What Does It All Mean? by William A. Adams

Author:William A. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cognitive psychology, humanism, Socrates, meaning of life, assumptions, consciousness, telos, teleology, projection, agency, intersubjectivity, God, religion
ISBN: 9781845406042
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2013
Published: 2013-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

7: Projective Agency

As an unconscious mental process, we’re not aware of psychological projection, so we have no sense of ‘doing’ it. And since projection results in a world that looks just like the world described by science and our senses, there’s also nothing unusual there. In fact, if the hypothesis of psychological projection is correct, it would make no difference at all. In that case, why shouldn’t we just stick with the more familiar explanations of the world, such as those provided by science?

One of the most compelling reasons is the concept of projective agency. ‘Agency’ refers to the actions of an agent, person, or thing that causes a physical change in the world. We’re talking about personal agency, in which an individual is the initiator of events in the world.

People have agency. We do things, such as pour a cup of coffee, not because we’re forced by any external process, but for no other reason than because we want to. For instance, you decide to raise your hand, and then it goes up. That action was caused by your human agency. There were no wires or levers attached to your hand - you were the cause of that physical event. A rag doll can’t raise its hand, because it lacks agency.

If you had projective agency, you’d have the ability to manage psychological projection and to observe the results. That would be an interesting possibility, but we’ve already established that psychological projection isn’t a process under conscious control.

However, there are indirect ways of influencing it. For example, you can’t just close your eyes and wish very hard if you want to lose ten pounds. In order to achieve your desired results, you have to control your diet and begin an exercise program, after which you’ll be on your way to becoming ten pounds lighter.

Controlling psychological projection works in a similar fashion. It’s not possible to affect the process directly by thinking, wishing, imagining, or any other direct conscious mental activity, but it’s possible to influence psychological projection indirectly. In that way, there’s such a concept as projective agency. People can and do project actual physical objects into the world through the mind. To see how that works, let’s clarify what we mean by physical objects.

Physical Objects

You can’t project a physical object just by thinking about it, but you can project a conceptual object by thinking. The only difference between the two is that a physical object is projected in so much detail that it can be explored by our sensory systems. That’s how you know something is physical. You can feel it, see it, sniff it, kick it, bite it, and so on - but you can’t bite a concept.

People who work in the field of computer-generated imagery (CGI) have made amazing strides in defining how an object needs to be specified in order to be visually explorable. They’ve developed formulas for showing objects rotating in space, as seen from different points of view. Their work is impressive and makes for realistic-looking movies and video games.

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