Hi Fred,
Where did you read or heard that »you act to control what you perceive«. Find me please. But you can find anywhere that you act to affect your perception. If you already read article »50th Anniversary«, look in the diagram. You find only word effects«. There is »input quantitiy«, that is affected with output, and so on. Nowhere »control«.
Best,
Boris
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From: Fred Nickols [mailto:fred@nickols.us]
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2015 1:29 PM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Declaration of Independence
[From Fred Nickols (2015.09.21.0722)]
We act to control what we perceive.
What we control are our perceptions. When it comes to purposeful, intentional acts, what we want to control is the object of our perceptions, some variable “out there.” Let’s call it X.
For some practical purposes we can treat X and perceptions of X as though they are one and the same. For other, equally practical purposes, we dare not treat those two impostors the same.
I want X to be in a certain state. I act. My perceptions inform me if I succeeded. As a control system, all I can do is control my perceptual input, my perceptions. As a purposeful human being, my perceptions serve to inform me whether or not I succeeded, that I did or didn’t control X.
What seems to be missing from PCT is me. Those are my goals. Those are my actions. Those are my perceptions. That is my world.
What, then, is the difference between X and my perception of X? Very little as far as I can see. And, for practical purposes, next to none.
I hereby declare my independence of and lack of interest in discussions regarding the control of X or the control of perceptions of X.
Regards,
Fred Nickols, CPT
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