In the previous post, potential was reframed as readiness: a situated, directional, and constrained field of possibility.
We now begin to differentiate readiness into its two dimensions.
This post focuses on the first: inclination.
Inclination is not intention
Inclination is often confused with intention, desire, or belief.
This is a mistake.
Inclination is not a mental state and it is not representational.
It is a dispositional weighting of possible actions and responses.
An actor may feel drawn toward speaking, holding back, aligning, resisting, or withdrawing — often prior to, or even without, explicit articulation.
Inclination operates beneath explanation.
What value systems are (and are not)
Value systems are frequently treated as systems of meaning: collections of norms, principles, or beliefs that actors interpret and follow.
This framing obscures their actual operation.
Value systems:
do not interpret,
do not explain,
do not contain semantic content.
They act by shaping inclination.
Value as pressure on readiness
Biological and social value systems exert pressure on readiness:
increasing the likelihood of some responses,
decreasing the likelihood of others,
making certain actions feel urgent, risky, or intolerable.
A flinch, a hesitation, a surge of urgency — these are not meanings.
They are inclination effects.
Social value without meaning
Social systems coordinate behaviour by modulating inclination:
approval and disapproval,
inclusion and exclusion,
reward and deprivation.
These mechanisms do not require interpretation to function.
An actor learns, through repeated interaction, which moves are supported and which are punished — not as propositions, but as altered readiness.
Meaning may later be recruited to articulate or negotiate these pressures, but it does not generate them.
Obligation revisited
Obligation is often treated as a rule or a moral command.
Here it can be understood differently.
Obligation is the felt pressure of inclination under constraint:
the sense that one must respond,
the difficulty of doing otherwise,
the costliness of refusal.
No representation is required.
Obligation is a pressure gradient in the field of readiness.
Why this matters
Locating value systems on the side of inclination allows us to:
preserve the non-semiotic status of value,
explain obligation without rules,
understand constraint without coercion,
avoid collapsing social force into meaning.
It also prepares the ground for a complementary move.
Looking ahead
If value systems act on inclination, then meaning systems must act elsewhere.
The next post will show how meaning systems shape ability — what actors are capable of doing semiotically — without compelling action or guaranteeing uptake.
Post 3: Ability Without Obligation — What Meaning Systems Enable will take up this task.
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