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Article 1270 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <37859@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 11 Nov 91 20:21:46 GMT
References: <37311@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Oct24.234823.7560@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <37443@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Oct31.235402.12739@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <37658@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov02.075827.27740kmc@netcom.COM> <37713@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov05.08
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In <3873@papaya.bbn.com> cbarber@bbn.com (Chris Barber) writes:

>In article <37802@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters) writes:

>>  Percept - The integration (by an organism's nervous system) of two or 
>>            more sensations into a single mental unit.  The formation
>>            of a percept is automatic, and it is the form in which an 
>>            organism is aware of entities (as opposed to disconnected,
>>            fleeting sensations.)
>>
>>  Concept - The mental integration of two or more percepts and/or
>>            other concepts into a single mental unit.  The formation
>>            of a concept is volitional, and proceeds on the basis
>>            of observed similarities and differences between the
>>            units subsumed by the concept.

>I still think that these definitions are quite vague.  They depend upon
>other terms whose meaning is not explained.  What is a "sensation"?
>What does "single mental unit" mean?  In exactly what way can
>sensations be put together into a percept?  Are percepts always
>automatic?  Why would you form some percepts and not others?  What is
>the difference between sensation when it is experienced and when it is
>remembered?  What is "volitional", in fact, is there even such a thing
>as volition?

I left out "Sensation" because it wasn't requested, so:

  Sensation - The automatic response of a sensory organ to the impingement
              of an internal or external entity.

Whatever it is that touch receptors send along a nerve in response to
touching something is a sensation, similarly with whatever the eye
sends along the optic nerve in response to a light ray hitting the
retina, or what a taste bud sends in response to a sugar molecule, etc.

There is a hierarchical relationship here: concepts are built on percepts,
which in turn are built on sensations.  Sensations and percepts are
always automatically formed by the nervous system, while concepts never
are - they have to be formed by deliberately focusing the mind on reality
in a particular way.  The topic of concepts depends on that of sense-
perception, so I won't go into it in this posting.

The way in which sensations are integrated into percepts depends entirely
on the nature of an organism's sensory organs and nervous system.  A
color blind person would perceive a red apple in a form that differs from
that of a non-color blind person only with respect to the attribute of
color.  The same light rays strike the eyes of both people, with the
same information content, e.g., shape, size, hue, saturation, brightness,
distance, but one perceives a colorless apple, while the other perceives
a red apple.

Assuming that both people in the above example have seen apples before,
their previous *perceptions* can be recalled from memory.  A sensation
is a fleeting, momentary thing that lasts only as long as the stimulus.
A percept can be retained for a short period of time after the stimulus
ends, but vanishes if it isn't transferred to memory.  When we remember
something, we don't regenerate the sensations, only the integrated
result - the awareness of the object (a percept).

As adults, we aren't (and can't be) aware of isolated sensations - we are 
aware only of the integration of those sensations into percepts.  If I
take a bite of an apple, I'm not aware of the signals sent by each
individual taste bud, I'm aware only of the sweetness of the apple.
I perceive the apple (the object) in the form of sweetness (and in other 
forms too, but I'll ignore that for now).  

In this case, the perception of the apple *is* the "single mental unit" I  
mentioned in regard to perception.  If I perceive an apple, a dog, and a  
rock, I have three "mental units," namely, the perception of each 
entity.  The sensations that give rise to each percept are put together
according to the nature of the entities involved, namely, the nature
of the apple, the dog, the rock, and my sensory apparatus - there is
no possibility of an error at either the sensory or the perceptual
level.  In this context, an error would have to be due to my senses
acting contrary to their nature, and since they have no power to do
this (even when damaged), this is impossible.

This posting is already too long to justify tackling the topic of
volition here, so I'll leave it for later (if the discussion gets
back to it).

--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==


