DEFINITIONS

O.T. FORD

Five known substances:

― the mind
― concepts as concepts
― percepts as percepts
― time
― space

Postulates:
Undefined, but with technical clarifications

― concept: all things have conceptual existence, id est, they exist as concepts
― thought: the only active of the three conscious processes; invariably intuitive
― memory: a passive process, reproducing the entirety of experiences
― perception: a passive process
― time: infinite and linear in one dimension; unrelated to space
― space: infinite and Euclidean, in three perpendicular dimensions

Definitions:

― universe: the collective of all things, conceptual and extra-conceptual
― substance: an extra-conceptual reality
― consciousness: the process of thought, perception, and memory
― mind: an instance of consciousness; an independent perspective on the universe
― experience: an object of consciousness, composed of thoughts, memories, and percepts
― thought: an object of thought; must be a concept
― memory: an object of memory
― percept: an object of perception
― visual percept: a pattern of color (tint and tone) and area (size, shape, and position) in two perpendicular spatial dimensions
― audial percept: a pattern of pitch and volume over time
― perceptual realm: the virtual world (whether substantial or merely conceptual) defined by percepts
― abstraction: the process of defining a concept based on an observation, mental or perceptual
― generalization: an abstraction which relates other concepts based on similarities
― perceptual paradigm: a generalization from a perceptual pattern
― association: the linkage of concepts through memory; two concepts are associated when they are thought of in the same experience, so that thinking of one triggers the recall of the experience in which the other one is also present
― belief: an association of two concepts or conceptual patterns
― idiodoct: the set of all beliefs of an individual mind; a personal version of the conceptual realm
― diadoct: the intersection of two or more idiodocts
― interpretation: the process of fitting observed percepts into recognized paradigms; a means of constructing a personal version of the perceptual realm; an attempt to reconstruct the actual course of events in the perceptual realm
― sign: association of a perceptual paradigm with another concept
― communication: the attempt by one consciousness to induce a certain interpretation by another
― disinformation: a form of communication; the attempt to induce a false interpretation of the course of events in the perceptual realm
― symbol: a sign whose association between perceptual paradigm and other concept is one of convention
― language: a form of communication; the use of symbols
― logic: a system for deriving new symbols from existing ones, by combining or altering them according to certain conventional rules
― idiolect: the set of all symbols and logics understood by an interpreter
― dialect: the intersection of two or more idiolects; the linguistic “joint product” of a group
― rational analysis: an (intuitive) attempt to understand complex concepts by breaking them down into their elements
― convention: a coincidence of two or more interpreters forming the same association based on some common experience; a first convention can serve as the basis for further conventions
― dominion: the exercise of control over the universe and its inhabitants
― stewardship: the assumption of responsibility for the welfare of the universe
― the dominion: a phenomenon in the universe; that portion of the universe that acts to dominate the whole
― the stewardship: a phenomenon in the universe; that portion of the universe that acts to preserve and improve the whole

© O.T. FORD