1. I create lists, hierarchies for personal growth, commitments... I systematically break down existence into what I believe I need for that growth, for a good life, but the more bullet points I add, the more I need, until I've suddenly realized how far away from the truth I have strayed, and so I add yet another bullet point to bring me back. At this juncture, I wonder if the paragraph is not a more appropriate tool than bullet-point methodology.
I propose that so long as I use a bullet-point scientific method to choke my weaknesses, to systematically develop myself, I will fail. Not because they are not necessary, but the balance is wrong, there is insufficient actual striving, too little time spent away from the glow of technology...
2. If axioms of geometry (and further, any "laws" of science) are understood to be neither true nor false, but advantageous, this does not suggest that all theories fall into such a category (ie advantageous). In order to be able to solve a problem, the axiom must be "able." Much like a movement in parkour, used to solve a "problem," there may be no "better" movement," only a more advantageous movement dependent on the context of purpose (e.g. flight, flash, freedom, grace, elegance, etc)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Contentions with Psychology as a Discipline
It is a worthy and necessary task, to better understand my own discomfort with "psychology." This will point towards a clarification of psychology and differentiate it from the psychology of the masses. When I can reflect and contemplate, the dynamic processes of mind, culture, development, growth, and existential meaning can be more accurately intuited.
I've given up for long enough, I've had my rest. Fervid, I can return to my determination, to apply my mind to the questions of life, which are desecrated by "psychology" and it's gross simplification of existence.
This is my frustration with psychology, as elucidated by Phaedrus:
"he could think of possible way he could tell them what they should work toward without falling back on didactic teaching. But how can you put on the blackboard the mysterious internal goal of each creative person?"
Indoctrinating children with the social norms of our society may be an adequate lifestyle for the "psychologists" with which I work, but it is neither adequate for me nor deserving of the term "psychology." Psychology is an exploration of the intimate questions of the mind, it is critical and profound. It is not rote repetition. Perhaps it is satisfying for these others, but my own needs for understanding are greater.
The most pressing question perhaps: How to elicit the best in and empower others, socially, psychologically, physiologically... Rather than judging them by perceived weaknesses.
I've given up for long enough, I've had my rest. Fervid, I can return to my determination, to apply my mind to the questions of life, which are desecrated by "psychology" and it's gross simplification of existence.
This is my frustration with psychology, as elucidated by Phaedrus:
"he could think of possible way he could tell them what they should work toward without falling back on didactic teaching. But how can you put on the blackboard the mysterious internal goal of each creative person?"
Indoctrinating children with the social norms of our society may be an adequate lifestyle for the "psychologists" with which I work, but it is neither adequate for me nor deserving of the term "psychology." Psychology is an exploration of the intimate questions of the mind, it is critical and profound. It is not rote repetition. Perhaps it is satisfying for these others, but my own needs for understanding are greater.
The most pressing question perhaps: How to elicit the best in and empower others, socially, psychologically, physiologically... Rather than judging them by perceived weaknesses.
Monday, January 4, 2010
re: Consciousness (The Monk and the Philosopher)
Is it possible, perhaps, that the emergence of a "consciousness" that can override the emotional drives by means of ration and thought (and applying these to the more dominant, primal, and base force of emotion) is the fruit of evolutionary process? I wonder if it is perhaps an adaptive mechanism that allows the organism to more efficiently manipulate the environment as well as the self.
How does consciousness promote the evolution of the organism? Through creativity and rationality and society. It grants the organism the ability to suppress desires when those desires may inhibit the organism. Consciousness is the breeding ground for rationality. Without consciousness, there can be no evaluation nor judgement in abstracted terms of variables. Things can only be defined as good or bad given the evaluation of their immediate impact on the immediate sense of emotion.
I believe this perspective is able to reconcile a significant debate within the scientific community regarding the nature of consciousness, specifically the question of its existence as anything more than an epiphenomenon. Reductionists have claimed that consciousness cannot be more than epiphenomenon. I believe that the above argument provides substantial basis for believing not only that consciousness exists, but also that it has
How has consciousness come about? Perhaps the various neurological underpinnings which give rise to consciousness have been selected for by the evolutionary process as any other inherited trait. Perhaps consciousness lends a significant evolutionary advantage to its alternative.
Furthermore, it is important to understand the primary force of consciousness as the ability to suppress desires dictated by the emotional circuitry of the brain. The so-called "free will" has humorously been refered to as "free won't." By systematically avoiding certain desires, behaviors, and thoughts, we are capable not only of shaping the immediate situation, but of patterning ourselves neurologically. By refraining from a particular negative thought, we eliminate it's circuitry in the brain. Similarly, y refraining from a particularly negative addiction, we eliminate the reward circuity it has develop in the brain, and then replace it with a stronger capacity for determining our own actions.
These thoughts are a response to "The Monk and the Philosopher." Conceptual influences from Antonio Damasio's "Looking for Spinoza" and Jeffrey Schwartz's "Mind and the Brain."
How does consciousness promote the evolution of the organism? Through creativity and rationality and society. It grants the organism the ability to suppress desires when those desires may inhibit the organism. Consciousness is the breeding ground for rationality. Without consciousness, there can be no evaluation nor judgement in abstracted terms of variables. Things can only be defined as good or bad given the evaluation of their immediate impact on the immediate sense of emotion.
I believe this perspective is able to reconcile a significant debate within the scientific community regarding the nature of consciousness, specifically the question of its existence as anything more than an epiphenomenon. Reductionists have claimed that consciousness cannot be more than epiphenomenon. I believe that the above argument provides substantial basis for believing not only that consciousness exists, but also that it has
How has consciousness come about? Perhaps the various neurological underpinnings which give rise to consciousness have been selected for by the evolutionary process as any other inherited trait. Perhaps consciousness lends a significant evolutionary advantage to its alternative.
Furthermore, it is important to understand the primary force of consciousness as the ability to suppress desires dictated by the emotional circuitry of the brain. The so-called "free will" has humorously been refered to as "free won't." By systematically avoiding certain desires, behaviors, and thoughts, we are capable not only of shaping the immediate situation, but of patterning ourselves neurologically. By refraining from a particular negative thought, we eliminate it's circuitry in the brain. Similarly, y refraining from a particularly negative addiction, we eliminate the reward circuity it has develop in the brain, and then replace it with a stronger capacity for determining our own actions.
These thoughts are a response to "The Monk and the Philosopher." Conceptual influences from Antonio Damasio's "Looking for Spinoza" and Jeffrey Schwartz's "Mind and the Brain."
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