A Framework for the Study of Systems of Intentional Living

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Introduction

This article presents a Framework to be used in the study of Systems of Intentional Living. The Framework assumes that every System of Intentional Living can be analyzed into a system of fifteen subsytems in which each subsystem is assigned to one of three levels:

1. Motivations. Motivations to act, including beliefs and intentions.
2. Dispositions. Dispositions to act, including general and specific operational and transitional dispositions.
3. Actions. Courses of action, including general and specific operational and transitional courses of action.

and assigned to one of five temporal stages:

1. Origins. Sources or triggers for motivations, dispositions and actions.
2. Operational. Processes needed to maintain learned and incorporated motivations, dispositions and actions.
3. Current Active. Processes needed to select between or interleave operational and transitional motivations, dispositions and actions.
4. Transitional. Processes needed to effect learning and incorporate innovations in motivations, dispositions and actions.
5. Destinations. Intended outcomes for motivations, dispositions and actions.

A subsystem occurs at each intersection of level and stage.  The following table documents the subsystems and their relationships to level and stage.  The subsystems are discussed individually after the table itself beginning with the subsystems of the Current Active stage.

 

A Framework for the Study of Systems of Intentional Living

	Sources		Current State	Directions
	Origins	Operational Intention	Intentional Planning, Execution, Control & Monitoring	Transitional Intention	Destinations
Motivations to Act	SOURCES OF BELIEF	LESSONS LEARNED	ACTIVE BELIEFS	PROBLEMS	RESEARCH AREAS
Dispositions to Act	SOURCES OF DISPOSITION	CHARACTER	ACTIVE DISPOSITIONS	GROWTH	REVISED CHARACTER
Courses of Action	SOURCES OF ACTION	OPERATIONS	ACTIVE COURSES OF ACTION	PROJECTS	OUTCOMES

 

Origin of the Framework

The Framework is a generalization of work of W. V. Quine and J. S. Ullian in their book The Web of Belief. The Framework uses the concept of a network of belief as the basis for the Active Beliefs subsystem and extends and applies the network concept to the other fourteen susbsystems.

The Framework also draws on the regulatory systems work of C. A. Hooker in his book Reason, Regulation and Realism.  The Framework assumes that every System of Intentional Living is a regulatory system (although not all regulatory systems are Systems of Intentional Living).

Current Active State Subsystems

The current active state subsystems are subsystems in which activity is currently initiating, continuing or terminating.  These subsystems are more heavily information and motor transformation processes than they are data retrieval and storage processes, processes which characterize the other stages. The activities of each level are related to each other with execution, monitoring and control, for the most part, extending from top to bottom. 

The current active state subsystems are:

1. Active Beliefs,
2. Active Dispositons,
3. Active Courses of Action.

We examine each in turn as well  as their relationships with their neighboring processes.

Active Beliefs

We do not take beliefs to be fundamentally linguistic entities, that is, when we have a belief, it need not be a belief that s, where s is a particular sentence of a particular language or even the meaning of such a sentence (the proposition that s).  We may have beliefs which are linguistic but we also have beliefs which are non-linguistic.

We may, for example, believe that the sentence "Snow is white," is true. We may also have an visual experience of white snow. Bertrand Russell would call the first belief "knowledge by description" and the second belief "knowledge by acquaintance" (see his The Problems of Philosophy). We may attain the belief by description by hearing and mentally assenting to another person saying "Snow is white," but we may also attain it by having the belief by acquaintance together with having acquired the appropriate language resources.  It is possible to believe (by description) that snow is white without ever having seen snow and it is possible to believe (by acquaintance) that snow is white without being able to affirm that snow is white.

If we consider the most ordinary of experiences, we find a great complexity of beliefs. I see a reading lamp on my desk.

I see it as:

• something real, external to myself
• an object
• three dimensional
• having a lamp shape
• having a silver metallic base
• having a white glass shade
• turned off

I also believe:

• if I push it, it will fall from the desk
• if I turn it on, it will produce light sufficient for reading
• if I turn it on and it does not produce light, I should check whether it is plugged in
• if I turn it is plugged in and it does not produce light, I should check whether the power is on

If someone from a "lost tribe", were it to be presented with the same lamp on the desk, they would see its as:

• something real, external to themselves
• an object
• three dimensional

but would not have any of the rest of my beliefs.

As described in their book, The Web of Belief, Quine and Ullian regard these beliefs as a web in which individual beliefs are related to other beliefs by a number of types of relations.  The book lists the following types of relations:

1. Observation - There is a cat in the room.
2. Self-Evidence - All bachelors are unmarried.
3. Testimony - Grandma says God exists
4. Hypothesis - If I suceed with this project, I will get a promotion.
5. Induction - The sun has risen every day before now, so the sun will rise tomorrow.
6. Analogy - The flow of electrons is like the flow of water.
7. Intuition - The hypotenuse of every right triangle is always the longest side.
8. Confirmation - Carbon dating confirms the existence of human beings one million years ago.
9. Refutation - DNA testing proves that Danny was not your father.
10. Explanation - I went to the storre to get some bread.
11. Persuasion - Inverted coastline shapes and common species on both sides is evidence that South America once joined Africa.
12. Evaluation - Chemical analysis shows the sample to be twenty percent gold.

Although this list is a good start, we believe it incomplete and it emphasizes purely linguistic belief at the expense of general representational belief.  Nevertheless, it illustrates some of the complexity of the web of belief.

To connect the Web of Befief with the Web of Disposition, we need to pay especially close attention to some of the non-linguistic representational beliefs, recognition of a face, knowing how to ride a bicycle and all the affordances offered by various objects. 

Active Dispositions

Dispositions are not fundamentally linguistic entities. It may be possible to express a disposition linguistically. I may say, for example, "I offer help to those appearing to be in distress." But there is more involved in the dispositon than the linguistic expression.  At the very least, I have to be able to offer help.

Dispositions, like beliefs, form a web.  In addition, to the actual helping, the disposition to help may dispose me to plan to help, to say I will help, to cancel something else to help.  Dispositions may be of different strengths and may be nested.  I may be disposed to help myself  before my children before my siblings and before other relatives and again before strangers. I may be inclined to help with labor, or with knowledge or with money or other resources.  The web of disposition is, for the most part, a web of precedence. Which disposition is more important than which others?  Which dispositions am I willing to suspend or cancel for the sake of which others/?

Dispositions can also be general or particular. The disposition to help is a general disposition. The disposition to help my nephew with an extra $1000 for his tuition is particular.  An active disposition must include a particular disposition (which, in turn, gives active status to the general disposition of which it is  a particular example).  It is helpful to regard all general dispositions, active or inactive, as occupying the Framework subsystem denoted "Character".  When a particular disposition is activated in the Web of Dispositions, the general dispositions which it exemplifies can also be regarded as part of the Web of Dispositon.

As well, the particular dispositon must be activated by the activation of particular beliefs. This is the interface between the Web of Belief and the Web of Disposition.  The following diagram shows an example relationship between the Webs of Belief, Character and Disposition.

  

        Relations between the Webs of Belief, Character and Dispositions 

Active Courses of Action

When we examine the subsystem of active actions as part of a system of intentional living, we find it more useful to consider courses of action. A course of action is a set of actions in which the performance of one action in the course of action may bes dependent on the performance of another, always done with the intention of producing a specifiable outcome.

The course may be completely sequential. It may involve decisions to go one way rather than another (that is, it may be a branching course of action). It may also include repetitions (iterations) or recursions of actions. Finally, it may involve parallel execution of threads of actions.  In short, it may contain some or all of the control structures of parallel programs:

1. sequences
2. decisions and branches
3. iterations
4. recursions
5. initiations of a thread
6. terminations.of a thread

Consider a simple example of making a meal of shrimp fettucine, garlic broccoli and white wine.  This example has three main courses of action:

1. make the shrimp fettucine,
2. make the garlic broccoli,
3. open the wine.

The first main course, making the shrimp fettucine, consists of five subsidiary courses of action:

1. prepare the shrimp
2. prepare the alfredo sauce
3. prepare the grated asiago cheese
4. prepare the fettucine
5. combine and plate the components

The three main courses of action are interleaved.  I may thaw the shrimp, then cut up the broccoli, then open the wine and sample.  So although each of the courses of action has its own order of execution, the overall order interleaves actions from all three main courses.

We could, of course, conceive making this meal to be a single course of action. Regarding it as three separate courses of action which interrupt each other allows us to make more sense of what is happening.

 

 

 

Origin Subsystems

Sources of Belief

Sources of Dispositon

Sources of Action

Operational Intention Subsystems

Lessons Learned

Character

Operations

Transitional Intention Subsystems

Problems

Growth

Projects

Destination Subsystems

Research Areas

Revised Character

Outcomes

Summary

A System of Intentional Living changes over time by acquiring or discarding content and can be initiated or terminated.

Systems of Intentional Living are either individual systems or group systems. An Individual System of Intentional Living is a system operated by an individual person. A Group System of Intentional Living is a system operated by either a specified group of persons or groups of groups of persons or both, where membership in the group can change over time.

The structure of the Framework applies to both individual Systems of Intentional Living and group Systems of Intentional Living although the content differs between individual and group systems. Specifically, individual systems contain content dealing with relating to group systems, including joining, leaving and role playing and prioritizing role playing within joined groups.  

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