Chapter 2 ~ HOMUNCULI

...wherever a theory relies on a formulation bearing the logical marks of intentionality, there a little man is concealed. — Daniel Dennet, 1978

This chapter:

• Investigates the appearance of the homunculus throughout history, both admitted and inadmitted, both in the humanities and the sciences.
• Homunculus is a postponement of the explanation. Exposing the homunculus: nothing gets explained but the trick itself
• For Deacon, the homunculus is the cogito in cogito, ergo sum
• Examines a number of historical concepts that describe how we came to be
• Using a homunculus as a marker or placeholder is OK - as long as you don't forget it
• Begins the process of identifying and differentiation the living from the non-living

From the Incomplete Nature glossary:

Homunculus: Any tiny or cryptic human-like form or creature, something slightly less than human, though exhibiting certain human attributes. In recent scientific literature, “homunculus” has also come to mean the misuse of teleological assumptions: the unacknowledged gap-fillers that stand behind, outside, or within processes involving apparent teleological processes, such as many features of life and mind, and pretend to be explanations of their function

From Wikipedia: Homunculus

Homunculus (masculine, Latin for "little man", plural: "homunculi"; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Popularized in sixteenth century alchemy and nineteenth century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions. Currently, in scientific fields, a homunculus may refer to any scale model of the human body that, in some way, illustrates physiological, psychological, or other abstract human characteristics or functions.

Explanations: [page:Homunculus Homunculus]

1 THE LITTLE MAN IN MY HEAD - p46

This section:

• Introduces the homunculus with a parable of the little man in your brain
• Skinner's Behaviorism: an early attempt to 'dehomuncularize' psychology
• Homunculus is a postponement of the explanation
• Exposing the homunculus: nothing gets explained but the trick itself

Key words: Osmosis Jones, homunculus, BF Skinner, behaviorism, homunculus fallacy[argument], Wizard of Oz,

Topics covered: psychology, humanities

Parable: If there is the little man that looks like Einstein standing at a control panel inside the brain, then there would have to be a little man inside his head. p45-46

Homunculus: a form of explanation offering a mechanistic account of some living or mechanical phenomena, but instead only appeals to another cryptically equivalent process at some lower level. p46

Lower level components are often no simpler. Recursion is not an answer. The use of an homunculus postpones the full analysis. p47

B F Skinner and Behaviorism: motivation: avoid mental concepts in explaining why we act the way we do. Invoking mental states, such as beliefs and desires, assigns major parts of the explanation of human behavior to unobservable and unanalyzed causes. p47

B F Skinner and Behaviorism: first attempts designed to avoid the homunculus fallacy - though their cure worse than bite. p48

Familiar example of an homunculus : Wizard's image in Wizard of Oz. p48

Exposed homunculus: reveals little, but leaves you wiser. Nothing gets explained but the trick itself

2 HOMUNCULAR REPRESENTATIONS - p48

This section:

• Homunculus has long history in both humanities and science
• Homunculi as maps. Territories and maps are not the same. The map is a representation and needs an interpreter.
• Preformationism - the form was already present in some minimal way. But where did the minimal form itself came from?
• The homunculus is the cogito in cogito, ergo sum

Key words: homunculus, preformationism, map-like patterns, Christof Koch, Francis Crick, Samuel Butler / erewhon, Aristotle, entelechy, vitalism, Hans Driesch, élan vital

Topics covered: humanities, biology, philosophy

The term homunculus ('little man') has a lengthy history. p50

Homunculus in:

• Humanities : tends to mean slightly less than human - p50
• Science: tends to mean preformed in minimal way/indicate preformationism - p50

Preformationism - the form was already present in some minimal way, offered a materialist/mechanistic solution to development. p50

But: does not answer where the minimal form itself came from. p50

Neurologists create images that map the brain to specific regions of the body. p50

Maps are representations not the territory. Similar but not intrinsically meaningful. The 'reader', is extrinsic. p51

We need to know about the process of interpreting. Homunculus are unacknowledged gap-fillers. Can impede our efforts - p52

Koch and Crick / Butler Erewhon: invoke an homunculus. p52

Homunculus ancestors were the gods and fairies. - p53

Homunculus in science today leads to misleading explanations, gap-fillers that obscure, gremlins that mask - p53

Aristotle's notion of entelechy - a formative principle that tends to realize itself - goal-directed. p53

Vitalism / élan vital are homucular at their core - p55

Homunculus is:

• Descarte's cogito
• the rational principle
• One's conscience
• One's inner voice
• many other descriptions to be added here...
• The property that distinguishes the living from the non-living

The thing that the homuculus has is that it has a life of its own. p55

3 THE VESSEL OF TELEOLOGY - p55

This section:

• Homunculus: a marker for what is not known. Homunculus = 'black box'
• Homunculus too easily forgotten

Key words: homuculus, [page:Ententional Ententional], final cause

Topics covered: philosophy

The homunculus is a challenge for science. It is the marker for what is not there, the ententional. p55

Homunculus not recognized, hidden, forgotten - not recognized for being placeholders This tendency perhaps derives from the familiarity of also not knowing the thoughts and motivations of the people around us. p56

The ententional gets forgotten. p56

The incredible shrinking homuculus. Science provides more & more mechanistic explanations. Extrapolate and the homuculi all get replaced by complex mechanical explanations. [Go to zero?] p56

Why do ententional explanations tend to get eliminated?

Teleological explanations point to a locus or origin but leave the mechanism of causal efficiency incomplete.

This it is difficult to ascribe energy, materiality or physical extension to the ententional. p57

In this age of 'life is just chemistry', there is still no explanation on the origins of life and consciousness. Saying there are explanations is premature. p57

The homunculus symbolizes what science still cannot explain. The 'black box'. They are markers and can offer clues. p58

4 HIDING FINAL CAUSE - p58

This section:

• Homunculus is placeholder for 'Final Cause'
• Use the homunculus wisely, Luke...

Key words: Aristotle, final causality

Topics covered: philosophy

In history: the homunculus is a placeholder for Aristotle's 'final causality'. p58

All designed objects exist in futuro and are thus incomplete. p59

Final causality is logically incoherent. Thought is a possible future and has no material existence - and is essentially homuncular. p59

Today, in science: The term homunculus has become pejorative - often applied to errors in thinking.

But it is OK to use the homuculus, provisional homunculi, as a marker for unfinished business. - as long as there is full disclosure, recognized for what they are, and slated for replacement ASAP. p60

5 GODS OF THE GAPS - p61

This section:

• Intelligent Design = the untouchable homunculus
• Homunculi are everywhere

Key words: Intelligent design, Evolutionary biology, Homunculus argument, Molière

Topics covered: humanities, philosophy

Intelligent Design(ID) - inherits homunculus assumptions. p61

ID: certain structures are irreducibly complex. p61

If the mechanistic theory is incomplete, should you bring in the humunculi? p61

ID:the black box you are never allowed to open. p62

Allow the demons to enter and science falls apart. p62

People mix the incompatible. Homunculi get smuggled in. p63

Homunculus argument: ententional property presumed to be explained by its existence and its inexplainability. p63

Molière/La Malade Imaginaire: Homunculus not an explanation, but an evasion. p64

6 PREFORMATION AND EPIGENESIS - p63

This section:

• Pre-Darwin: The develpment of cell form prior to Darwin revolved around preformationism and epigenesis
• Post-Dawrin: covers Haeckel
• All of these, fallacious and oversimplified, were steps towards the understanding we have today.
• The development of form is now seen as patterns of embryo geometry, changes in gene expression influencing that geometry in multiple cycles of interaction
• The information to create an organism is recreated with every new organism

Key words: Epigenetics, Preformationists, Élan vital, Sensationalism [Sensualism?], Erasmus Darwin, Jean-Baptiste Lamark, Charles Darwin, Ernst Haeckel

Topics covered: biology

History of theories of the development of cell form

Preformationist: material / at least some form of form is present from the get-go. p64

Epigenisis: intangible / form not materially present at conception. Form acquired and shaped by some intangible influence. p64

Arguments against epigenesis: p65

1. If the form is not located within the gamete, there where is it?
2. If the for is not intrinsic, then how does the same species keep making the same species?

Arguments against Preformationism: Which came first? The chicken? Or the egg? p65

Erasmus Darwin: Sensationalism - form came from the environment/the womb - another aborted theory. p66

Lamark offered a middle ground: plans of cell were inherited, but modified by circumstance. p67

Darwin's natural selection: added tweaks and disembowels the concept of preformation. Offers a homunculus free theory of cell-development.

But natural selection has little to say directly about the development of cell form.

Ernst Haeckel postulated: p67

1. The current generation's stages built upon/added to the previous generation's stages - fallacious
2. The rediscovery of genetic basis for biological inheritance - oversimplified

Present considerations on the development of form

Both concepts contributed to the progress in our current understanding of cell development, p68

The term Epigenesis now used to describe extragenomic contributions to cell form. p69

The information to create an organism is recreated each time a new organism comes into existence. p69

7 MENTALESE - p69

This section:

• Universal grammar = mentalese = homunculi
• Universal grammar = map != territory
• Shifting burden of explaining intentional language to non-intentional brain structures is back-breaking.

Key words: Universal grammar, Noam Chomsky, Steve Pinker, Roger Bacon, William of Occam, Jerry Fodor

Topics covered: linguistics, philosophy

Noam Chomsky/Universal grammar: may be a homuncular theory. p69

Language is dependent on structures in the brain that are much older than the brain. p70

- and it may not be the only game in town.

Universal grammar: It's a map, not the territory itself. p70

Pinker (also Bacon, Occam and Fodor): 'mentalese' is a homunculus. p71

By ignoring the problems of explaining the representation and interpretation, these theories shift the mysteries of language from psychology and linguistics to evolutionary biology and neuroscience. But language has intentional properties, whereas brain structures do not. p72

8 MIND ALL THE WAY DOWN? - p72

This section:

• Examines various aspects of panpsychism - the view that all matter has a mental aspect - [everything is cogito?]
• Most such theories fail because they cannot account for organic versus inorganic
• Others requires extrinsic factors/observers
• The probability that we exist is highly unlikely - looking at the anthropic principle
• The only way we can exist is because of basic intrinsic tendencies in basic physical processes
• - as proposed but incompletely described by Alfred North Whitehead

Key words: Stephen Hawking, 'turtles all the way down', Panpsychism, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Seth Lloyd, Anthropic principle, Alfred North Whitehead, Prehension, Concresence

Topics covered: philosophy, cognitive science

Parable: 'But it's turtles all the way down! p72

Panpsychism - attenuated mental attributes inherently everywhere. A vestige of mental phenomenology is present in every event, suffused through the cosmos. p73

Can ententional phenomena be viewed as panpsychic? p73

Bohr: events lack existence unless they are observed. p73

Seth Lloyd: universe as an immense quantum computer. p74

Computation began with the Big Bang. p74

Lloyd uses restricted definition of information. p75

Anthropic principle - we are here only because a handful of physical constants are precisely balanced and tuned p76.

There could have been many other failed universes/Big Bangs. Or the universe might be self-organizing. p76

Whitehead/Prehension - processes with tendencies. p77

Whitehead has some good bits - but does not explain the difference/the separation between organic and inorganic. p78

Panpsychism does not well explain how the processes of life and mind differ so radically from the rest of physics. p79