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Todd Oakley, English & Cognitive Science Per Aage Brandt, Modern Languages & Cognitive Science

Todd Oakley, English & Cognitive Science Per Aage Brandt, Modern Languages & Cognitive Science. Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio USA. Meta-Representation, Mind Reading, and Fictive Interaction. A Collector’s Conceit. How to Produce a “Fiction”. How to Produce a “Fiction”.

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Todd Oakley, English & Cognitive Science Per Aage Brandt, Modern Languages & Cognitive Science

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  1. Todd Oakley, English & Cognitive SciencePer Aage Brandt, Modern Languages & Cognitive Science Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio USA

  2. Meta-Representation, Mind Reading, and Fictive Interaction A Collector’s Conceit

  3. How to Produce a “Fiction”

  4. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception resonates as a “remembered present”

  5. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception resonates as a “remembered present” • What is

  6. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception that resonates as a “remembered present” • What is • Representation • An Imaginative variation that creates hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or processes

  7. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception that resonates as a “remembered present” of the here-and-now • What is • Representation • An Imaginative variation that creates a hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or processes of the there-and-then • What if?

  8. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception that resonates as a “remembered present” of the here-and-now • What is • Representation • An Imaginative variation that creates a hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or processes of the there-and-then • What if? • Meta-Representation: • A fictional representation that projects a there-and-then into the perceptual here-and-now

  9. How to Produce a “Fiction” • Presentation • A present perception that resonates as a “remembered present” of the here-and-now • What is • Representation • An Imaginative variation that creates a hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or processes of the there-and-then • What if? • Meta-Representation: • A fictional representation that projects a there-and-then into the perceptual here-and-now • As if

  10. Hypotyposis • Classical rhetorical theorists call this as if phenomenon: hypotyposis or enargia • Aristotle calls is a tactic of visualization: pro ommatōn poiein, or “bringing before the eyes”

  11. Hypotyposis • Classical rhetorical theorists call this as if phenomenon: hypotyposis or enargia • Aristotle calls is a tactic of visualization: pro ommatōn poiein, or “bringing before the eyes” • Cognitive Linguists call these “fictive realities” • Fictive motion • The wainscoting runs along the perimeter of the room • Fictive action • The French doors open onto a terra cotta patio • Fictive reference • The kettle is boiling • Fictive interaction (E Pascual 2002) • We need to avoid creating he-said-she-said-situations • Among others

  12. Attention & Intersubjectivity • Claim: meta-representations so defined are necessarily intersubjective.

  13. Intersubjectivity • Claim: meta-representations so defined are necessarily intersubjective. • Cognizers must (at least) tacitly know how to represent the conditions of mutual intelligibility and interaction in order to use them in imaginative variation

  14. Intersubjectivity • Claim: meta-representations so defined are necessarily intersubjective • Cognizer’s must (at least) tacitly know that how to represent the conditions of mutual intelligibility and interaction in order to use them for imaginative variation • This fact is captured most strikingly in instances of hypotyposis in discourse, in pictorial representation, and in curatorship

  15. Cinematic Model • Fictional representations are staged in time and space

  16. Cinematic Model • Fictional representations are staged in time and space • The scene of fictional representations has a complex attentional and intersubjective structure

  17. Cinematic Model • Fictional representations are staged in time and space • The scene of fictional representations has a complex attentional and intersubjective structure • Scenarial integration of fictional representations can be approached by using the cinema as a model

  18. Cinematic Model • Components of the Model • The screen • a focal area within a bounded site

  19. Cinematic Model • Components of the Model • A screen • focal area within a bounded site • A projectionist • presupposed agent doing the screening

  20. Cinematic Model • Components of the Model • A screen • focal area within a bounded site • A projectionist • presupposed agent doing the screening • An audience • perceives the events on the screen as representing something beyond the screen

  21. Attention • One person attends to the “story” the film ‘tells’ through the optical events on the screen. This is called primary (deictic) attention

  22. Attention • One person attends to the “story” the film ‘tells’ through the optical events on the screen. This is called primary (deictic) attention • Another person attends to the first person. This is called secondary (refracted) attention

  23. Attention • One person attends to the “story” the film ‘tells’ through the optical events on the screen. This is called primary (deictic) attention • A second person attends to the first person. This is called secondary (refracted) attention • The second person attends to what the first person is attending to. This is called tertiary (harmonic) attention

  24. From Attention to Intention • The projectionist—the presenter of the fiction—is the agent who intends the audience to attend to the show

  25. From Attention to Intention • The projectionist—the presenter of the fiction—is the agent who intends the audience to attend to the show • This intentional instance requires the strategic use of representational resources for interactivity, both of conversation and mentation

  26. Mental Spaces • These features of the cinematic model can be formally modeled semiotically by a modified version of the Mental Spaces framework developed by Fauconnier & Turner (2002)

  27. Mental Spaces • We adopt the mode of analysis developed by Line Brandt & Per Aage Brandt (2005), and Line Brandt (2006)

  28. Mental Spaces • We adopt the mode of analysis developed by Line Brandt & Per Aage Brandt (2005), and Line Brandt (2006) • To review • Mental spaces are scenes and scenario or facets of scenes and scenarios representing past, present, future, and otherwise imagined events, processes, and states • Meaning arises when scenes and scenarios are activated and sometimes blended • Mental space networks are ontologically grounded in a semiotic “base” space

  29. A Famous Example of Fictive Interaction in Discourse • The Debate With Kant • A philosophy professor leading a seminar on the philosophy of mind is reported as saying the following:

  30. I claim that reason is a self-developing capacity. Kant disagrees with me on this point. He says it’s innate, but I answer that that’s begging the question, to which he counters, in Critique of Pure Reason, that only innate ideas have power. But I say to that, What about neuronal group selection? And he gives no answer. • From Fauconnier & Turner (2002: 59-60)

  31. Semiotic Participants Philosophy Professor Students Situation Setting A university classroom with tables, chairs, chalkboards, etc. Persons unbound of time and space, primarily through modes of written communication Intelligibility Condition Situational relevance

  32. Semiotic Presentation space Reference space Participants Kant’s philosophical writings on “mind” (as they appear in translation) Oral debate as format of teaching Philosophy Professor Students Situation Setting A university classroom with tables, chairs, chalkboards, etc. Persons unbound of time and space, primarily through modes of written communication Exhibitory Condition Situational relevance

  33. Semiotic Presentation space Reference space Participants Kant’s philosophical writings on “mind” (as they appear in translation) Professor Oral debate as format of teaching Philosophy Professor Students Situation Setting Virtual space 1: Fictive debate 1st person plural A university classroom with tables, chairs, chalkboards, etc. Persons unbound of time and space, primarily through modes of written communication Kant with Professor Exhibitory Condition Situational relevance Virtual space 2: 1st person plural with 3rd person viewpoint Students witness Kant’s error against the truth of the professor’s views Pragmatic implication: Contemporary significance of a fictive debate with Kant

  34. Magritte’sTentative de l’impossible (1928)

  35. Semiotic Presentation space Reference space Participants Representation of a nude woman on canvas Easel painting Artist working with a nude model. The model posses for the artist. Rene Magritte Model Viewer Situation Setting Virtual space 1: Fictional 1st person plural Expression and content merge; usual objects in very unusual contexts The viewer is looking through a catalogue of the artist’s work The artist paints the woman into being Uses paint, brushes & palette to create a 3D woman Exhibitory Condition Situational relevance

  36. Semiotic Presentation space Reference space Participants Representation of a nude woman on canvas Easel painting Artist working with a nude model. The model posses for the artist. Rene Magritte Model Viewer Situation Setting Virtual space 1; Fictional 1st person plural Expression and content merge The viewer is looking through a catalogue of the artist’s work The artist paints the woman into being Uses paint, brushes & palette to create a 3D woman Exhibitory Condition Situational relevance The artist knows that the viewer knows this is an impossible state of affairs Pragmatic implication: Artists do bring there subjects into being! Metarepresentation space

  37. Henry Clay Frick & Hans Holbein: A Curator’s Conceit

  38. Semiotic space Participants museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance

  39. Semiotic space Presentation space Participants Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More (1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick =Protagonist museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance

  40. Grounding Presentation space Reference space Participants Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the Tudor Court of Henry VIII Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More (1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick =Protagonist museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance

  41. Grounding Presentation space Reference space Participants Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the Tudor Court of Henry VIII Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More (1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick =Protagonist museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Virtual space 1: 1st person singular experience of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance

  42. Semiotic Space Presentation space Reference space Participants Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the Tudor Court of Henry VIII Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More (1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick =Protagonist museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Virtual space 1: 1st person singular experience of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance Illocutionary Force: Look at this! Virtual space 2: 1st person plural experience of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint

  43. Grounding Presentation space Reference space Participants Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the Tudor Court of Henry VIII Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More (1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick =Protagonist museum patrons security guards Situation Setting Virtual space 1: 1st person singular experience of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the collection and listening to commentary The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th Avenue in NYC; depictions of St. Jerome and St. Paul, among others. Situational relevance Illocutionary Force: Look at this! Virtual space 2: 1st person plural experience of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint Pragmatic implication: Frick was a clever collector Metarepresentation space: fictive 3rd person omnipotent perspective

  44. Discussion • Reconsider representation and metarepresentation in light of a cognitive semiotic analysis

  45. Discussion • Various forms of interaction are fundamental to the formation of fictional representations

  46. Discussion • Shared attention as it relates to intentional meaning needs to be explicitly modeled in these instances

  47. Discussion • We’ve attempted this by integrating mental spaces theory with a ‘cinematic model’ of attention, for understanding a three step process from presentation to representation to metarepresentation

  48. Discussion • this model offers a systematic means of accounting for the richly intesubjective nature of fictional interactions and, we think, offers an important addition to mental spaces framework

  49. Discussion • Our goal was to analyze properly the nature of meaning as it relates to these issues

  50. Discussion • Our goal was to analyze properly the nature of meaning as it relates to these issues • We have said nothing about how these processes evolved or developed. Perhaps this workshop can point us in a fruitful direction

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