You could, but you should be very careful, since most of sensing is multiple levels of maps. Suppose you see a cat. So, presumably the cat is part of the territory, right? Well, let’s see:
what you perceive as a cat is constructed in your brain from genetics, postnatal development, education, previous experiences and nerve impulses reaching your visual cortex. There are multiple levels of processing: light entering through your eye, being focused, absorbed by light-sensitive cells, going through 3 or 4 levels of other cells before triggering spikes in the afferent fibers reaching deep into your visual cortex. The work done inside it to trigger “this is a cat” subroutine in a totally different part of the brain is much much more complex.
Any of these levels can be disrupted, so that when you see a cat others don’t agree (maybe someone drew a “realistic” picture to fool you, or maybe your brain constructed a cat image where that of a different but unfamiliar animal (say, raccoon) would be more accurate). Multiple observations are required to validate that what you perceive as a cat behaves the way your internal model of the cat predicts.
Even the light rays which eventually resulted in you being aware of the cat are simplified maps of propagating excitation of the EM field interacted with atoms in what could reasonably be modeled as cat’s fur. Unless it is better modeled as lines on paper.
This stack of models currently ends somewhere in the Standard Model of Particle physics. Not because it’s the “ultimate reality”, but because we don’t have a good handle on how to continue building the stack.
You could argue that all the things I have described are “real” and part of the territory. Absolutely you can. But then why stop there? If light rays are real and not just abstractions, then so are images of cats in your brain.
Thus any model is as “real” as any other, though one can argue that accurate (better at anticipating future experiences) model are more real than inaccurate ones. The heliocentric model is “more real” than the geocentric one. in the sense that it has larger domain of validity. But then you are also forced to admit that quarks are more real than mesons and cats are less real than generic felines.
By “sensing” I was referring to the end result of all those nerves firing and processes processing when awareness meets the result of all that stuff. I suppose I could have more accurately stated that awareness is a part of the territory as awareness arises directly from some part of your circuitry. Everything about the cat in your example may happen in the brain or not and so you can’t really be sure that there’s an underlying reality behind it, but awareness itself is a direct consequence of the configuration of the processing equipment.
It’s real, but the thing that’s being experienced isn’t the real thing. The cat quale is a real process, but it’s not a real cat (probably). The part of processing the quale that is the awareness (not the object of awareness) is itself the real awareness and holds the distinction of actually being in the territory rather than in the map.
You could, but you should be very careful, since most of sensing is multiple levels of maps. Suppose you see a cat. So, presumably the cat is part of the territory, right? Well, let’s see:
what you perceive as a cat is constructed in your brain from genetics, postnatal development, education, previous experiences and nerve impulses reaching your visual cortex. There are multiple levels of processing: light entering through your eye, being focused, absorbed by light-sensitive cells, going through 3 or 4 levels of other cells before triggering spikes in the afferent fibers reaching deep into your visual cortex. The work done inside it to trigger “this is a cat” subroutine in a totally different part of the brain is much much more complex.
Any of these levels can be disrupted, so that when you see a cat others don’t agree (maybe someone drew a “realistic” picture to fool you, or maybe your brain constructed a cat image where that of a different but unfamiliar animal (say, raccoon) would be more accurate). Multiple observations are required to validate that what you perceive as a cat behaves the way your internal model of the cat predicts.
Even the light rays which eventually resulted in you being aware of the cat are simplified maps of propagating excitation of the EM field interacted with atoms in what could reasonably be modeled as cat’s fur. Unless it is better modeled as lines on paper.
This stack of models currently ends somewhere in the Standard Model of Particle physics. Not because it’s the “ultimate reality”, but because we don’t have a good handle on how to continue building the stack.
You could argue that all the things I have described are “real” and part of the territory. Absolutely you can. But then why stop there? If light rays are real and not just abstractions, then so are images of cats in your brain.
Thus any model is as “real” as any other, though one can argue that accurate (better at anticipating future experiences) model are more real than inaccurate ones. The heliocentric model is “more real” than the geocentric one. in the sense that it has larger domain of validity. But then you are also forced to admit that quarks are more real than mesons and cats are less real than generic felines.
By “sensing” I was referring to the end result of all those nerves firing and processes processing when awareness meets the result of all that stuff. I suppose I could have more accurately stated that awareness is a part of the territory as awareness arises directly from some part of your circuitry. Everything about the cat in your example may happen in the brain or not and so you can’t really be sure that there’s an underlying reality behind it, but awareness itself is a direct consequence of the configuration of the processing equipment.
So what is a map and not the territory in your example? The cat identification process? The “I see a cat” quale? I am confused.
Yes, the cat quale is map.
I’d argue that it is as real as any other brain process.
It’s real, but the thing that’s being experienced isn’t the real thing. The cat quale is a real process, but it’s not a real cat (probably). The part of processing the quale that is the awareness (not the object of awareness) is itself the real awareness and holds the distinction of actually being in the territory rather than in the map.