World Model and Psychological Functions
In order to ensure orientation and adaptation in the real world, consciousness must construct a model of reality — a world model.
Using the language of formal system models, such as that of the RM-ODP standard, the world can be described through several basic elements: objects, their states, actions, and interactions. Objects have states; actions occur in time and can change states; states determine which actions are possible; interactions are actions involving two or more objects. An ordered sequence of actions is called a process.
Temporality as a Condition of Experience
The world exists in time.
Temporality manifests not only as change, but also as persistence.
To perceive the world, consciousness must:
- maintain the identity of objects and processes over time,
- register their changes.
These two aspects are not given in the same act of perception.
To perceive the wholeness of an object or a process, two distinct operations are required, each of which isolates only one aspect.
From this follow the first two operations: perception of invariants and perception of changes.
In order for these aspects of experience to be represented and used for orientation, operations of information formation and determination of meaning for the subject are also required.
Four Necessary Operations
1. Perception of invariants
In the flow of what is happening, there are characteristics that are preserved through change — invariants. These include, above all, the identity of objects, their self-sameness, as well as stable properties of objects and stable or recurring forms of processes.
Without identifying and maintaining these invariants in consciousness, the very objectivity of the world is impossible: objects cannot be recognized as existing and identical to themselves.
2. Perception of changes
Alongside stability, changes of states, new actions, and transformations of processes constantly occur in the world. Consciousness must register these changes and their direction; otherwise, the world disintegrates into static and isolated fragments.
3. Formation of information
Knowledge obtained through perception must be represented as information — in a form suitable for interpretation, processing, and communication. It is here that concepts, propositions, and models arise. They constitute a communicable representation of the content of experience, not the experience itself as such.
Without this, knowledge can neither be understood, nor used for action, nor integrated into interaction.
4. Determination of meaning
Consciousness must determine the meaning of what is happening for the subject.
Without this, neither choice nor action is possible.
Two Axes and Two Levels of Modeling
Invariants and changes are two aspects of time:
- an invariant is persistence over time
- a change is transformation over time
Thus, what emerges is not merely a list of four operations, but two axes and two levels of modeling:
temporality (two aspects):
- persistence (invariant)
- change
work with knowledge:
- information
- meaning
Psychological Functions
Knowledge of invariants and changes is knowledge of the two aspects of temporality.
Information and meaning make this knowledge usable for orientation and adaptation in the world.
These operations correspond to the four functions described by Carl Gustav Jung:
- sensation — perception of invariants
- intuition — perception of changes
- thinking — formation of information
- feeling — determination of meaning for the subject
Irrational functions (perception of invariants and perception of changes) operate on the temporal givenness of the world:
they perceive persistence and change.
Rational functions (thinking and feeling) operate on knowledge:
thinking brings it into a form suitable for communication and processing, feeling evaluates it.