Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6.12 A formalization of the “table theory” or an analogical inference.
Internal
and
external
relations
may also be referred to as “intra-” and “inter-system” relations
Parameters
F (familiar)
U (unfamiliar)
1. Components: f
1
,f
2
,f
3
,
...
,f
n
AR
u
1
,u
2
,u
3
,
...
,u
n
f
1
<
-----------
>
u
1
2. Relations:
IR
↕
↕
: Internal (or intra-system) Relation (IR)
f
2
<
-----------
>
u
2
↕
<
----
>
: Analogical (or inter-system)
Relation (AR)
(?)
↕
↕
f
3
<
-----------
>
u
3
3. The “Table Symmetry Principle”:
↕
↕
.
.
(1)
If F and U are
isomorphic
,
.
.
(2)
if IR(f
i
,f
i+1
) is known,
.
.
(3)
if AR(f
i
,u
i
) is known, and
↕ ↕
f
n
<
-----------
>
u
n
(4)
if AR(f
i+1
,u
i+1
) is known, then
(5) IR(u
i
,u
i+1
)
¼
IR(f
i
,f
i+1
)
anamnesis
may be opened up by the postulated isomorphism between cell and
human languages (Table
6.3
). Because we are made up of cells which are in turn
made up of material entities originating in nature, we may already
know
how cells
and nature work by virtue of the communication mediated by cell language between
the human brain and its constituent cells, although we may not be able to express this
knowledge for the purpose of communication among humans because it is not
encoded in human language. To do so, we must convert our
innate
(or
internal
)
knowledge encoded in cell language (which may be identified with “pre-reflective
experience” of Merleau-Ponty) into what may be called the
external
or
objective
knowledge expressed in human language, and this postulated process of
cell-human
language transduction
(or
translation
) may constitute the heart of epistemology.
The language mediating the communication between cells (C) and humans (H) may
be referred to as
the CH language
, distinct from human language (which may be
called
the HH language
) and cell language (
the CC language
). Through CH lan-
guage, humans may be able to communicate with the Universe itself, since cells are
the embodiment of the laws of nature and the historical record of the Universe. We
may represent this series of ideas diagrammatically as shown in Fig.
6.10
.
In Ji (1991), the essence of the above ideas was formalized under the rubric of
“table theory.” The term “table” is employed here, because the theory utilizes a 2-D
table as an essential graphical tool for comparing the properties of a familiar (F)
object with those of an unknown or unfamiliar (U) object. The
table theory
has
three key elements - (1) sets of components or nodes for F or U; (2) two kinds of
relations, internal relation (IR) and analogical relation (AR) (IR and AR may also
be referred to as “intrasystem” and “intersystem” relations, respectively); and (3)
the principle of
table symmetry
stating that, if F and U are isomorphic (i.e., obey a
common set of principles), IR of U can be inferred from the IR of F given that AR
exists between the components of F and U. These ideas are summarized in
Table
6.12
. The main objective of comparing two objects, F and U, is to discover
the
relations
among the components of U (i.e., the vertical arrows among the u's;
