To proceed with our basic model of Dasein, we must understand how a Potentiality-for-Being may be used to create Action in the instance. Quite simply, there are two types of Potentiality; fulfilled and unfulfilled, and it is the properties of the latter that give rise to Action. To understand the principles of this mechanism, however, we must first look at how the Potentiality-for-Being may work, what it may do, which is a product of another Interpretation, the Making Present. This Interpretation in some sense, as it's name suggests, takes a Potentiality-for-Being and applies it to the present states of Dasein; the sensed data and the Entity Now, and also the Anticipation function. Thus bringing the potential future back into the procedures of the present from which it emerged. However, it does not directly play a role in forming the Entity states, instead it acts upon the Interpretative functions themselves, the Entity Interpretation and Anticipation, to guide their formation and thus indirectly the formation of the Entity states, based upon the results of the Making Present Interpretation.  Fulfilled Potentiality-for-Being A fulfilled Potentiality-for-Being is one that has come to pass, it has been Interpreted as having an actual correlation in what has been detected by the senses. Depending on the temporality of the Potentiality, whether it is a way off in the future or in the immediate, Dasein must retain this Potentiality for a certain amount of time for it to have the chance of being fulfilled. In being fulfilled, a Potentiality has accurately predicted the state of the World, thus realizing one of the purposes of Anticipation. There are some consequences of this outcome that shall be discussed later when we look at a more detailed computational and emotional model, but for now it is enough to appreciate that in this success Dasein is “content” and this is the normal operating state of a mature instance living within a familiar environment. Unfulfilled Potentiality-for-Being An unfulfilled Potentiality-for-Being is one that has been refuted by what has been detected by the senses, or not yet come to pass. The first case provides the most clear cut resolution, for the reality of the World has primacy, and so when the Making Present fails to Interpret similarity between the Entity Now and the Potentiality-for-Being, in the simple situation, the Potentiality is erroneous. Again, the real situation is a little more complicated, but for the time being one can understand that a failed Anticipation is evolutionarily important for Dasein. Replicators that make false assumptions about the future of their environments shall not last long should the environment be perilous. Such a situation is one origin of functional emotion within Dasein, in this example producing Shock. In the second case, this is the normal situation for any Potentiality after having been Anticipated. If it should be fulfilled or refuted or default within the time span it was supposed to Anticipate then Dasein is in one of the situations described above. However, while a Potentiality pertaining to the Self remains unfulfilled, the function of Dasein reaches an interesting juncture, for in such a Potentiality it has the possibility of fulfilling the Potentiality itself through its own Action. Such Potentialities may be evaluated, some of which may then be passed on to appropriate regions of Dasein, the motor cortex within humans, for examples, from whence a physical response may be manifest, thus creating Action. Action For the instance of Dasein to interact with the World and the They it must partake of motor action to effect a change in the World, and as we saw in the Primer, this is the original evolutionary purpose of the nervous system. In humans this takes one of three forms; speech, skeletal muscle movement or functional alteration of Interpretive pathways (we might say, "the conscious direction of thoughts", which will be covered much later). The Potentiality-for-Being provides, in the possible future of what Dasein may become, the goal for said Action. In the process of execution to reach this goal, other parts of the instance, the cerebellum in humans for example, are dedicated to achieving the plan through translation to coordinated skeletal muscle contraction and relaxation. The function of Anticipating, weighting and selecting a Potentiality-for-Being for Action, and the perception of doing so, is what amounts to our sensation of "choice". The basic function of which is Selection, which shall be discussed later. Here, one should understand that the root of this Selection and Action is simply a result of the basic properties of an Unfulfilled Potentiality-for-Being of the Self. In the last section of the temporal cycle we shall consider how Action interacts with the World and the They. Summary
Created 27th June 2008 Revised 30th June 2009 |