Seminars and Guest Sessions

A live case study for learning how functional frameworks are constructed

I offer virtual guest sessions that professors or organizers can integrate into courses or conferences. They concern the construction of functional frameworks, but the subject matter of this particular framework – how subjective experience is generated in humans – makes them most amenable to scholars in philosophy, cognitive science, consciousness studies, philosophy of science, and related programs.

The sessions do not aim to present an introduction to contemporary theories of consciousness in general. Rather, they use the BAL-looping framework as a live case study in how a functional framework is constructed: how its elements are defined, how the relations between them are specified, how it is stress-tested under pressure, how it is checked for evolutionary plausibility, and what strategies are available for proposing elements, relations, and definitions for possible fitting into the framework.

The BAL-looping framework, set forth in Seven Dialogues between Haplous and Synergos and related papers, is a functional framework that accounts for how subjective experience is generated by the material brain. It is built from a small number of elements and relations. The elements are all strictly defined and already known to exist independently of this framework. The relationships are likewise either known to exist or else demonstrable, with the exception of just one, which is highly plausible once you see it. The result is a functional operating system that purports to be consistent with the relevant empirical record while requiring just one simple exaptive evolutionary step.

The aim is not to convince participants to accept the framework, but rather to examine it as a structured object and to consider the various kinds of care that went into its construction. And, most of all, to appreciate why being careful in this way is necessary for any theoretical framework – whether in the physical sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, or elsewhere.

Why this may be of interest

Students are often trained to evaluate frameworks built by others. They less often consider the procedures that go into constructing one.

These sessions give participants an opportunity to look directly at the work of framework construction: how ordinary language has to be tightened, how functional terms are defined, why metaphors can serve didactically but not structurally, how a framework's semantic structure parallels its material counterparts (mirroring all of them, with no excess), and how terms are chosen with all of this in mind. Also where meta-considerations fit in, such as parsimony, evolutionary simplicity, and functional-materialist rigor.

Background

My training in framework construction predates my work on consciousness. I studied first-order predicate logic and the construction of functional frameworks in the philosophy department at Michigan State University in the 1970s, when the construction of formal frameworks was still taught as a rigorous discipline applicable to arbitrary domains.

My first framework concerned the system of double-entry bookkeeping published by the 15th-century mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli in his Summa de arithmetica. Written in first-order predicate calculus, six binary relationships were sufficient to show that this system is isomorphic with the attraction and repulsion of magnets observed in physics.

That training emphasized something that does not seem so common nowadays: the construction of a framework of semantic relations isomorphic with a properly analyzed real-world scenario. Built correctly, such a framework can be extendable and even predictive.

The BAL-looping framework is my own application of that discipline to the question of subjective experience.

Formats

Single session format example:

 A sixty-to-ninety minute virtual session combining a brief orientation with extended discussion.

Three-part seminar sequence example:

Session one – Orientation. Basic architecture, definitions, terms, and framework structure.

Session two – Stress test. Critical examination of definitions, assumptions, consistency with empirical evidence, and predictive implications, which are a boon if true, and fatal if false.

Session three – Overview, takeaways, unresolved questions, possible objections, and broader lessons about framework construction.

Preparation and use in the classroom

The sessions can be fitted to different levels of preparation.

Prospective attendees can prepare briefly by reading Part One of either the split-brain paper or the concept-mastery paper. This amounts to about thirty minutes of reading. A somewhat more thorough introduction can be obtained by reading Part One of either paper together with Parts 1 through 4 of the BAL-looping Glossary, which amounts to between sixty and ninety minutes. There are various ways to go deeper from there – reading either of the papers in its entirety, or delving into the Seven Dialogues themselves.

The 7Dialogs website can also serve as a preparation resource. It has a page with links to the papers on PhilPapers, a section with the complete text of the Seven Dialogues, a section of epilogues, a working glossary of framework terminology, and some supplementary materials – including Dialogue 2.5, an otherwise unpublished dialogue that takes up the question of consciousness in nonhuman animals and works out where the framework would extend to the rest of the animal kingdom – where the common ground is, where the differences lie, and how to better frame the discussion of this question.

A session can accordingly function either as a focused classroom exercise or as a broader seminar exploration, depending on how the professor or conference organizer intends to use it.

Possible points of entry include:

• Subjective experience as functional output 

• Recollection as a generative procedure 

• Reportable awareness versus foundational competence in the phenomena of split brain and blindsight 

• Remembered experience in everyday life as opposed to recall following an unconscious state, as in the recall of dreams 

• Functional definitions and semantic honing as means to effective framework results

• Implications of the framework such as the realm of effation, the question of consciousness, or various principles in the framework's glossary

• The use of a single exaptive step for evolutionary plausibility 

• The dialogue form as a method for technical philosophy 

• Framework construction as a teachable intellectual discipline

A note on engagement

During its first year of availability, Seven Dialogues between Haplous and Synergos came to sit within the top 0.1% of works on PhilPapers by download numbers over the last six months, out of roughly three million works indexed there, with interest distributed across much of the world. Of course, this does not mean the framework is correct, but it does show that it has attracted enough engagement to serve as a serious object of academic discussion.

Logistics

Sessions are held virtually, by Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet.

A modest honorarium consistent with departmental practice for virtual guest lectures is requested. Multi-session arrangements can be discussed.

I am also happy to provide a short abstract, suggested pre-reading, or a preparatory note for faculty considering whether such a session or sessions would fit a particular course or seminar.

Inquiries

Faculty or organizers interested in discussing a possible session, seminar visit, conference participation, or preparatory materials are welcome to get in touch.

jnormansp@gmail.com