher IQ scores can be seen as "better" or "higher" or as of more "value" than those with lower IQ scores.