Hi Platt, Wim, Scott,
a quick jump in, I'm short of time....
I agree with Scott:
> I don't deny map-making. What I deny is that there
> is any mappable reality that is not itself another map
[…]
> Perception has more in common with
> understanding a language than with being a mirror.
It has always been my convincement that mapping the territory is more
than a metaphor. And it is not merely intellectual.
Biology maps the inorganic level: bacteria "know" oxygen. Biology maps
also biology: bacteria know my body and my body knows bacteria. That
is: life is (also) mapping; and the mapped territory is both the
inorganic level and the biological level. In short life is a map that
becomes territory for life itself.
Society maps the inorganic level: a village needs water and has rituals
or laws for its treatment. It maps also biology as it can tell a
possible member (a man) from another animal (a lion): “hey man, join
us! We’ll help you surviving and you will work for us”. And it maps
society as well: “Those communists are our enemies!” . In short:
Culture is a map of the inorganic+biological+social levels.
And in the end the same goes for the intellectual level. It maps water
(H2O); it maps biology (DNA); it maps cultures (anthropology); and it
maps other intellectual maps... gravitation is a map; using this map as
territory, we can create another map: for example the theory of the
expansion of universe, that depends upon the theory of gravitation.
In few words, at any level the map becomes the territory. And at any
level we observe a typical skill of mapping the map itself…
(from this point of view, self-awareness is not that huge mystery...)
Ciao,
Marco
Marco
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