Ebook: Seeing, Thinking and Knowing: Meaning and Self-Organisation in Visual Cognition and Thought

According to Putnam to talk of “facts” without specifying the language to be used is to talk of nothing; “object” itself has many uses and as we creatively invent new uses of words “we find that we can speak of ‘objects’that were not ‘values of any variable’in 1 any language we previously spoke” . The notion of object becomes, then, like the notion of reference, a sort of open land, an unknown territory. The exploration of this land - pears to be constrained by use and invention. But, we may wonder, is it possible to guide invention and control use? In what way, in particular, is it possible, at the level of na- ral language, to link together program expressions and natural evolution? To give an answer to these onerous questions we should immediately point out that cognition (as well as natural language) has to be considered first of all as a peculiar fu- tion of active biosystems and that it results from complex interactions between the - ganism and its surroundings. “In the moment an organism perceives an object of wh- ever kind, it immediately begins to ‘interpret’this object in order to react properly to it . . . It is not necessary for the monkey to perceive the tree in itself. . . What counts is sur- 2 vival” .

---

The world perceived at the visual level is constituted not by objects or static forms, but by processes appearing imbued with meaning. As G. Kanizsa stated, at the visual level the line per se does not exist: only the line which enters, goes behind, divides, etc., a line evolving according to a precise holistic context, in comparison with which function and meaning are indissolubly interlinked. Just as the meaning of words is connected with a universe of highly-dynamic functions and functional processes which operate syntheses, cancellations, integrations, etc. (a universe which can only be described in terms of symbolic dynamics), in the same way, at the level of vision, we must continuously unravel and construct schemata; we must assimilate and make ourselves available for selection by the co-ordinated information penetrating from external Reality. Lastly, we must interrelate all this with the internal selection mechanisms through a precise "journey" into the regions of intensionality.
In accordance with these intuitions, we may directly consider, from the more general point of view of contemporary Self-organisation theory, the network of meaningful programs living at the level of neural systems as a complex one which articulates and develops, functionally, within a "coupled universe" characterised by the existence of a double selection: external and internal, the latter regarding the universe of meaning. This network gradually posits itself as the basis for the emergence of natural and meaningful forms and the simultaneous, if indirect, surfacing of an "I-subject-": as the basic instrument, in other words, for the perception of real and meaningful processes, of "objects" possessing meaning, aims, intentions, etc.: above all, of biological objects possessing an inner plan and linked to the progressive expression of a specific cognitive action.

---

The world perceived at the visual level is constituted not by objects or static forms, but by processes appearing imbued with meaning. As G. Kanizsa stated, at the visual level the line per se does not exist: only the line which enters, goes behind, divides, etc., a line evolving according to a precise holistic context, in comparison with which function and meaning are indissolubly interlinked. Just as the meaning of words is connected with a universe of highly-dynamic functions and functional processes which operate syntheses, cancellations, integrations, etc. (a universe which can only be described in terms of symbolic dynamics), in the same way, at the level of vision, we must continuously unravel and construct schemata; we must assimilate and make ourselves available for selection by the co-ordinated information penetrating from external Reality. Lastly, we must interrelate all this with the internal selection mechanisms through a precise "journey" into the regions of intensionality.
In accordance with these intuitions, we may directly consider, from the more general point of view of contemporary Self-organisation theory, the network of meaningful programs living at the level of neural systems as a complex one which articulates and develops, functionally, within a "coupled universe" characterised by the existence of a double selection: external and internal, the latter regarding the universe of meaning. This network gradually posits itself as the basis for the emergence of natural and meaningful forms and the simultaneous, if indirect, surfacing of an "I-subject-": as the basic instrument, in other words, for the perception of real and meaningful processes, of "objects" possessing meaning, aims, intentions, etc.: above all, of biological objects possessing an inner plan and linked to the progressive expression of a specific cognitive action.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-5
Introduction....Pages 7-26
Front Matter....Pages 27-27
Neural Models of Seeing and Thinking....Pages 29-54
Functional Architecture of the Visual Cortex and Variational Models for Kanizsa’s Modal Subjective Contours....Pages 55-69
Gestalt Theory and Computer Vision....Pages 71-101
Towards an Analytic Phenomenology: The Concepts of “Bodiliness” and “Grabbiness”....Pages 103-114
Internal Representations of Sensory Input Reflect the Motor Output with Which Organisms Respond to the Input....Pages 115-141
Movemes for Modeling Biological Motion Perception....Pages 143-170
Form Constraints in Motion Integration, Segmentation and Selection....Pages 171-189
Scintillations, Extinctions, and Other New Visual Effects....Pages 191-201
Commonalities between Visual Imagery and Imagery in Other Modalities; an Investigation by Means of fMRI....Pages 203-218
Front Matter....Pages 219-219
Microgenesis, Immediate Experience and Visual Processes in Reading....Pages 221-243
Language, Space and the Theory of Semantic Forms....Pages 245-275
Emotion-Cognition Interaction and Language....Pages 277-292
Appearance of Structure and Emergence of Meaning in the Visual System....Pages 293-306
The Embodied Meaning: Self-Organisation and Symbolic Dynamics in Visual Cognition....Pages 307-330
Back Matter....Pages 331-358

---

The world perceived at the visual level is constituted not by objects or static forms, but by processes appearing imbued with meaning. As G. Kanizsa stated, at the visual level the line per se does not exist: only the line which enters, goes behind, divides, etc., a line evolving according to a precise holistic context, in comparison with which function and meaning are indissolubly interlinked. Just as the meaning of words is connected with a universe of highly-dynamic functions and functional processes which operate syntheses, cancellations, integrations, etc. (a universe which can only be described in terms of symbolic dynamics), in the same way, at the level of vision, we must continuously unravel and construct schemata; we must assimilate and make ourselves available for selection by the co-ordinated information penetrating from external Reality. Lastly, we must interrelate all this with the internal selection mechanisms through a precise "journey" into the regions of intensionality.
In accordance with these intuitions, we may directly consider, from the more general point of view of contemporary Self-organisation theory, the network of meaningful programs living at the level of neural systems as a complex one which articulates and develops, functionally, within a "coupled universe" characterised by the existence of a double selection: external and internal, the latter regarding the universe of meaning. This network gradually posits itself as the basis for the emergence of natural and meaningful forms and the simultaneous, if indirect, surfacing of an "I-subject-": as the basic instrument, in other words, for the perception of real and meaningful processes, of "objects" possessing meaning, aims, intentions, etc.: above all, of biological objects possessing an inner plan and linked to the progressive expression of a specific cognitive action.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-5
Introduction....Pages 7-26
Front Matter....Pages 27-27
Neural Models of Seeing and Thinking....Pages 29-54
Functional Architecture of the Visual Cortex and Variational Models for Kanizsa’s Modal Subjective Contours....Pages 55-69
Gestalt Theory and Computer Vision....Pages 71-101
Towards an Analytic Phenomenology: The Concepts of “Bodiliness” and “Grabbiness”....Pages 103-114
Internal Representations of Sensory Input Reflect the Motor Output with Which Organisms Respond to the Input....Pages 115-141
Movemes for Modeling Biological Motion Perception....Pages 143-170
Form Constraints in Motion Integration, Segmentation and Selection....Pages 171-189
Scintillations, Extinctions, and Other New Visual Effects....Pages 191-201
Commonalities between Visual Imagery and Imagery in Other Modalities; an Investigation by Means of fMRI....Pages 203-218
Front Matter....Pages 219-219
Microgenesis, Immediate Experience and Visual Processes in Reading....Pages 221-243
Language, Space and the Theory of Semantic Forms....Pages 245-275
Emotion-Cognition Interaction and Language....Pages 277-292
Appearance of Structure and Emergence of Meaning in the Visual System....Pages 293-306
The Embodied Meaning: Self-Organisation and Symbolic Dynamics in Visual Cognition....Pages 307-330
Back Matter....Pages 331-358
....