Revisioning a tabular configuration of categories

Having Bought into a Wreck -- What Now? (Part #4)

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As discussed further below in relation to self-reflexivity, any reflection on the table above itself involves learning processes which are variously labelled within the table. These raise questions as to how they are defined and how they are to be comprehended, if at all. The table itself is a "product" of such processes. Any assumption that the table is a finished product locks thinking into processes in its first row. There are other considerations as indicated below.

Phase diagrams and blurring category boundaries: Any metaphorical equivalence to the features of the natural environment in terms of the four "classical elements" highlights the sense in which the categories distinguished blur into each other in the experience of nature (as noted in the checkist of weather metaphors above). Framed otherwise, the interplay between those elements is vital to biological life -- just as their anlogues may be vital to cognitive life. There are extensive references to the "blurring of categories" in other contexts.

To the extent that the classical elements have been recognized as the basic states of matter, it is appropriate to note how a state of matter is now recognized -- especially given any implication for cognitive analogues, already recognized through their use as metaphors. In physics, a state of matter is one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist., with four "fundamental" states of matter held to be observable in everyday life: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

Many other states are known to exist, such as glass or liquid crystal, with some only existing under extreme conditions, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, neutron-degenerate matter, and quark-gluon plasma. These only occur, respectively, in situations of extreme cold, extreme density, and extremely high-energy. Some other states are believed to be possible but are currently only theoretical (see List of states of matter). Whether recognized as metaphors (as with "glass ceiling"), these other states may bear comparison with the variety of states of consciousness that are variously recognized.

The overly simplistic nature of the cognitive adaptation of Young's tabular presentation is especially apparent when the relationships between the fundamental states of matter are indicated in a phase diagram as discussed separately (Phase diagram of degrees of argument connectivity, 2014; Metaphorical geometry as a cognitive vehicle, 2014).

Different degrees of connectivity implied by phase diagram of states of matter
Typical phase diagram (reproduced from Wikipedia)	Adaptation to information (from Patterns Essential to Individual and Global Health? 2010)

A number of distinct immiscible phases can also exist within the same state of matter -- as with triphasic and tetraphasic liquids. Of some relevance, the phase diagram metaphor has been explored with respect to the distinction between data, information, knowledge and wisdom.

In the tabular presentation, the cell boundaries are then better understood as permeable, with cells "shading into one another" -- blending together in some way. The permeability can be understood as enabling (or occasioning) a form of osmosis (Cognitive Osmosis in a Knowledge-based Civilization: interface challenge of inside-outside, insight-outsight, information-outformation, 2017). The blurring can also be recognized in terms of liminality, as variously experienced (Living as an Imaginal Bridge between Worlds: global implications of "betwixt and between" and liminality, 2011).

With respect to any adaptation of Young's table, these considerations give focus to the challenbe as to where to position the experience of risk, fake news, and surrealism which is so characteristic of the times and the learnings offered.

"Tuning", "weaving" and "enrolling": The order of the three columns (on the left of the table above) can of course be challenged. Should the first be last, for example? In musical terms, the 12-fold pattern could be understood as calling for a form of "tuning", as argued for a similar case (Tuning a Periodic Table of Religions, Epistemologies and Spirituality -- including the sciences and other belief systems, 2007). With a different metaphor, the rows and columns can also be suggestively imagined to be woven together (Warp and Weft of Future Governance, 2010).

There is a potentially intriguing relationship between the first row and the fourth in that the concrete "solidity" of the first is echoed by a far subtler "solidity" of the fourth -- more readily recognized in terms of cognitive coherence. In this sense the first and fourth rows can be understood as potentially contiguous (if not paradoxically so), suggesting a form of wrapping into a cylindrical form ("Enrolling" the matrix, 2010; From matrix to torus, 2006).

Dynamics: Especially questionable is the meaning to be associated with the cells of the table through the words provisionally associated with them -- which may be far from encompassing the sense that cell is intended to indicate (and may even be completely misleading). Such words can of course be variously interpreted and challenged with respect to their position and relevance. The table as a whole is then better understood as definitive only in the sense implied by the first row -- provisionally. Its substantive nature is variously called into question by the other rows as suggested by the right-hand column: its relative credibility, its momentary nature, and as an act of imagination.

So framed the table contents could be usefully understood as dynamic in some way -- lacking any fixed meaning, even implying a cycle of interpretations. More intriguing is that each can be understood as a puzzle or a riddle -- a challenge to comprehension -- to be variously perceived in terms of credibility, aesthetics and implication.

Another possible image would be that of the Rubik Cube in which rows and columns could be variously "twisted" in relation to one another, as argued in relation to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Interplay of Sustainable Development Goals through Rubik Cube Variations: engaging otherwise with what people find meaningful, 2017). In that sense the cells might be understood as strange attractors (Refining the Value of Sustainable Development Goals: in quest of the systemic coherence of global attractors, 2017; Human Values as Strange Attractors, 1993). As such their configuration may pose a challenge analogous to the coherence of so-called magic squares.

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