Function F and the Basics (reconstruction efforts)
Note: A member found this on his hard disk and asked me to repost it. Despite my hesitancy, his humor convinced me to go ahead and do so.
Function F and the Basics
There are so many misconceptions as to just what F is.
Out of frustrations, I finally sat down to do my best to explain F.
I extended my explanation of F to include some of the basics.
If you have any questions, by all means ask. I can't clear anything up if I don't know where the confusion lies.
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From birth (or before) on, our neurons connected into networks. Neural connections are created by sensory experiences - seeing, touching, tasting. Forming and reinforcing these connections are the tasks of early brain development. If the synapses (connections) are used repeatedly, they are enforced. If they are not used repeatedly, they become eliminated. In this way, experience places a crucial role in the "wiring" of our brains.
This network of connections will be referred to from here on as our own personal "web" (usually just web).
So, we have our sensory experiences, and we have our web.
No matter what we do, our senses and our web come into play. It's the senses that see the color red, a truck, and a rose...whether it's out in the real world, or an image in our mind's eye...it's our web that tells us that the red truck and the red rose are linked in some way. We don't even have to be aware of how the truck and the rose are linked together.
So, in essence, our web makes connections, ties things together, sees possible consequences/results (predictions), and meaning. We may or may not even be aware that we are working from a web. But this, I believe is the direction we are being pointed to when given the term "internal qualities".
Our sensory experiences, I believe is the direction we are being pointed to when given the term "external qualities".
We have the abilities to focus on and/or trust in the sensory information we are given, the objects/connections within our web, and/or the abstracted form of each of those.
F has been defined as being made up of "internal qualities" and "involvement". This suggests to me that F is a .....direct link....to our web. F is vaguely aware of the various objects/connections within the web...but, it's as if they are caught up in the web. Much like the spider's prey that has been caught in it's web, the more it moves, the more caught up in the web it is. Since the web is so knotted up and connected in various ways, one small movement can tug the individual from various directions. Without external form, it is considered implied information. F tends to assume that others have similar connections and/or tugs.
N has been defined as being made up of "internal qualities" and "abstraction". This suggests to me that N is when we put our focus into/onto the objects/connections brought up to our direct awareness from our web. We can go searching about for information from the web, we can deliberately attempt to add to the web, delete from the web, and modify the web. We can even temporarily look at aspects from another person's web. But this is being done without really giving form to the focus. Without external form, it is considered implied information. They tend to assume that others are capable of or have abstracted the same as them.
S has been defined as being made up of "external qualities" and "involvement". This suggests to me that S is our most direct link to the outside world. S is aware of the various objects/connections sensed from "reality". S does not abstract so therefore does not itself think/observe reality, it instead experiences it. They tend to assume that others experience it as well.
T has been defined as being made up of "external qualities" and "abstraction". This suggests to me that T is the form which we give to N and/or S (or place them into). T is far removed from the involvement within our webs (F), though it CAN utilize the web, it does so in a round about way. T is utilized when we attempt to use verbal/written language, write/draw models, and construct models. T assumes that others formulize information the same as them.
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Accepting and Producing are defined in Rick's site http://www.socionics.us/ as:
accepting: ability to reflect or "photograph" and reproduce information of a certain kind
producing: ability to produce new things of a certain kind based on information from the preceding accepting function.
Using the information above, and the concepts of accepting/producing, we are capable of figuring out the basic information systems of the following types: NF, FN, NT, TN, ST, TS, SF, FS
An example of the above may be:
The NTp takes abstract implications and attempts to formulate something from it
The NTj takes a form/formula and attempts to abstract the implications of it
***
These systems can be further divided by introducing the concept of object vs field. (it can also be split up using the static/dynamic dimension, giving similar result, though differing basic definitions/descriptions)
Object and Field have been defined as:
object: Things that can be observed, studied, and discussed apart from the subject (This could include concepts, people, places, things, actions, etc. The "parts" being included.)
field: Interrelationships between objects (This can include any aspect of an object which can only be discussed by relating it to another object, interactions between objects, and even stuff like the similarities/differences between objects.)
If each of N, S, T, and F are further divided by object/field, then we get what socionics calls "Functions". If these functions are arranged according to the concept of accepting/producing, then we can figure out the more detailed information systems of the following types: NeFi, NiFe; FeNi, FiNe; NeTi, NiTe; TeNi, TiNe; SeTi, SiTe; TeSi, TiSe; SeFi, SiFe; FeSi, FiSe