Bringing Back the Self
Thus, we sought to fix the modeling relation by putting the self back into the model. Rosen started with a natural system. Instead of a natural system, in our revised approach we are going to refer to an “external item”. Our goal is to create a model of that external item which allows us to deal with its complexity or gives us the belief that we can deal with the complexity. We need to believe we can cope, to refer back to that Rorty quote. Such beliefs are of course dependent on self and context. Rosen then tells us that one needs all four elements (external item, self, context, and model) in order for the model to in fact function as a model, and that one needs to make explicit recognition of the four. The problem with the chart above is that it starts in the wrong place. We need a chart which starts with self.
