Larding below!
Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ -----Original Message----- From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of glen ep ropella Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 2:18 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] FW: Meat On 10/28/2015 12:05 PM, Nick Thompson wrote: > Now, how similar is your behavior in regard to climate change to the decision-making patterns you describe here. I don't understand the question. How similar is my behavior is to my decision-making? That's so over-loaded with implications I can't think straight. 8^) First, what I tried to describe was my behavior, not my decision-making. Your question not only implies that I failed in that, but that there's a difference between decision-making and behavior. Decision-making and behavior are the same thing. [NST==>Gak! Words fail! Sorry! I agree there is no difference between decision making and behavior. No failure implied. <==nst] Second, it's not clear that anything I do can affect climate change at all. Or, let me put it another way. There are things I can control (like voting, calling a representative, arguing in bars, drinking out of reusable containers, etc.). But the connection of any of those things with climate change is tenuous. So, when making my decisions (i.e. behaving) I rely on _lots_ of broad spectrum inputs, parallax, not merely climate change ... not a single input. My decisions (voting, getting to-go beer in a growler, etc) are all multiply and heterogeneously justified. Hence it's misleading to impute a single cause for any given behavior/decision. [NST==>Well, remember Glen. I am a rank Deweyan. I think that people can and ought to discuss and argue, decide, and act concertedly. One thing that stands in the way of that is the notion that I cant do anything about climate change. I mean isnt politics just the aggregation of individual opinion in the service of concerted group action? <==nst] [NST==>Ok, you are forcing me to own up to my basic question. Why do people who disagree with one another bother to talk? What is the good in that? I assume its because we are striving for the non-zero-sum gains of concerted action. Also, there is some evidence, I gather, that involving more than one person in a decision actually improves the quality of the decision. <==nst] > Also: turn your analytic skills on what you are doing here. Is it REASONABLE. Is it REASONING. Is it EVER reasonable to change your individual behavior on the basis of a population average? Well, like a broken record, there is no "reason" independent of my biological milieu. I think that implies the answer to your question is "of course". If my biology is driven by, say, the trace minerals in my tap water, and most people in my city drink the same tap water, then of course, it's reasonable to assume we'll change our behavior _toward_ a population average ... probably the same reason we all react to "house music" or fruit. You may _say_ you don't like fructose ... but that highlights the ambiguity in "like", not the biology that processs it. [NST==>Oh, gosh! I am beginning to see how naïve (and perhaps unbehavioristic) my question is. Does it boil down to, Are reasons ever causes. Crap! Back to freshman philosophy. <==nst] But if your question is intended to invoke the deus ex machina, where _thought_ (esp. a single thought) is the causa prima for action, then absolutely NO. That never happens in me and I deny that it happens in you or anyone else. [NST==>WE absolutely agree on that, and I should be pistol-whipped for straying from that fundamental notion. <==nst] -- glen ep ropella -- 971-255-2847 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
