TITLE:
Three Levels of Cognition: Particulars, Universals, and Representals
AUTHORS:
Nijalingappa Umakantha
KEYWORDS:
Three Levels of Cognition, Particulars, Universals, Representals, Monadic and Collectivistic Probabilites
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.6 No.4,
October
13,
2016
ABSTRACT: It is
shown that apart from the two well known levels of cognition involving the epistemological
concepts particulars and universals, there is an intermediate
level of cognition necessitating a new epistemological concept which we call represental. This has become necessary
as a result of emergence of statistics (an empirical science), the theory of
probability (a branch of pure mathematics), and quantum mechanics (as a branch
of physics) at the beginning of the nineteenth century. We attribute to a particular
man (like Mr. Jones)
well defined properties (like a definite number of children) whereas we
attribute to a man, the universal, only some general properties (like having an
erect body). Thus particulars and universals involve two levels of cognition.
In statistics we
deal with the properties of a large number of particulars denoted by a universal,
without referring to such details as which particular has which properties.
Thus statistics involves a new level of cognition. In statistics, we attribute all the
statistical properties to a single entity and refer to it as the represental
(entity); the concept of represental man is only a generalization of the
concept of average man proposed by Quetelet in 1869. These three
epistemological concepts are distinguished by the relation they bear
with respect to the possible “states” of the particulars. For instance, Mr. Jones, a particular man,
can be in the state of having either 0, or 1, or 2, … children only; a man, the
universal, cannot be said to have either 0, or 1, or 2, … children, though the
state of having children is relevant to him (but not to a chair, the
universal); the represental man has 0 child with probability P(0), 1 child with probability P(1), 2 children with probability P(2), …Thus the possible states are mutually exclusive in
particulars, are only relevant to the universal, and coexist in the represental
with respective probabilities. By recognizing that in statistics, the theory of
probability, and quantum mechanics we deal with a new level of cognition
involving the epistemological concept of represental, the interpretational
problems of statistical phenomena are resolved.