Hi Platt, It was a great paper. I find such an article like manna falling from the heavens. It is my understanding that the MoQ is best understood as a bridge between Western Science and Eastern Wisdom, and this paper read from a MoQ'er point-of-view pulls so much together.
Marsha On Aug 21, 2010, at 5:22 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Hi Marsha, > > The "Sensory Cognition" paper you posted can be easily translated into a > Pirsigian value orientation without any change in its meaning. In fact, the > changes add to its meaning in a profound way. For example, I've substituted > some value terms in the fourth and fifth paragraphs (in caps): > > > On 21 Aug 2010 at 16:00, MarshaV wrote: > > Marsha: > Maybe James had some insights, but I hope you have not missed the paper I > posted the other day. It is very modern and up-to-date (2004): > > Sensory Cognition > > It appears then that the objects of our sense organs are not really objects > at > all; they only appear to be. This is tellingly illustrated in experiments > tracing people´s eyes as they scan a photograph. The eyes do not dwell on the > "objects" in the picture, but VALUE their outlines, where the greatest > contrasts lie. As Gregory Bateson (1979, 107) explains, "the end organs [of > sense] are thus in continual receipt of events that correspond to VALUED > outlines in the visible world. We VALUE distinctions; that is, we pull them > out. Those distinctions that remain WITHOUT VALUE are not." This then > suggests > a third point: that our everyday awareness of the world, what we see and hear > and touch and smell, critically depends upon the VALUE distinctions our sense > faculties are capable of "MAKINGˇ" -- indeed, the world ordinarily only > appears > in the forms VALUES MAKE. > > In this sense, cognitive awareness is both categorical and constructive. > First, > the receptor neurons of the sense organs, according to cognitive scientist, > Christine Skarda (1999, 85), are "VALUE -specific in terms of their response > characteristics. Each VALUES maximally (i.e. with a burst of intense > electrical > activity) to a specific type or class of stimuli,ˇ such as certain > wavelengths > or intensities of light, temperature, sound, etc. Even putatively "pure > sensationsˇ" depend upon the elementary schemas that constitute the VALUE > responsive structure of the sense organs. This initial process, however, only > yields isolated neurological signals that at this stage do not yet amount to > VALUED objects or characteristics. > > No problem for we Pirsigians in this "scientific" description of perception. > It > jibes nicely with his premise that the world is not made up of subject and > objects, but rather consists of a structure of values. > > Platt > > > > 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/md/archives.html ___ 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/md/archives.html
