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Emergentism or Projectionism?"Emergentism (is) the view that properties of complex systems are emergent from theproperties of their constituents, being unpredictable from and irreducible to theircombinations".^^Emergentism is a term applied to complex behaviours and is used to explain,amongstother phenomena,the mind.The paradigmatic example of this found in nature is whenstarlings fly in formation,each concerning only itself and their closest neighbour.What weget is the wonderful displays of aeronautical precision of sometimes thousands ofbirds.Together they share a certain purpose which they achieve through exhibited anddirected behaviour.Humans also engage as groups in organisations etc where we workingtogether direct towards certain goals by way of complex behaviours which they directtowards purposes.I believe that Emergentism does not accurately represent the actual phenomena and Iwish to offer a second.But why is a word important? Words having certainmeanings,semantic representations,which I will show can effect our behaviours and howwe perceive the world.Recent studies in behavioural economics have revealed that language can influence ourbehaviour and how we perceive the world.The Germanic based languages with its futureterms save (in monetary terms)less than there non-future-term language based countriessuch as China**.Mandarin places more emphasis on the present.The future is alwayslinked to the present now.The very words used influence their and our behaviours.TheAustralian Aboriginal native language speakers are another group that we can see clearlythe language used influencing behaviour.They do not use terms such as

front,back,left,right,in giving directions.They use the points of a compass.So they may walkNorth North East from a point before turning West West.The use of these words is enoughof a nudge to enable them to think in a certain way which makes them better navigators ofthe open plains of the outback.(or the local supermarket!)What does this have to do with emergentism?What image does this word conjure in themind?For me it is of an old film which has a monster 'arise' out of a swamp!He is not of the swamp but something extra and unique from the swamp.I will show thatthis is in fact how the word has historically been understood in Mind studies[though withoutthe monster perhaps(or the swamp!)].The image associated with that word is what helpsestablish,and represents the meaning.Now if there is something which has 'arisen' from

simple parts to exhibit the complex behaviour the mind achieves,there must be required amethod of the complex to interact with the simple otherwise the experience of consciousagency shall be an illusion.The idea that the complex is causally closed is known asEpiphenomenolism. Backward causation was posited though recently the philosopherJaegwon Kim has shown this as unworkable with the mind.But why was emergentism firstsuggested and how else can we explain the behaviour?Our current conception of the mind has been inherited from the philosophy ofDescartes.He asks in his Meditations to consider imagining that we are being deceived byan evil demon as to the external world.Recent work has suggested that we could be a'brain in a vat'! Both these fancies rest on the intuitive conception of there being mentaland physical properties,with the former being non-spatial.We can imagine the mindexisting out of the body.But can we really imagine that?

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The recent work in embodied cognition has the whole body with brain interacting with theenvironment.We are chemical processes and biology,both of which are extended in space.We communicate with and in the world as the world communicates back its presence.Weare just as much that Nature which we take as facing us,as are coal mines and cities.What emergentism seems to rest on is an atomistic approach to percieving the

world.However if we are to define the system as a whole,which it seems we must(therecan be no above the sum of the parts breaking conservation laws)then there is no arising.Itis simply that certain arrangements 'project' certain behaviours with direction.As I writethis now meaning is being projected onto a screen.I am not composing a sentence ofwords in my mind before typing.There is a general message I wish to get across,themeaning projected out in propositions.These propositions made of words are a semanticrepresentation-a representation of my meaning.I can read a book and not remember asentence(just me perhaps!),though I have taken the semantic representation from thatbook and store that representation in memory which I may reinterpret and/or use in orderto direct certain purposes.What we have in these previous cases, and seemingly with ourSelf's,is certain behaviours being projected with direction,and I believe this also to be thecase with the mind.I feel it better represents the meaning of what is exhibited:What is infact the case.(And if we can find another word which represents more accurately themeaning to explain the same phenomena we will be better equipped in order that we maylearn and understand our subject matter).But what are we projecting from?We seem to experience projecting in to the world from aSelf or 'I'.The Self is thought of as a model,most recently in the work of the philosopherThomas Metzinger and in Social psychology which they showed by experiment,is partlylinked to how we perceive ourselves in mirrors.They also posit schematic models such asthe role,person,script schemata.These models represent knowledge of aspects of our

lives,they have certain meanings.We use these as a backdrop of information from whichwe project certain behaviours applicable to the given circumstances.The semanticrepresentations of these models we reference in order that we are better able to navigateand communicate with the world.(This is how our memories are stored with some words/representations available to several models)(Also with the groups we engage in,westrive towards a certain purpose as represented in adiscourse.Discourses are models* which we use to achieve a common goal[s] or interpretour positions in the world) *actual terminology from Discource TheoryAnd so now with this redefinition I hope it is seen that backwards causation is not requiredin order to escape epiphenomenolism.For me,both intuitively and with the knowledge of

the above,it seems a more accurate description of what we observe and experience.Our languages are important.We cannot afford ambiguities lest it lead us intoparadox.Words come loaded with certain connotations,the meaning derived in relation withother words which together form propositions.The meaning of words evolve in a historicalprocess,some less than others.Reinterpretation of these words and propositions is crucialfor present understanding and explanations.These very words and propositions howeverenable our very possibilities. (A quick summary : meaning is representation.Words and propositions represent someactuality of our world,imply certain presuppositions to be made and beliefs to beadopted.We use this representation in order to better navigate through time in ourworld.Models,which can be found as a discourse,can be composed of manyrepresentations which together form a semantic representation(s) of the whole.These

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provide goals to be achieved as we access,interpret and project a behaviour towardsachieving that goal(s).In order that we can be correctly informed we require accuratelanguage.As we progress through history we must reinterpret our language in the light ofever new data.)^^ Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy**http://www.ted.com/talks/keith_chen_could_your_language_affect_your_ability_to_save_money.html