Dichotomizing in RH

Root Hierarchy

The Root Hierarchy represents the core of the taxonomy. Everything in psychosocial reality flows from it. So divisions here would be expected to reflect perennial issues about human nature. The splitting in academic and philosophical debates typically ignores the internal levels. The mind or reality is presented as a polarity. The higher division supposedly represents mankind's superiority or higher nature.

Divisions

6+1 Split: Sapience Dimension
The Computational Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as mysterious and unknowable apart from tangible behavioral or biological data.

    Primal Need Psychosocial Pressure Varieties of Sapience
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Know-how
RL6 Purpose Governance Autonomy Moral judgements
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Meaningfulness
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-Being Self-awareness
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability Discrimination
RL2 Inquiry Knowledge Certainty Knowing for sure.
        Choose from the 6 knowing orientations on offer:
RL1 Action Achievement Performance Using knowledge

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Mentality v Functionality i.e. mental states v doing
also:
Mind v Machine i.e. information and pattern v physical mechanism
Consciousness v Behaviour i.e. mysterious mind v sensori-motor output
Responsibility v Instrumentality i.e. judgement v activity
Independence v Agency i.e. freedom to orient v capacity to act

This is the division emphasized by biologists, neuro-physiologists, hard data empiricists and behaviourists, most philosophers and many AI investigators. In practice, it is the approach that reduces man to a machine as in assembly-line work.
ClosedMore

Action and performance are viewed as a matter of sensory input and motor (behavioral) output. So they are "easy" to understand. What is not so clear is "the mind" that seems to control action and has experiences. This mind is typically not disambiguated into its levels.

The simplest approach is evident here. It recognizes that the brain deals in information and signals. These are not only abstract, but do not depend on any particular substrate—they could just as easily occur in a computer. Because information can have pattern and organization, it becomes a natural candidate for being "the mind".

This computational approach is labeled in philosophy as the functionalist solution to the mind-brain problem. It has become a core principle for cognitive neuroscience research. It has a long history, stemming at least from Newell and Simon (1976) who asserted the equivalence of mind with the manipulation of abstract formal symbols.

5+2 Split: Rationality Dimension
The Representational Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as an instrument for evaluating and representing a situation prior to any inquiry or action on it.

    Primal Need Psychosocial
Pressure		 Varieties of
Modelling
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Working models
RL6 Purpose Governance Autonomy Systematized models
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Paradigmatic models
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-Being Internal models
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability Persuasive models
     Choose from the 5 models on offer:
RL2 Inquiry Knowledge Certainty Using a preferred model.
RL1 Action Achievement Performance

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Reflection v Execution

This is the division emphasized by planners, therapists, social architects and others who reject the simplicity of data or brute facts.

4+3 Split: Dynamic Dimension
The Evolutionary Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as an instrument of personal growth that must accept that basic functions must persist.

    Primal Need Psychosocial
Pressure		 Varieties of
Development
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Spiritual development
RL6 Purpose Governance Autonomy Ethical development
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Social development
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-Being Egotistic development
    Choose from 4 evolutionary possibilities on offer:
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability Focus on safety from danger.
RL2 Inquiry Knowledge Certainty
RL1 Action Achievement Performance  

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Thriving v Surviving i.e. developing the self v continuing existence
also:
Significance v Safety i.e. developing meaning v surviving
Subjectivity v Objectivity i.e. personal controls v situational demands
Development v Preservation i.e. drive to grow v drive to maintain
Flourishing v Functioning i.e. enriching focus v situational fitness

Humanistic psychologists focused on growth needs, self-actualization and transcendent values like this division. Gordon in integrative Neuroscience writes: The brain's overarching principle is to classify the world around you into things that either hurt you or help you stay alive i.e. it deals with safety.

Positive psychologists, sociologists, mentors promote significance, while Darwinian biologists and cognitive behaviorists take evolution for granted.

3+4 Split: Organisational Dimension
The Social Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as a product of social life and individuals have to fit into various groups.

    Primal Need Psychosocial
Pressure		 Varieties of
Group
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Humanity
RL6 Purpose Governance Autonomy Structured Group
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Informal Network
     Choose from the 3 groups on offer:
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-Being Individuals constituting a group
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability
RL2 Inquiry Knowledge Certainty
RL1 Action Achievement Performance

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Group v Individual
also:
Transcendence v Actualisation: Submission of self v Assertion of self.
Aspiration v Implementation:
Ideality v Reality:

Legislators, political scientists, ethicists, humanitarians and sociologists focus on the upper section and assume personal functioning in the lower section must be shaped, managed or controlled for the good of all.

2+5 Split: Reality Dimension
The Control Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as existing to modify reality.

    Primal Need Psychosocial
Pressure		 Varieties of
Reality
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Control over reality
RL6 Purpose Governance Autonomy
    Select from the 5 approaches to reality on offer:
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Conformist
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-being Subjectivist
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability Perspectivist
RL2 Inquiry Knowledge Certainty Speculative
RL1 Action Achievement Performance Practical

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Energy v Existence i.e. the vitalizing forces v the stuff of life
also:
Direction v Participation i.e. why anything happens v how anything happens
Potentials v Actuals i.e. hopes for endeavour v phenomena of endeavour

The upper section is preoccupied with control over reality, while the lower section is where reality is defined and truth is determined, differently in each level.

1+6 Split: Power Dimension
The Enlightenment Model of the Mind

Here the mind is viewed as entangled with existence such that self and other cannot be separated out.

    Primal Need Psychosocial
Pressure		 Varieties of
Entanglement
RL7 Willingness Effectiveness Selflessness Power to transcend limits and entanglements
    Choose which of the 6 forms of entrapment to escape from:
RL6 Purpose Governance
 Autonomy Entangled by values and cultures
RL5 Communication Association Understanding Entangled by societies groups, and networks
RL4 Experience Individuality Well-Being Entangled inside oneself
RL3 Change Fitness Acceptability Entangled by models, paradigms mindsets.
RL2 Inquiry Knowing Certainty Entangled by existing knowledge
RL1 Action Achievement Performance Entangled by courses of
action

Dichotomy Conjecture:  

Spirit v The World
also:
Freedom v Obligation

This division is emphasized by existentialists, spiritual leaders, libertarians, heroes advocating the upper division, while the man in the street and bureaucrats remain in the lower division.

Summary of Splits

In these splits, the "mind" is allocated to the upper section, which means it is viewed very differently according to the model in use.

Split Model of the Mind Emphasized
Dimension 		Revealed Phenomena
Upper v Lower
6+1 (between L2 & L1) Computational Sapience Mentality v Functionality
5+2 (between L3 & L2) Representational Rationality Reflection v Execution
4+3 (between L4 & L3) Evolutionary Dynamics Thriving v Surviving
3+4 (between L5 & L4) Social Organisation Group v Individual
2+5 (between L6 & L5) Control Reality Energy v Existence
1+6 (between L7 & L6) Enlightenment Power Spirit v The World

 

Originally posted: 30 Nov 2013. Updated 6-May-2026.