Platt to Ron: We can only infer from behavior if a living entity has a sense of self. There isn't much evidence that a worm thinks of itself as a self like we humans do, but its behavior suggests that it, like us, has a sense of self- preservation.
Andre: Hi PLatt and Ron: just itching for this one so forgive the intrusion. I think there is a difference between having an idea/sense of self and a concomitant sense of self-preservation within this context. The human sense of self requires ( I think) two things: cognition and time. Thought and time go together. However, this still does not answer the query fully and I am thinking of Pirsig suggesting that: 'The intelligence of the mind can't think of any reason to live ( i.e.to preserve itself),..but...the intelligence of the cells can't think of any reason to die" (Lila, p 203) I doubt if the worm has 'cognition' or a sense of 'time' (in its human/social understanding) . It doesn't need it. It is a perfect part of nature the same as plants and animals and all other organic level creatures. They live in (most times) very cruel ( according to human pov's) harmony. It is when one reaches the social level that things begin to change...very radically..in terms of 'self','identity','time' etc, etc....indeed Platt,ignorant of about 99 percent of it ...we only guess and hope... . IMHO, Andre, back to bed!! Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
