[Xmca-l] ASPECTS OF image formation as gap filling

[Larry Purss]

Mike,
I am choosing to open a new thread so the other thread can focus on power
relations.

I want to align with your wish "to draw attention to several aspects of the
'gap' where the mediational triangle is not fully connected" [page 7]

The first aspect is that the right of the triangle where the phylogenetic
and the cultural meet IN the "object" is replaced by a "space".

To move from an object as "material product" to an understanding of the
phylogenetic and cultural meeting WITHIN "space" opens up perpetual gaps
that need to be "closed" through imagination. A never ending process that
indicates the objects AS  "products" are "partially an ILLUSION, an
"imagined" state" [page 8]  and it IS this imaginal process that IS mind.
"Mind, here, IS imagination - the process of filling in the gaps that, AT
THE SAME TIME, constitute mind." [page 7.]

Mike,
You then outline 3 aspects of what this imaginal process of "formation"
entails.

1] The gap represents a set of "differences" that exist at "a next moment
in time". [LP comment: These differences represent an "other" that is
partially an illusion but necessary to bring something new into
existence].  These differences open up a "space" [an opening] as a result
of the intermingling of the phylogenetically constrained AND the culturally
mediated constraints creating the "fact" of the gap within experience,
thought and perception. THIS is the relation of  the subject to the object.
This discoordination between the phylogenetic and the cultural constantly
opens a "space" that is "necessary" to existence.

2] The differences that necessarily exist must be resolved "cognitively" by
the individual. The work of "imagination fills in the differences
sufficiently to form a single "image" of the world. This process IS "mind".
At this point Bartlett is referenced who says, "Thinking" refers to thought
AS a process of gap filling.

3] Time is central to this triangular model with the "space" opening a
FUTURE-ORIENTED [time n+1]. Any "doing in the present" needs to "reduce
uncertainty" as a condition of coordinated action. However, to partake in
this "reduction" of uncertainty is partially an "illusion", an imagined,
anticipated state of future stability oriented to the future. This
reduction of uncertainty is necessary SO THAT one can act and think. In
other words,
 "to imagine IS to imagine a future in which thought and action ARE
meaningful, which is to say that it is by drawing on the past [LP comment -
drawing on tradition] that the imagination is able to work out a future
WITHIN which to think or act in the present" page 8]

I wanted to participate in exploring the imaginal by summarizing the
aspects which Mike and Etienne Pelaprat  draw to our attention. Notions
such as "space" and "gap" as facts to be considered when examining
"objects".
  I also "perceive" [read]  the acknowledgement of differences and
discoordination as  exploring the "other" and alterity through historical
time. That may lead back to the other thread on power differences. David
Brook pointing out that "meritocracy" is the invisible "imaginal" of  the
"middle class" consciousness. The question of a class "identity"  as David
Brooks suggests, may be partially an "illusion" but the illusion of
 meritocracy,  does create a "space" where identities form and others are
othered.

Larry