We formalize a theory of the subject by sketching a pragmatic functional hierarchy of sapient cognition. Our expanded framework attempts to articulate a normative understanding of discursive cognition by demarcating its functional propriety within a naturalist rejoinder, seeing in the functional development of cognition from pre-discursive to discursive abilities an increase and refinement in representational competence found in non-intentional systems. We therein explain how sapient cognitive systems not only engage in patterns of material and formal inference to map intensional relations between phenomena in nature through theoretical and practical reasonings, but also engage in practices of theoretical construction and systematic integration through techniques of formalization that make the unity of nature and thought progressively intelligible. We trace the development of mind in its representational function from barren discriminatory capacities, shared with inanimate objects, to complex theory-forming systematizing conceptual abilities enabling agents to theoretically map and intervene upon the world of which they are part, and to embed the informational indexes they register from the environment that makes globally explicit the objective modal structure of the world.

我们通过勾勒出智能认知的实用功能层次结构来形式化该主题的理论。我们扩展的框架试图通过在自然主义者的反驳中划分其功能特性来阐明对话语认知的规范性理解，在认知的功能发展中看到从前话语能力到话语能力的增加和改进在非故意系统中发现的表征能力。我们在其中解释了智能认知系统如何不仅参与物质和形式推理的模式以通过理论和实践推理映射自然界现象之间的内涵关系，而且还通过形式化技术参与理论构建和系统整合的实践，使统一自然和思想逐渐变得可理解。