Individual-Experiential (I-E) Existentiality

Graphic 1: Individual-Experiential (I-E) Existentiality

Epigenesis

The epigenesis of I-E Existentiality is chrono-biological and conforms to extant patterns of canalization (normative coursing) of the Cartesian mind/body duality. An individual’s ‘functional age’ may thus be interpreted from the lens of ‘functional ontogeny’ (development of conscious) in ethno-graphic modules of age-markers such as nominal age (chronology), biological age (fitness), psychological age (adaptation), and social age (selection) collectively ascribed to mechanics of (a) biological clock, and (b) social clock.

• Biological Clock denotes chronobiological development of the human brain, body and mind. The neuro-anatomy of the human brain evolves according to the Triune Brain (Paul D MacLean) [1] entailing a Reptilian Complex (primitive instincts), Paleo-Mammalian Complex (socio-emotional), and Neo-Mammalian Complex (intelligence). This is supported by a circuitry of the Neuro-Endocrine Integration (neuro-chemistry) which involves processes of neural modelling (synaptic pruning and myelination) of the frontal cortex. Neuro-Endocrine Integration is in essentia a triarchic model of human moral development that occurs during the years between the onset of adolescence and early adulthood. Neural structures of the Neuro-Endocrine Integration are: the Dorsolateral Pre-frontal Cortex in the outer and upper forebrain referenced to processes of meta-cognition; the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in the lower and central forebrain associated with human intuition and sociability; and the Obitofrontal Cortex in the area directly behind the eyes responsible for human animation (motivation).

By the same token, the neuro-anatomy of the human body unfolds in conformance with the natural processes of growth, development and senescence. After birth, the process of aging commences with Primary Aging (physical growth and changes to the body), followed in mid-life by Secondary Aging (physical changes correlated but not dependent on aging) and in later life the human body acquiesces to Tertiary Aging (rapid bodily decline prior to death). Correspondingly, the human physiology is intersected by a Hypothalamic-Pituitary Integration (neuro-chemistry) which incorporates axiological adaptations of the human endocrine system. Hence, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary Integration may be depicted by a triarchic model of neuro-chemistry endemic to the human life cycle. Specific neural structures of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary Integration are embodied in the central endrocrine systems: the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Thyroid (HPT) Axis responsible for regulating metabolism, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis engaged in essential autonomic processes collectively termed the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), and the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) Axis involved in regulation of sexual reproduction and immunological response mechanisms.

Moreover, the biological clockwork in the aggregate condenses to periodicity of human psycho-metrics (population dynamics) collateral to the triarchic surface set of the Normal Species Set. Therefore, consciousness of mind concomitant to the human population set manifests as tetrad moments of Existemetrics, namely, E-0 Irreducible Sub-Conscious, E-1 Psycho-Social Milestone, E-2 Socio-Political Orientation, and E-3 Executive Profile. Chronobiology of mind is thereby the principal impulse to ‘super-science’.

• Social Clock transcribes chronobiological determinants of lifespan structuration. Accordingly, individuals may be observed to pass through neurological phases of physical development (infancy), cognitive development (childhood), socio-emotional development (adolescence), and socio-political development (adulthood).

In totality, epigenesis of I-E Existentiality is an inter-subjective modality of the existential pre-figurement. Individuals are consensually regarded as autonomous, self-conscious, competent yet simultaneously fragile and resilient agents in their own cause. Central themes of the human lifespan development attaching to the I-E Existentiality are proportionately reiterative of the person in environment configuration.

• Epidemiology of Diathesis-Stress Situational adaptation is relative to the individual’s ability to respond to stressful stimuli (life challenges)

• Zone of Proximal Development Contextual adaptation involves a negotiation-space of social interaction within the social milieu (net social exchange)

Pre-Conscious

Life is considered to begin at the point of fertilisation: the union of sperm and ovum, resulting in a new human potentiality characterised by a specific genotype encoding for an individual physical structure and reproductive potential. The start of a new human life is programmed for furtherance of the species. Beyond that, the remaining genes differentiate to ensure diversity. In fact, such is the evolutionary significance of diversity that any given pair of mother and father have the fertilisation potential to form over 64 trillion unique genotypes.

Incubation of consciousness occurs very quickly after fertilisation. In the germinal period (first 21 days) implantation is followed by triarchic layering to initiate the major body systems. Subsequently, the first morphological event is a fold in the middle of the cell mass that creates the neural tube, later developing into the central nervous system. Within three weeks of fertilisation the tube of neural tissues have developed along the back of the embryo. Three bulges comprising the primary vesicles are the forebrain, the midbrain, and the hindbrain which will ultimately develop into the main divisions of the human brain. By seven weeks, the cerebrum begins to emerge from the bulges in the forebrain, and cranial nerves sprout from the hindbrain. At eleven weeks, there is heightened differentiation of the neural substrate as the forebrain develops further, the cerebrum continues to grow back over the hindbrain, which itself is specialising into the cerebellum, the pons, and the medulla. This cephalo-caudal (head to tail) development is commensurate to gestation of human consciousness that literally sparks to life in the second trimester as brain wave patterns, hitherto flat, become punctuated by occasional bursts of electrical activity eventually stabilising to distinct sleeping and waking patterns. At this neurological threshold - sometime between twentieth and twenty-sixth week - marks the attainment of the age of viability, wherein the fetus is actively regulating basic bodily functions such as breathing and sleep patterns in preparation for survival outside of the womb.

At the same time as this neural development, and before week six, sex determination occurs depending on whether or not the SRY (sex determination region) on the Y male gene binds to DNA. This is associated with tissues in the urogenital sinus and prostate gland converting testosterone into dihydrogestosterone (DHT). If so, the fetal gonads are converted into testes by the SRY, and testosterone and Mullerian-inhibiting substance (MIS) control later sexual differentiation. The process of sex determination is instructive to physiological and psycho-socio-cultural consciousness of the developing person through the life-span and his or her role in species regeneration.

Conscious

At birth, the cerebrum has enlarged to become the largest part of the brain, and folding of the cerebral cortex ensues to create a unique folding pattern in each individual. Within eighteen months after birth, the fontanelles (soft gaps between skull bones) are closed over by bones to form the protective casing for the brain, which is the most significant organ. Human consciousness at the location of the brain constantly consumes some 20% of the total oxygen used by the body. Much of this metabolic fuel serves to maintain the transmembrane potential by action of membrane enzymes such as Na+, K+-ATPase [2].

In the first two years the infant is preoccupied with attainment of sensorimotor intelligence involving six stages [3]:

• Stage One (birth to one month): Reflexes - suckling, grabbing, staring, listening

• Stage Two (1-4 months): The first acquired adaptations - accommodation and coordination of reflexes

• Stage Three (4-8 months): Procedures for making interesting sights last - responding to people and objects

• Stage Four (8-12 months): New adaptation and anticipation - becoming more deliberate and purposeful in responding to people and objects

• Stage Five (12-18 months): New means through active experimentation - experimentation and creativity in the actions of "the little scientist"

• Stage Six (18-24 months): New means through mental combinations - thinking before doing provides the child with new ways of achieving a goal without resorting to trial and error experiments

The developing person is conscious mostly of him or herself and continues to develop within an ego-centric veil of perception. Development of 'self-conscious' is assumed to occur through the resolution of basic psychological conflicts, which are facilitative of later development.

Early stages of Erik Erikson's (1968) theory of pyscho-social development pertain to infancy [4].

• Early Infancy (Hope: Trust versus Mistrust) To gain a balance between trusting people and risking being let down, or being suspicious and mistrustful and therefore being unable to relate to others fully

• Later Infancy (Will: Autonomy versus Shame and Guilt) To develop a sense of personal agency and control over behaviour and actions, or to mistrust one's personal abilities and anticipate failure

Meta Conscious

Complex multi-dimensional consciousness is the natural tendency of humankind - the disposition to participate and restore at the species level. During the Meta Conscious the developing person is immersed in prescripted rituals of socio-cultural imprinting [5] whereby childhood is dominated by customs and conventions of identity formation.

• Self Development: the culmination of 'narcissist' sensorimotor and early psycho-social development, the developing person obtains a sense of authenticity, verisimilitude and pragmatism and becomes an instinctive 'realist' pre-occupied with a growing awareness of reciprocity, personal responsibility and the imperatives of positive motivation as operative to continuing growth and development

• Cultural Development: in the ontogeny of (early, middle, late) childhood, the developing person is super-scribed by societal exigencies for socio-cultural development such as elaborated reciprocity (cultural symbols, rules & procedures), increased responsibility (agency), and cultural functionality (cultural exchange and reproduction).

• Moral Development: consistent with Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development [6], the developing person progresses through sequential stages of moral reasoning: (a) pre-conventional, based on positive and negative reinforcement; (b) conventional, apprehending a sense of intrinsic self-worth; and (c) post-conventional, involving meta-cognitive abstractions of human values (ethics).

The foregoing ontogeny of Meta Conscious aligns with the successive middle stages of Erikson's (1968) theory of pyscho-social development which delineates the three phases of Childhood.

• Early Childhood (Purpose: Initiative versus Guilt) To develop an increasing sense of personal responsibility and initiative, or to develop increased feelings of guilt and doubt

• Middle Childhood (Competence: Industry versus Inferiority) To learn to overcome challenges through systematic effort, or to accept failure and avoid challenges, leading to an increasing sense of inferiority

• Puberty & Adolescence (Fidelity: Identity versus Role Confusion) To develop a consistent sense of personal identity faced with the changes in social role and expectations of adolescence, or simply to become overwhelmed by choices and expectations and to fail to develop a sense of a consistent inner self.

Conscious Interval

Representing the lifetime climax, the Conscious Interval may be exemplified as the high-octane phase of social immersion and social engagements; effectively the inextricable enmeshment of the private conscious with the ceaseless evolutionary thrust of the species.

Challenges embodied in Erikson’s late psycho-social stages illuminate a reconciliation of both the internally and externally imputed 'lifetime scorecard' such as to discern a sense of bio-graphical selfhood.

• Young Adulthood (Love: Intimacy versus Isolation) To develop intimate and trusting relationships with others, or to avoid relationships as threatening and painful

• Mature Adulthood (Care: Generative versus Stagnation) To develop a productive and positive life incorporating recognition of personal achievements, or to stagnate and fail to develop or grow psychologically

• Late adulthood (Wisdom: Integrity versus Despair) To become able to look back on one's life in a positive fashion and to evaluate one's achievements or to feel that life has been meaningless and futile

The Conscious Interval therefore refers to a phase of critical existential alignment - a time following mid-life during which the individual is subject to both physiological and psychological consequences of age-related processes of decline. The scalar determinants of human psychological aging are chronobiological, involving: (a) natural (normal changes v pathological (disease-related) changes), spatio-temporal (distal, past events versus proximal recent events), and stochastic (universal aging versus probabilistic (non-universal, genotype).

As humans age, consciousness is constrained by reduced production of neuro-transmitters and reduced blood flow resulting in some level of contraction of the brain, both physically and in terms of processing speed and capacity. Such neurological aging is a biological signal to age-dependent mortality, species regeneration and evolution. At the species level, it is the gerontogenes (virtual aging genes) that prescribe the normative lifespan to each of its genotypes. However, at the greater population level, optimal Darwinian fitness infers a strong weighting (and reliance) on a disproportionately younger age structure (age-bias). This non-random imperative against risks of extrinsic hazards such as disease and predation is preserved in the population dynamics via natural senescence in which the effect of genes on aging represents a non-adaptive process associated with an absence of post-fecund selective pressure.

Overall, the Conscious Interval is a time for ‘Life Review’, preparation for retirement and a post-retirement lifestyle.

Hyper Conscious

A complex and enhanced consciousness (transcendence) being the consequence of ‘Extended-Age’ afforded by living in technologically advanced society is the epitome of the Hyper Conscious.

In contradiction of the dual risks of neuro-physiological (psycho-motor) degenerativity and neuro-psychological (cognitive, affective) decline, the I-E Existentiality is in fact characterized by a post-humanism transformation of the private conscious. Post-humanism posits continued deepening of the human ‘subjectivity’, human ‘longevity’, and altogether greater enrichment of the human ‘experience’.

Within such a civilization supportive of Hyper Conscious, the array of meta-philosophies attaching to the ‘Extended-Age’ defer to a concept of ‘bio-sentience’ (virtuous life).

1. Activity Principle: promotes ‘successful aging’ through continued activity and beneficial lifestyles

2. Reciprocity Principle: encourages pro-active citizen-state relations in recognition of seniority and capacity for meaningful contribution

3. Marxism: restates the economic imperatives of civil and political society, and advocates accumulation of wealth as basic to all sectional interests

4. Disengagement Principle: underlines permissiveness to gradual (semi) disengagement in pursuit of retirement lifestyle based on personal preferences

5. Continuity Principle: proposes that each individual is naturally well adjusted and will continue to live according to the same patterns of lifestyle and behaviour

In life then, it would seem an innate given that each individual has a Right to Life and conditional to that a Right to a Quality of Life worth living. Accordingly, it is at the level of Meta Conscious participation that each individual is both subject and protagonist to the social context in which his or her existentiality is inextricably immersed.

How to cite this Article:

MEF (2012) Individual-Experiential (I-E) Existentiality. The Meta Existential Framework. MEF e-Publishing.