perm filename ATMP[0,BGB] blob sn#071771 filedate 1973-11-14 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00017 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00004 00002	REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION.
C00008 00003	
C00013 00004	
C00016 00005	1. The Structure of the Theory
C00020 00006	
C00025 00007	
C00030 00008	
C00035 00009	
C00039 00010	2. The Consequences of the Theory - Perception.
C00044 00011	
C00049 00012	
C00054 00013	
C00057 00014	3. The Consequences of the Theory - other epistemological issues
C00062 00015	
C00067 00016	
C00072 00017	
C00079 ENDMK
C⊗;
REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION.

      Propose a general theory of mind - the mind as  a computational
"Theory" of the  world. The essence of  the theory is that  people do
(and robots should) construct Hypothetico-Deductive models.  There is
a much stronger point though -  we want to claim that this  Theory is
the ONLY structure to which  a cognisant being has direct  access; it
is, so to speak, his experiential base.  Experimemts are allowed, but
they do not  involve straight-forward interaction with  the "physical
world", for they are strongly mediated by this internal structure.

      A central aim is to show that the major epistemological problem
is the analysis  of raw information about  the world in terms  of the
construction of  the internal model.   There are, then,  two distinct
but interrelated  representational systems :  one which  is concerned
with  the sensorily  given,  and another  concerned  with correlation
across temporal and spatial change. This second system, which we call
the observer's  Theory, is  an experimental  one: within  the Theory,
models of states of affairs are constructed, predictions are made and
compared to the sensorily  given, in the traditional  scientific way.
The manner of this experimentation is Popperian, ie.  the  concern is
with the setting up  of hypotheses which are candidates  for disproof
rather than for corroboration.

      There are two distinct avenues for our discussion:

          (a) examine the structure  of such a Theory, and  develop a
         unified formalism for its expression. Particular points are:

                  (i) the internal structure  of the theory is  a set
                 of interrlated "models" of various states of affairs
                 (we  can  call  them  'possible  worlds`   both  for
                 convenience and  because we  want to  use semantical

                 methods  of modal  logics in  our  discussion) These
                 models are  "pictures of facts"  in a  rather strict
                 Wittgensteinian sense, and  we want to make  much of
                 this.   In  particular,  we  want  to   examine  the
                 possibility  of formalising  and developing  some of
                 the arguments  about the "Picture  Theory" developed
                 by  W.(see  Sect.3)  We  hope  that  we  can  make a
                 connexion here to the ideas of John McCarthy  on the
                 use of  explicit models  of situations  for planning
                 purposes. There is a common problem - the  nature of
                 the correspondence between  the states of  the model
                 and the states of the world;and we propose  a common
                 solution - the performance of experiments;

                  (ii)  what  kind  of ontology  does  such  a Theory
                 embody?  This is directly connected with the problem
                 of methods of individuation which must  be developed
                 in the treat-ment of (i).By "individuation"  we mean
                 the process by means of which a person  decides upon
                 the  structure of  his ontology  - that  is  to say,
                 decides what the individuals in his universe are and
                 how he is to recognise them over space and time.

          (b) examine the consequences of such an epistemology for

                  (i)  perception -  this is  the major  concern.  We
                 shall be  concerned to  examine the  consequences of
                 such a structural  organisation for the design  of a
                 possible vision system.

                  We will take as  a detailed example the  problem of
                 recognising complex  curved objects, for  example, a
                 set of  tools and  parts on  a table.  The low-level
                 technology already exists (Binford,  Agin, Nevatia).
                 We want to see  how a vision system should  go about
                 making and corroborating hypotheses in this domain.

                  (ii) some other problems in the theory of knowledge
                 which  face robots,  e.g.  causality;  knowledge and
                 belief (esp. about other minds, and  the reflexivity
                 problem  - knowing  that one  knows); the  frame and
                 qualification problems; belief consistency ( here we
                 want to  suggest that a  belief system must  only be
                 consistent  within  a given  model,  not necessarily
                 across  models);  development  of  a  semantics  for
                 language.

Meta-comment:

       All along, the thrust of the discussion will be three-fold

      (a) to explore the  analytic consequences of the  basic thesis,
and  its  relationship to  traditional  issues in  the  philosophy of
perception and mind;

      (b) to try to  effect a contact with psychological  reality and
suggest  how the  metaphysical  points can  lead to  criteria  for an
information-processing   approach  to   a  psychological   theory  of
perception;

      (c)  to  evolve  design criteria  for  a  unified  robot vision
system. But there will be a special concern to see how  current ideas
and  programmes fit  in  and where  they might  need  modification or
extension.

      There is an underlying symmetrical belief that

      firstly, the nature of one's metaphysical beliefs  actually can
and should affect the structure of the functional system that  one is
designing, and secondly, that attempts to build a computational model
for a  metaphysics can provide  salutary insights  into philosophical
inadequacies and  errors.  Even though  Descartes used the  notion of
"robot"   to  great   philosophical   effect,  we   believe   that  a
computational model has  more to offer,  because of its  concern with
the internal  (data and control)  structures and  with organisational
principles eg. epistemological primacy.

      This is, of course, a Descriptive view of metaphysics,  and can
be justified and analysed in  a Strawsonian way. It is  also Kantian,
in that  we are  searching for a  priori synthetic  and are  happy to
allow empirical considerations to influence and refine the process.
1. The Structure of the Theory
        " For  there is  a  massive  central  core of  human thinking
has no history  - or none recorded in histories of thought; there are
categories and concepts which,  in their most fundamental  character,
change not  at all. Obviously these  are not the specialities  of the
most  refined  thinking.  They  are  the  commonplaces  of the  least
refined  thinking;  and  are  yet  the  indispensible   core  of  the
conceptual equipment  of the most  sophisticated human beings.  It is
with these, their interconnexions, and the structure that they  form,
that a descriptive metaphysics will be primarily concerned."
         
        (P.F.Strawson, `Individuals')

      (In many ways, this is  the least well thought out part  of the
summary proposal. This is more by design than accident, for it is the
very nature  of this work  that it be  an excercise  in `experimental
metaphysics'  (term  due to  Yorick  Wilks) rather  than  the slavish
working out of the  consequences of an immutable theory  delivered ex
cathedra at the beginning.)

      In  constructing   our  metaphysical   position  we   shall  be
influenced  by three  philosophers Kant,  Strawson  and Wittgenstein.
The former two were  concerned with the a priori  synthetic knowledge
which underlie our ability to perceive and, in the case  of Strawson,
to identify the  particular individuals whom  we take as  existing in
our world. Wittgenstein  was (in his  early work) concerned  with the
relationship between (logical) language  and the way that  we analyse
the  world.   He  was, in  particular,  interested  in  analysing the
propositions:

dismiss  past philosophical  insights in  a cavalier  way;  rather we
intend to  see how various  of these insights  can be combined  in an
overall philosophical  system. In  this way, value  may be  gained by
both sides. Obviously then, our effort is directed more to some grand
design than to  the solution of  particular problems in  some limited
domain. We hope that this can be a strength, not a weakness.

      There  are three  central issues  which must  be faced  in this
section:

          (i)  is  there  reason  to  believe  that  representational
         problems for robots can be  solved by the use of  an unified
         formalism?  John   McCarthy,  particularly,  has   been  the
         champion of first-order predicate calculus for this purpose.
         Opponents (particularly  of a  Plannerish bent)  have argued
         that  LPC (and  by induction  other  well-understood logical
         systems) isn't  a rich enough  language, and doesn't  have a
         sufficiently powerful  control structure.   Now while  I can
         appreciate these criticisms, I want to suggest that they can
         be  at  least  partly  overcome  by  using  a  richer,  more
         interesting logic. My justification is three-fold:

                  (a) The whole point about having  a well-understood
                 logical system as the basis of  one's representation
                 is  precisely  that  it  is   well-understood.  It's
                 strengths  and  limitations  are  known  before  one
                 starts;

                  (b) the Planner people in particular seem either to
                 have failed to grasp, or simply repressed, the point
                 that  a language  like  Planner is  itself  a formal
                 system which may be an implementation  of well-known
                 logics  (something  close  to  Gentzen  systems)(I'm
                 grateful  to  Richard  Weyhrauch  for  this  point.)
                 Implicit  in  their  approach  are  the  notions  of
                 `hypothesis', `possible state-of-affairs'  which are
                 in wide-spread use  by logicians. There's  lots more
                 to be said on this issue, all of it controversial!

                  (c) the issue of control structures is cloudy: John
                 McCarthy  in particular  has argued  cogently  for a
                 separation  of  the  epistemological  and  heuristic
                 factors  in  a language  for  planning  and problem-
                 solving language. I agree with this.



                                  4

          (ii)  " This  suggests approaching  the  ordinary non-modal
         logic as  the logic  of world-descriptions,  and approaching
         modal logic as a study of the properties  and interrelations
         of different possible worlds" (Hintikka).

          If we  accept the possibility  of using some  formal system
         for our  representation theory, then  what kind  of language
         should it  be?  Here I  take my cue  from the  semantics for
         modal logics  developed by Kripke,  Hintikka and  Scott over
         the  last  decade. These  logicians  have  been particularly
         concerned with  exploring the philosophical  implications of
         their formal work, and have, I think, shown that the systems
         they have  dealt with  are sufficiently  powerful to  act as
         tools for the analysis  of the nature of  knowledge, belief,
         tense, action and causality. In the recent work  of Hintikka
         there are the  beginnings of an attempt  to use them  in the
         context of perception as well.  One of the features  of this
         work which is particularly important from our point  of view
         is the natural wy in which it captures the notion  of CHANGE
         which is at the  centre of the representation  problem. Over
         and over  again we  will stress  the constructive  nature of
         action.

          I  have  already  done   some  work  along  the   lines  of
         implementing  the  methods  for  the  construction  of model
         systems  developed  by  Hintikka.   A  model  system   is  a
         collection  of  model  sets,  each  of  which  is  itself  a
         description of a possible world. The constructing of a model
         set is  rather similar in  principle to  Herbrand techniques
         and the semantic tableaux method  of Kripke, ie. it is  of a
         rather standard and well understood model-theoretic  form. A
         formula,F, is said to be satisfiable iff and only if  it can
         be a member of some  model set in a model system,  and valid
         iff  its negation  is unsatisfiable.  The importance  of the
         concept  of model  system  lies in  the  fact that  it  is a
         collection of different  kinds of states  of affairs,related
         by a dyadic alternativeness relation. The fundamental notion
         is then of accessibility of one world from another.

          A particularly valuable  feature of this formalism  is that
         it  provides  compact,  PARTIAL  descriptions  of  states of
         affairs. At least one reason why the frame and qualification
         problems arise in the  situation calculus is the  attempt to
         describe the  WHOLE world  under the  guise of  a situation.
         They  fall   into  the  same   problems  as   Carnap  State-
         descriptions.  Model  sets  not  only  provide  a  much more
         compact description, but have the powerful reflexive feature


                                  5

         that they not only say what there is, but also that  that is
         ALL   there  is.   This  has   important   consequences  for
         epistemology which are discussed in detail in section 3.

          The  logic  is  basically  like  LPC+the  Godel/von  Wright
         system.  If the alternativeness relation is transitive, then
         we get S4; symmetric gives Brouwer's system; both Trans. and
         Symm. gives S5.

          In our ideas  for implementation, the  basic representation
         is is follows:

                  (a) a Model System MS is a triple {Q}⊗R≡MS  where Q
                 is  a  set  of  model sets,  and  R  is  a procedure
                 defining the alternativeness relation;

                  (b)  a  Model  Set  is  a  set  of  predicates  (in
                 negational miniscope normal  form) each of  which is
                 represented  by  a  triple.  The  truth  value  of a
                 predicate within a possible world,WORLDn, is defined
                 by the triple
                        WORLDn⊗[X⊗Y≡Z]≡ one-of{TT,FF,UU}

                  We might then proceed as follows:

                  (i) if the  triple [X⊗Y≡Z] is already  assertted TT
                 or FF in WORLDn then we succeed/fail immediately;

                  (ii) if UU then see whether it follows analytically
                 from  other  assertions.  Important  point  here: we
                 don't want to indulge in large scale theorem-proving
                 in this situation,  because we are interested  in an
                 experimntally-biassed system,  rather than  a purely
                 analytic/logical  one. So  if the  triple  cannot be
                 proved/disproved   by  rather   simple  manipulation
                 (transitivity,etc)  we  go  on  to  actually  do  an
                 experiment. For example, in trying to evaluate
                        WORLDn⊗[SUPPORT⊗A≡B]

                  we might actually RUN the item(secretly a procedure
                 item),SUPPORT.   So  we  have  a  chance  to  have a
                 "theorem  prover" which  actually  communicates with
                 the  exploratory  machinery.   Rather  than  running
                 through  a vast  data  base (something  that  I just
                 don't  believe  that  people  do  in  the  kindds of
                 situation we  shall want  to deal  with) we  will be
                 content  to stop  and activate  a process  which can
                 look at the world in some direct way.

                                  6

          Two sub-issues arise here:

          (a)  we  must  decide  on  cost-effectiveness  measures for
         giving up an  analytic approach and actually  embarking upon
         an experiment. This is part of the more profound issue:

          (b)  what  are  the measures  one  should  use  for guiding
         experimentation.  Here is  connexion with  Feldman  ideas on
         Bayesianism.

          In section 2 I show some examples of the operation  of such
         a system within a visual context.

          (iii)  we  must  explore  the  ontology  of   our  proposed
         representational  system. Here  I am  particularly concerned
         with  what  Simon  has  called  Pragmatic  Wholism.  For any
         cognisant being,  it really  is a  problem (as  Strawson has
         shown)  to decide  what  are the  individual  particulars to
         which he assigns existence  in his universe. For  one thing,
         he may want to change such an assignment from time  to time:
         individuals  may  combine   with  each  other   or  separate
         according to circumstance.  This issue is closely related to
         that of  perceptual attention, and  I'll talk about  that in
         section 2.

      One  central conclusion  of philosophical  discussion  has been
that the concept of actor is  of great import. I think it  is natural
to discuss actors  and action within the  framework I set out  in (ii
and iii) above, and within  our general thesis. One can see  that the
problem of deciding about the consequences of other  people's actions
is considerably  simplified if,  as we suggest  in our  design, every
individual  has a  theory of  how other  people behave.  I  intend to
discuss this in more detail in section 3.
2. The Consequences of the Theory - Perception.

      In this  section, I  set out  some ideas  for using  the formal
techniques described  above to  construct a  hypothesis-making vision
system. The  central idea  is very simple:  possible worlds  whic are
alternatives to the current state of affairs reflect the structure of
hypothetical  worlds. Such  a hypothetical  world must  be compatible
with all that  is known at present,  but need not be  compatible with
all that is believved at present. When a choice point is reached, say
in  a  scene  analysis, a  number  of  alternative(disjoint) possible
worlds  can  be  generated.  The  internal  structureof  these worlds
contains  the  much  needed  "clues" about  how  to  verify  (or more
accurately, falsify) them experimentally.   This is I think  a direct
product of an "advice  taker" strategy. When building  hypotheses, we
build in the assertoric tests.

      Before giving an example of how this might work, I want to make
some  important  asides:  asides  which aim  to  show  how  our basic
epistemological notions  can in  some smooth  way capture  well known
features of perception.

      ***** Hintikka and  the two quantifier  (individuation methods)
business.

      The   human    perceptual   machine    seems   to    have   two
epistemologically and functionally distinct parts:

          (a) an  egocentric system -  essentially depends  only upon
         the observer,  and is independent  of his beliefs  about the
         fundamental nature of  the physical world.  Mainly concerned
         with position in visual space.

          We identify  this with Hintikka's  perceptual individuation
         and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  with  Russell's  knowledge  by
         acquaintance. That  is to say,  it is concerned  with seeing
         things  simply  as  objects  in  a  given  perceptual field,
         without seeing WHAT they are.

          (b) an allocentric system-  depends upon the nature  of the
         observer's theory  about the nature  of the  physical world.
         Concerned  with  relative positions  of  objects  within the
         external-world-frame.

          We  identify  this with  Hintikka's  physical individuation
         and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  with  Russell's  knowledge  by
         description. This involves seeing things for what  they are,
         and thereby  involves a  re-identification across  space and
         time (and the attachment of a label).

                                  8

      There  are  distinct neuro-psychological  correlates  with this
classification.

      (i) Pohl's  work shows  that ego-  and allo-centric  vision are
mediated by quite distinct areas of the nervous system, the former by
the prefrontal  neocortex and  the latter  by the  posterior parietal
neocortex.

      There is some cause for thinking that the egocentric  system is
also the  one primarily concerned  with visuo-motor  coordination (at
least at the lowest level) mediated by the infero-temporal cortex;

      (ii) studies on the development of perception and  cognition in
children (esp.  Piaget) suggest that children have  access originally
only to  an egocentric representation,  which is concerned  only with
the  topological features  of the  visual field.  They need  time and
experience  to  encode   the  physical  knowedge  essential   to  the
allocentric  representation, which  is concerned  with  the Euclidean
geometric    relations   and    with   object    identification   and
reidentification.

      (iii) a very tentative suggestion - mental imagery, at least of
the  Shepard type,  ie. involving  actual spatial  transformations of
images  of  physical objects,  might  be mediated  by  an ego-centric
system.   Studies  show  that  people  do  not  seem  to  be  able to
manipulate the spatial framework itself(Cooper).  All they can  do is
detect transformation with respect to the visual field position; More
peripherally,

      (iv) there is good psychological evidence (e.g.  Posner)  for a
dual representation in memory - one based on imaginal properties, the
other on more semantic properties;

      We also  might want  to suggest that  this dichotomy  of visual
representation reflects  computational structure.  One of  the things
which has been  neglected in robot vision  is the issue of  just what
division  of labour  there is  between number-crunching  and symbolic
methods for achieving vision.   This is epitomised by the  failure to
use depth as a  powerful segmentational cue. Stereo (but  perhaps not
other depth  cues) can  be achieved  by simple  correlational methods
involving no semantical  knowldedge, simply some low-  level feature-
detection (cf. Blakemore) (or possibly none at all! - Julesz)

      So a suggested  design for a vision  system must make  it clear
what is to be done at low-level and what at high level. To  this end,
we suggest the following representational classification:



                                  9

          (a) an  egocentric visual representation  built essentially
         on the basis of position in the world w.r.t. the eye/camera.
         An  open   issue  is   what  kind   of  resolution   such  a
         representation should  have. Marr has  suggested that  it be
         based   on   a    small   set   of   simple    labels   e.g.
         long/medium/short, near/intermediate/far-away. I'm  not sure
         that this is good enough. Minsky is certainly wrong  when he
         says  that people  aren't very  good at  metrical judgements
         (people  are very  good  at detecting  distortions  in cubes
         (Attneave)  and  in   cubical  corners  (Shepard)).   So  we
         certainly will want  a representation which is  Cartesian 3D
         in a very concrete sense.

          (b)  the  allocentric  representation  must  be  much  more
         symbolic,  since it  is the  place where  real  contact with
         memory and with non-perceptual knowledge takes  place. Below
         are   some   suggestions   for   the   structure   of   this
         representation.

      For a vision system , there are two very difficult problems :

          (a) the attention problem : in any given task  situation, a
         vision programme  must decide  upon the  level of  detail to
         which it is  going to attend.  For example, a  vision system
         for driving a motor-car  must attend closely to  the central
         field of view, but maintain high-priority demons for objects
         moving  in the  peripheral field.   From  an epistemological
         point  of  view, this  is  the problem  of  changing  from a
         general model of a  situation to a more  detailed sub-model.
         This is, of course, a part of the more general problem:

          (b)  of how  to  enter the  appropriate model  for  a given
         scene. This  can be arranged  by having  low-level predicate
         demons          for,          e.g.           Inside/Outside,
         Urban/Countryside,Room/Table-top  etc.   Actually   this  is
         something of a peripheral problem, since usually an observer
         already has  some knowledge of  where he is  and what  he is
         likely to  see simply  because it was  he who  performed the
         action of  changing his position.  This is a  very important
         issue,  and  one  to  be  dealt  with  in  some  detail. The
         interrelation between action and perception is central  to a
         hypothetico-deductive machine, for it is at the core  of the
         process of experimentation.






                                 10

      Given a  random scene, the  sequence of appropriate  actions is
approximately as follows:

      (a) find some quite  localised and crude features on  the basis
of some low-level segmentation, eg. using depth

      (b) on the basis of these, postulate a global context

      (c) one the basis  of this context, search for  further crucial
identifying  features  which  confirm  or  invalidate  my suggestion.
Failing this, postulate a new context.

      In general I  shall come to the  scene already armed  with some
clues which restrict my choices in (a) and (b).



      In the light of our general theory, expressed in section  1, we
might suggest  that what  is involved  in the  vision problem  is the
construction of descriptions of possible worlds compatible  with what
is  already known.  Such construction  is to  be corroborated  in two
ways:  firstly,  during  the  actual  construction  process, analytic
consequences  of  what  is  already  known  will  manifest themselves
automatically.  In the  second stage,  given a  hypothesised possible
world,  experiments must  be  performed by  collecting  and analysing
sensory data.

      Now it's time for an example. Consider a domain consisting of a
table-top and a set of tools ( o known structure). The problem  is to
find appropriate tools for, say, an assembly task. We assume that the
low-level  technology would  be that  of Binford-Agin-Nevatia,  ie. a
depth-based volume representation.

      *****














                                 11
3. The Consequences of the Theory - other epistemological issues
                                         for robots.

      In this  section ,we want  to take up  and develop some  of the
epistemological issues which we touched upon in section 0 and  1.  In
particular, we  want to  explore the consequences  of the  claim that
cognisant beings have direct  acquaintance only with models  of their
worlds (and models of those models).  We also want to explore some of
the philosophical  problems underlying  the notion  of correspondence
between a model and the  world; this will involve some  discussion of
the views of L Wittgenstein and his later commentators.
a. Our formalism and some traditional epistemological problems.

          (i)  knowledge  and   belief  The  use  of   modal  logical
         techniques for  analysis of problems  in epistemic  logic is
         too well known to  require discussion here.  The  only topic
         that we want to explore in depth is that of "knowing  that X
         knows", where X is  either oneself or someone else.  I think
         that  we  should then  be  able to  handle  statements about
         John's knowing that Bill knows Jack's phone number, etc.  We
         can also naturally handle problems like, if p⊃q  does K[a].p
         ⊃ K[a].q.

          The logic of belief has not been so closely studied. Within
         our model  formalism there  sems to be  a natural  place for
         thinking about belief consistency in terms of consistency of
         assertions within but not across the models within a being's
         Theory.

          (ii) tense and change

          Tense logics have been  an area of great activity  in model
         theory, and are clearly central to any  robot representation
         theory which involves the  notion of change. Here  of course
         the   situational    calculus   has   already    made   some
         contributions, but I want to claim that my formalism gives a
         natural frame-work for  handling the semantics of  tense and
         change operators.

          (iii)  action  (esp.  frame  &  qualification  problems) By
         extension from what I said  in (ii), we should also  be able
         to handle action in a natural way. The central point is that
         any action on  the part of  a robot must  get a grip  on the
         predicted  consequences  of  that  action.  But,  unlike the
         situation calculus, we aren't  forced to try to  predict the
         state of  the whole  world after any  action or  change. The
         reflexive nature of our models puts a constraint on  what we


                                 12

         bother to predict.  In general, we simply don't  worry about
         things which we havn't explicitly calculated, and  the frame
         and qualification problems are much mollified.

          (iv) causality

          The  semantical  framework   that  we  have  set   out  was
         originally developed to deal with the  traditional necessity
         and  possibility  operators, and  so  it should  be  easy to
         extend it  to cover  causality.  Dana  Scott has  proposed a
         Kripke-type model theory  for causality involving  a ternary
         alternativeness  relation  between  models   (say,  possible
         worlds indexed by time,  space-time etc) in the  normal kind
         of way.  The causality  operator then  has a  semantics much
         like the necessity operator, and various conditions upon the
         alternativeness  relation induces  nice axioms.  Chellas has
         reformulated    the    Stalnaker-Thomason    semantics   for
         conditionals  in  these  terms.  The  real  insight  is that
         causality (as Kant suggested)  can be regarded as  a logical
         operator much like necessity. Not much has been done  yet on
         the choice conditions  on the alternativeness  relation, but
         this is clearly worth exploring from our point of view.
b. The correspondence problem - models and the world.

      In this section, we are concerned to suggest that a fundamental
feature (and associated problems) of our epistemology, the  nature of
the  correspondence between  a  model and  the world  it  purports to
describe, is a reflection  of the discussion by Wittgenstein  and his
later commentators on  the way in  which a logical  language reflects
the structure of the reality of which it speaks. So this section will
begin  by being  exegetical, and  go on  to suggest  an avenue  for a
further exercise in philosophical analysis (one of some importance).

          (i)The potted Wittgenstein

          The  picture  theory  defines a  sentence  as  a legitimate
         picture  when it  is an  `isomorphic representation'  of the
         state  of  affairs  which it  purports  to  describe.  For a
         sentence, A, to be an isomorphism of a state of  affairs, B,
         they must both be articulate fields (Stenius), ie. both must
         be a structured set  of individuals, a number  of properties
         defined  on these  individuals,  and a  number  of relations
         between them.  Two  such fields are isomorphic  with respect
         to a "key" which  establishes the isomorphism; the  key must
         respect categories, ie.  it must correlate  individuals with
         individuals and properties with properties.  The key remains
         the same for all sentences of the same language - indeed, it


                                 13

         is what (in a sense) characterises the language; it  is what
         one must know  in order to  understand the sentences  of the
         language. The theory does not hold that all sentences of the
         language  are  pictures  of  actual  facts,  but  that  TRUE
         sentences are isomorphic  representations of the  reality of
         which they speak.

          (ii)  relation  of  the  picture  theory  to truth-function
         theory

          (iii) Stenius on modal and descriptive components

          (iv) Hintikka on the Picture Theory:

          Hintikka has suggested several important  modifications and
         extensions to  the original Wittgensteinian  Picture Theory:
         He  modifies  the  category  criterion  mentioned  above  by
         pointing  out that  generally in  sentences  individuals are
         correlated  not with  real-world individuals  but  also with
         predicates. This is not really a category violation  when we
         realise  that what  really corresponds  to a  relation  in a
         sentence is not the word which is usually said to correspond
         to  it, but  rather the  relation-symbol and  its associated
         argument places. Isomorphism cannot apply  between relations
         except when  thair arguments  fill the  appropriate argument
         places.  This  is  pattern-matching of  a  simple  kind; its
         result is the  correlation of a  predicate symbol P  (with n
         argument places) with a predicate α(P) with the  same number
         of arguments.   This leads naturally  to a a  connexion with
         model theory which can be  made by asserting that "a  set of
         sentences, λ, is imbeddable in  a model set just in  case it
         has a model, ie. iff there is an articulate field and key(α)
         which maps  a set  of free  singulat terms  onto the  set of
         individuals in  the field, and  also maps all  the predicate
         symbols occurring in λ onto predicates of the filed, so that
         λ is true."  By virtue of the  fact that members of  a model
         set can stand for  themselves, model sets are  actual models
         of the state of affairs in which all their members are true.

          The problem, obviously, is the discovery of the key.  If we
         use  a  model set  as  a  model of  itself,  and  define the
         individuals of  the articulated field  as the  free singular
         terms occurring in the model set, then we have the field. It
         is  important  to  grasp that,  since  model  sets  are only
         partial descriptions of  worlds, they admit  the possibility
         that  the mapping  is a  homomorphism, in  that they  do not
         preent us with as a  single picture of the world.  They only


                                 14

         present us with a  set of alternative possibilities  at this
         stage.  Pinning  down  the  isomorphism  is   the  difficult
         exercise  which holds  the most  interest for  us. It  is of
         interest for two reasons: firstly, the discovery  that there
         may  indeed  be   sometjing  more  fundamental   than  logic
         (contrary to Tractatus 6.123 and Notebooks, p4) and secondly
         that we are led to a constructive (in the non-intuitionistic
         sense)  view  of  the  semantics  of  quantification theory.
         Compare  "If  one  thinks  of  sentences  as  directions for
         building  models,  their pictorial  character  becomes still
         clearer" (Phil.Bemerk.  )

          So  we  see  that   an  attempt  to  extend   the  original
         Wittgensteinian    picture    view    to    languages   with
         quantification leads to the realisation that model  set like
         descriptions are  no longer capable  of being  compared with
         reality in the straightforward way that W. envisioned  (" It
         is laid  against reality like  a ruler").  Rather model-set-
         like pictures  are compared with  reality in  a constructive
         kind  of way  - the  models are  (to use  Hintikka's phrase)
         "recipes  for   the  construction  of   pictures".   phrase)
         "recipes   for   the   construction   of   pictures".    The
         constructive techniques that we have talked about  above may
         form the beginning of  a development of this view.   From an
         exegetical  point of  view, it  may also  be a  clue  to the
         continuum of the early and late philosophies - by  virtue of
         the connexion between the Picture Theory and Language Games

          (vi) In the latter philosophy, W was concerned to point out
         what he regared as an error in his earlier view - the notion
         that the  primitives of  logic gain  their meaning  by being
         correlated in some way with sensible experience (or at least
         with the  denotation of  objects).  He  thought that  such a
         theory of meaning would  leave no place for  public criteria
         of the meanings of names. In the light of what has been said
         above both about  the descriptive/modal distinction  and the
         constructive nature of the  picture view, I want  to suggest
         that this was an over reaction, and that there is  a natural
         place in  our descriptive  metaphysics for  public criteria.
         But the  place is a  somewhat curious one.  In our  view, of
         course, there  is no real  problem of correspondence  of the
         models that divers people hold, for they are all represented
         within  the observers  model of  those models.  This  is, in
         abstracto, a highly solipsistic view of course, but  we can,
         if we wish temper it by allowing public criteria to enter in
         the guise  of experimental results.  This is really  an open
         question at the moment.


                                 15