|
|
|
Sunday, March 22, 2009 |
|
Thursday, February 27, 2020 8:49:00 AM |
4,225
[0.43% of all post / 1.06 posts per day] |
|
Romany wrote:Yep - one look and you can tell he's a smooth operator!
LOL not quite Rom, also Alba
|
|
Thank you for the update Oscar.
|
Alba is a smooth collie!
|
hedy mmm wrote:Hi L.Rai,
I agree, people don’t use common sense...duh!
Yeah they really don't, I mean people eat table salt all the time and it obviously contains two deadly poisons. I mean sodium explodes in water and chlorine, while great for making your whites whiter, is deadly when inhaled!
|
“There is a powerful force within us, an unilluminated part of the mind – separate from the conscious mind that is constantly at work molding our thought, feelings, and actions.” Sigmund Freud
Ashwin Joshi wrote:What does " an unilluminated part of mind" mean here?
Freud had an intuitive but uniformed grasp of several behavioral characteristics of the mind/brain; however, as there was so little information available to him, at the time, of its actual structure, function, and evolutionary history, his conjectures of causation are largely erroneous.
It seems Freud imagined that outside of the awareness of consciousness or even what consciousness could be aware of, in other words, "an unilluminated part of mind", there was a behavior generating force that mimicked the type of illusory behavior generation we wrongly ascribe to consciousness.
The simple answer is when he says, "an unilluminated part of the mind" he is referring to processes of mind that we are not aware of.
|
Great topic Hope, This issue has been on the periphery of my mind for some time, specifically the point about the possibility of a much greater degree of consciousness in some animals than previously thought. I am not at all current on the research into this issue and only know of a few examples that I am only vaguely aware of, so I did a search on "evidence of consciousness in animals". One of the first results I got I think would be an excellent starting point for investigating the issue.
Animal Consciousness: Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Haven't read it yet gotta go to work but I sent myself the link so I can read it on my downtime today.
|
I remember how excited I was to find this forum, a place to test some of the ideas I have developed over the last 30 years, well 20 years then, away from an academic environment. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who used to find those conversations interesting have indeed disappeared, some probably due to age but, others I think since the general tone of the forum has changed. I really think politics should have never been allowed on the forum in the first place. I still try to get conversations going about issues I care about and look forward to ones that I can contribute to; however, there seem to be less of those as time goes by.
I miss a lot of the old members and their toasters. One of my favorite moments was when we were discussing the meaning of various members' screen names and I told Luftmarque I thought his referred to flying German currency.
|
sufall wrote:
And what I understand is that the idea that the invention of paternity testing could (maybe in time) help in getting rid of the need of men to subjugate women is void. If the main idea is to make women reliant on men so that men can force a choice of gene selection on women is still relevant and will not go away... This is sad...
That would indeed be a sad state of affairs Sufall and I don't know at this point in our cultural coevolution whether it is likely to change. For this or any of the other chains that bind humanity to mindless coevolutionary forces to be broken, a significant portion of the population must first acknowledge that those chains exist. In order to do that not only would that portion of the population have to fully acknowledge that evolution occurred, but that modern human behavior at both the individual and cultural level are the result of evolutionary forces. Unfortunately, that information is not widespread, nor part of any regular primary education system's curriculum that I am aware of.
There is a very readable primer available on the subject of behavioral genetics and I highly recommend it, "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. First published in the late 70s it is a masterful work detailing the implications of evolutionary theory on the development of modern human behavior. It is a fascinating read, and although sobering, and humbling, it is also empowering. The second edition is far more expensive than the first, however, for an introduction and actually thorough treatment of the issue the first addition serves well enough, in my opinion.
sufall wrote:There still is some hope, of course, because as you noted "nothing in individual human behavior let alone cultural behavior is this simple" - cooperation is always better and more efficient than suppression, and cooperation is a key feature in human evolution, right?
The advent of cooperation is a major development in the evolutionary history of not only humans but many species and it is an incredibly powerful adaptation but I think to say it is always better is an overreach but that is very strictly speaking from a rigorous perspective. In the context of this discussion yes, definitely cooperation is not only better but in my opinion critical to the adaptive development of the species.
There is still hope? Well, honestly I can only hope so. As a species we seem to be foundering in adolescence and reaching maturity does not seem to be as sure of a thing as I once thought. The only hope I see is in a significant portion of the population coming to an understanding of the true nature of homo sapiens and use that understanding to overcome behavioral strategies that are no longer adaptive; whereas, it appears that there are forces at work which are informed by this understanding and are using it for the manipulation of the population for the benefit of a minority.
ETA It turns out a later edition is available even cheaper, it had been a while since I'd checked. Here is is.
|
Oh I see, thank you. Well I can say from my days as an evangelical Christian that in general humanism is regarded as heretical by evangelicals.
Quote:Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good. American Humanist Association
I was going to say you don't have to go far to see why at this site as this quote is right at the top of the page but, it turns out you don't even have to go that far. Their Logo...
From an evangelical's perspective and belief set, there is no good without their God.
Quote:Isaiah 64.6All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Quote:Romans 3:10-12As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
The doctrine is commonly referred to as total depravity and the concept is antithetical to humanism.
|
High Hope! I haven't read this article yet but I think one of the best reviews of the strengths of capitalism, as well as the gross dangers of unrestrained capitalism, was the History channel series "The Men Who Built America".
It's available on Amazon Prime video at that link there is a seven day free trial and is only 8 episodes.
|
|