At Sat, 23 Jan 1999 22:58:00 EST, you wrote:
>
>In a message dated 1/23/99 7:39:53 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
><< Go back and read the existentialists and the phenomenologists, and meditate
>on the significance of self-consciousness, which is what makes all of "this"
>possible, and see if you can revise your dogma in light of further
>understanding. >>
>
>If reading old pedants is what is necessary to Dullen my sensitivity towards
>life, and necessary to prevent my own thinking, no thank you.
One can see farther when one stands on shoulders; this does not mean one apes others'
perspectives, but that one becomes aware of them, does a "wheat and chaff" to
appropriate what is useful, and discards the rest. If you seroiusly try it, you might
find that far from dulling your critical faculties, that these cognitive tools might
indeed facilitate a sharpening of your sensibilites and introduce needed subtlety into
your ability to recognize existent distinctions.
>The existentialists and phenomenologists were human racists as well, largely
>unfamiliar with biology, and therefore all their conclusions regarding what is
>truly human are suspect.
One cannot read Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Aron Gurwitsch or Jean Piaget and still
honestly maintain this.
YOU might do well, however, to read Gurdjieff, and
>realize how truly Rare this "self-consciousness" you worship is .. don't
>flatter humanimals by assuming they are constantly in this mode .. it's more
>rare than is assumed .. and I'm not certain it's anything to really brag
>about .. note the relationship between "self-conscious" and "awkward" .. the
>best way to throw a tennis player off is to draw attention to hir move ..
>the "unconscious" does quite fine .. (that which we call "unconscious") ..
>the unconscious does fine in other animals as well, and it is true that their
>experience thereof is modified differently, as our experience is modified by
>linguistic-social structures as well ..
>
Unable to eliminate the obvious and considerable difference, you resort to belittling
it (at your computer keyboard, no less!).
>Regarding "dogma", I assume you're placing yourself in some privileged
>position above all that .. given that you're the one who continually has to
>repeat to yourself that "animals are not people" like some formulaic mantra..
And you formula is: Choose One
(1) Animals are people
(2) Animals are better than people
You have mantrically repeated both of these ad nauseum in multifarious variations. At
least there is a culture-load of evidence for mine (plus I understand cross-breeding
has not yet been fruitful).
Joe E. Dees
Poet, Pagan, Philosopher
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