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Object of the mind
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An object of the mind is an object which exists in the imagination, but can only be represented or modeled in the real world. Some such objects are mathematical abstractions, literary concepts, or fictional scenarios.
Closely related are intentional objects, what thoughts and feelings are about, even if they are not about anything real (such as thoughts
about unicorns, or feeling of apprehension about a dental appointment which is subsequently cancelled).
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Encyclopedia
An object of the mind is an object which exists in the imagination, but can only be represented or modeled in the real world. Some such objects are mathematical abstractions, literary concepts, or fictional scenarios.
Closely related are intentional objects, what thoughts and feelings are about, even if they are not about anything real (such as thoughts
about unicorns, or feeling of apprehension about a dental appointment which is subsequently cancelled). However, intentional objects can coincide with real objects (as in thoughts about horses, or a feeling of regret about a missed appointment).
Mathematical objects
Mathematics and geometry describe abstract objects that sometimes correspond to familiar shapes, and sometimes do not. Circles, triangles, rectangles, and so forth describe two-dimensional shapes that are often found in the real world. However, mathematical formulas do not describe individual physical circles, triangles, or rectangles. They describe ideal shapes that are objects of the mind. The incredible precision of mathematical expression permits a vast applicability of mental abstractions to real life situations.
Many more mathematical formulas describe shapes that are unfamiliar, or do not necessarily correspond to objects in the real world. For example, the Klein bottle, is a one-sided, sealed surface with no inside or outside (in other words, it is the three-dimensional equivalent of the Möbius strip) Such objects can be represented by twisting and cutting or taping pieces of paper together, as well as by computer simulations. To hold them in the imagination, abstractions such as extra or fewer dimensions are necessary.
Logical sequences
If-then arguments posit logical sequences that sometimes include objects of the mind. For example, a counterfactual argument proposes a hypothetical or subjunctive possibility which could or would be true, but might not be false. Conditional sequences involving subjunctives use intensional language, which is studied by modal logic
, whereas classical logic studies the extensional language of necessary and sufficient conditions.
In general, a logical antecedent is a necessary condition, and a logical consequent is a sufficient condition (or the contingency) in a logical conditional. But logical conditionals accounting only for necessity and sufficiency do not always reflect every day if-then reasoning, and for this reason they are sometimes known as material conditionals. In contrast, indicative conditionals, sometimes known as non-material conditionals, attempt to describe if-then reasoning involving hypotheticals, fictions, or counterfactuals.
Truth tables for if-then statements identify four unique combinations of premises and conclusions: true premises and true conclusions; false premises and true conclusions; true premises and false conclusions; false premises and false conclusions. Strict conditionals assign a positive truth-value to every case except the case of a true premise and a false conclusion. This is sometimes regarded as counterintuitive, but makes more sense when false conditions are understood as objects of the mind.
False antecedent
A false antecedent is a premise known to be false, fictional, imaginary, or unnecessary. In a conditional sequence, a false antecedent may be the basis for any consequence, true or false.
The subjects of literature are sometimes false antecedents. For example, the contents of false documents, the origins of stand-alone phenomena, or the implications of loaded words. Also, artificial sources, personalities, events, and histories. False antecedents are sometimes referred to as "nothing," or "nonexistent," whereas nonexistent referents are not referred to.
Art and acting often portray scenarios without any antecedent except an artist's imagination. For example, mythical heroes, legendary creatures, gods, and goddesses.
False consequent
A false consequent, in contrast, is a conclusion known to be false, fictional, imaginary, or insufficient. In a conditional statement, a fictional conclusion is known as a non sequitur, which literally means out of sequence. A conclusion that is out of sequence is not contingent on any premises that precede it, and it does not follow from them, so such a sequence is not conditional. A conditional sequence is a connected series of statements. A false consequent cannot follow from true premises in a connected sequence. But, on the other hand, a false consequent can follow from a false antecedent.
As an example, the name of a team, a genre, or a nation is a collective term applied ex post facto to a group of distinct individuals. None of the individuals on a sports team is the team itself, nor is any musical chord a genre, nor any person America. The name is an identity for a collection that is connected by consensus or reference, but not by sequence. A different name could equally follow, but it would have different social or political significance.
Philosophy of mind
In philosophy, mind-body dualism is the doctrine that mental activities exist apart from the physical body. In The Concept of Mind, Gilbert Ryle characterizes the mind in relation to the body as the ghost in the machine, contrary to the argument posited by René Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy. The 'ghost' is the imagined identity of the bodily 'machine,' which, Ryle argues, consists of individual parts none of which is the purposed identity.
In the argument of Descartes, the mind is held to be real because personal identity cannot be a deception. Ryle compares individual identity to a university. A university is composed of many buildings and offices, but none of them is the university. Similarly, an individual person is composed of limbs and a torso and a head, but none of these pieces is the person's identity. Identity may be located in the brain, or it may not be. Individual identity is like collective identity in the respect that it follows by some association, but not necessarily by sequence. On the other hand, identity may begin as a consequent and become antecedent to further inclusions of individuals.
Invented sources
Many objects in fiction follow the example of false antecedents or false consequents. For example, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is based on an imaginary book. In the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's characters name the Red Book of Westmarch as the source material for The Lord of the Rings, which they describe as a translation. But the Red Book of Westmarch is a fictional document that chronicles events in an imaginary world. One might imagine a different translation, by another author. The Princess Bride, similarly, claims to be an abridgment of a book by the same name, written by the fictional S. Morgenstern.
The Necronomicon is a book invented by H. P. Lovecraft as an important document in his stories. His characters use it for special purposes, and often quote excerpts from it. But the excerpts refer to an imaginary source. The Necronomicon, and similar books, also appear in many other stories by other authors in the Cthulhu Mythos. They are open-ended books which new authors might add new chapters to, but they are not real books.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an electronic book for documenting the whole Galaxy, in the novel of the same name by Douglas Adams. In that story, the characters use the Guide as a reference book. Therefore, the quotes from it accurately reflect the content of that book in the story. There was no such book prior to Adams quoting it. But, an ongoing project known as h2g2 also references the same Hitchhiker's Guide.
At the time that The Hitchhiker's Guide was invented, an electronic book was an object of the mind. Douglas Adams wrote a whole radio series and several books about an electronic book, before any real electronic books actually existed. This object of his mind may have predicated the real invention.
Quotes and excerpts from imaginary sources are unlike references to extant sources in that the references themselves comprise the only extant material available from imaginary sources. Imaginary sources cannot be looked up in the real world or checked for accuracy, aside from consulting the author who made references to them. They can, however, take on a life of their own. Conversely, extant referents exist distinctly apart from the references to them, but they do not have any independent existence.
A stand-alone copy is an image of a computer program which runs independently of an interpreter. In the anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 'stand alone complex' refers to copycat crimes with no original criminal. Like the image of the executable, the copycat crimes now exist independently of any source. It is a metaphor for phenomena with imaginary origins that take on a life of their own.
Convenient fictions
Social reality is composed of many standards and inventions that facilitate communication, but which are ultimately objects of the mind. For example, money is an object of the mind which currency represents. Similarly, languages signify ideas and thoughts.
Objects of the mind are frequently involved in the roles that people play. For example, Acting is a profession which predicates real jobs on fictional premises. Charades is a game people play by guessing imaginary objects from short play-acts.
Imaginary personalities and histories are sometimes invented to enhance the verisimilitude of fictional universes, and the immersion of role-playing games. In the sense that they exist independently of extant personalities and histories, they are believed to be fictional characters and fictional time frames.
Science fiction is abundant with future times, alternate times, and past times that are objects of the mind. For example, in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, the number 1984 represented a year that had not yet passed.
Calendar dates also represent objects of the mind, specifically, past and future times. In The Transformers: The Movie, which was released in 1986, the narration opens with the statement, "It is the year 2005." In 1986, that statement was futuristic. During the year 2005, that reference to the year 2005 was factual. Now, The Transformers: The Movie is retro-futuristic. The number 2005 did not change, but the object of the mind that it represents did change.
Deliberate invention also may reference an object of the mind. The intentional invention of fiction for the purpose of deception is usually referred to as lying, in contrast to invention for entertainment or art. Invention is also often applied to problem solving. In this sense the physical invention of materials is associated with the mental invention of fictions.
Convenient fictions also occur in science.
Science
The theoretical posits of one era's scientific theories may be demoted to mere objects of the mind by subsequent discoveries: some standard examples include phlogiston and ptolemaic epicycles.
This raises questions, in the debate between scientific realism and instrumentalism about the status of current posits, such as black holes and quarks. Are they still merely intentional, even if the theory is correct?
The situation is further complicated by the existence in scientific practice of entities which are explicitly held not to be real, but which nonetheless serve a purpose — convenient fictions.
Examples include magnetic centrifugal force, lines of force, centers of gravity, and electron holes in semiconductor theory.
Self-reference
A reference that names an imaginary source is in some sense also a self-reference. A self-reference automatically makes a comment about itself. Premises that name themselves as premises are premises by self-reference; conclusions that name themselves as conclusions are conclusions by self-reference.
In their respective imaginary worlds the Necronomicon, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the Red Book of Westmarch are realities, but only because they are referred to as real. Authors use this technique to invite readers to pretend or to make-believe that their imaginary world is real. In the sense that the stories that quote these books are true, the quoted books exist; in the sense that the stories are fiction, the quoted books do not exist.
Undecidability
In some cases, truth is itself an object of the mind. In particular, the truth or falsity of certain logical or mathematical propositions is formally undecidable.
According to the incompleteness theorems of Kurt Gödel, a countable set of consistent axioms cannot prove or refute a contradiction among themselves, or prove their own consistency. A contradiction among truths in a theory cannot be decided in the theory, but might be decidable in a broader theory. Axioms themselves are unprovable in their own theory, and only a broader theory can prove their consistency.
In formal logical systems, truth is what is assumed to be true, axiomatically, and undecidability is a common feature. Similarly, truth within fictional scenarios is consistency with the assumptions of the fiction. Nor can a contradiction of fictional assuptions be decided within the fiction.
Further considerations
Many other examples of objects of the mind exist, and each in its own way poses questions about truth, falsehood, reality, fiction, and imagination. The many unique modes of expression available to human beings permit us to sample a universe wider than the world of our personal experiences and immediate sensations.
See also
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