Depth of Field

The human mind is a device for recognizing patterns - visual patterns, aural patterns, linguistic patterns, patterns of activities, patterns of behavior, logical patterns, and many others. Those patterns may be present in the world, or they may be imposed by the mind as an integrated part of our view of the world. Our actionable comprehension of the environment depends on the use of patterns to contextualize experience. Repertoires of patterns account not only for understanding, knowledge, judgment, memory and other aspects of efficient cognition, but also for our very ability to form true beliefs about the world. 

Patterns are configurations of elements and relations. When we are perplexed or stymied, the configurations that would yield understanding are in some way deficient or incomplete. Important elements or relations are missing from the picture. Our effort to comprehend the nature or import of a state of affairs lacks efficacy – it has no fruition in understanding or clarity. The situation ‘does not compute’. When the missing pieces are thereafter acquired and the resolving pattern emerges, the confusion dissipates.  

In general, the more numerous and varied the elements and relations an environment contains, the greater the range of patterns required to see any particular state of affairs with actionable clarity - that is, the clarity sufficient to achieve the purpose at hand.  In Pragmatica, 'depth of field' refers to a technique that enables this.