On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 7:11 AM, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <[email protected]> wrote: > [Mark] > Certainly, a focal point of attention helps us perform tasks, but what do you > think the rest of the brain is doing during this time, standing idly by? > > [Arlo] > You really are trapped on the biological level, as now you seem to equate > "thinking" with the neurological activity of synapse firing.
[Mark] Well, I have to admit that I am a biologist with training in neurochemisty. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that nerves must be firing for thinking to happen. This has resulted in the absurd extension where if a person is "brain dead" they are considered to be dead. Nothing could be farther from the truth imo. My equation is simply one of underlying cause, there is, of course, no way to relate such firing to our personal thinking. This is because a non-material entity is involved. Again, if I am trapped, what are you? > > "Thinking" is the manipulation of abstract symbols representing some > experiential value. We may not always think in "words", but we always think > via > some semiotic code; aka "language". [Mark] No, here you are speaking of the Intellectual level, not thinking. Sorry but you seem to be mixing things up here. We think mostly outside of language, but I am having this discussion with Marsha if you want to listen in. Believe me, I have studied this in academia (for what it is worth). > > This does not deny a certain pre-intellectual awareness, an aesthetic > "abduction" (as Peirce would say), a sympathetic intuition (paraphrasing > Einstein), but when you "think" you manipulating symbols. [Mark] Well here we are just mincing words. What for you is pre-intellectual awareness? Again, I have spent some time in this forum discussing this, but I would like your input. Is Einstein referring to sympathy, or the sympathetic system as it exists in neurology? Symbols are not necessarily words. They can be color or abstract numbers or a wide variety of things. Words are the property of the Social Level, not the intellectual. There are two different things going on here. > > "Thinking" is much more than "neural activity", or nerve signal transmission. > > I would really encourage you at this point to forgo reading structuration > theories, and instead read Helen Keller's The Story of My Life. > [Mark] I will give it a try, it may improve my awareness. I have read Helen Keller. I would suggest you read a short book by Donna Williams called "Autism, the lost art of sensing". It is all about how we are guided away from dynamic quality into the adult world of static quality. > "I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or > sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! > give > me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me > in that very hour. ... I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool > something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, > gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were [pre-language] barriers > still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away." (Keller) > [Mark] It is hard to project into somebody elses life, but do you think that such freedom come from awareness of the Social Level? Kierkegaard calls them Leaps. Once the leap is made, it is very difficult to reverse direction. Cheers, Mark > > 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
