More Philosophy of Mind
The Interpretation of Texts, People and Other Artifacts, here.
Evolution, Teleology, Intentionality. Here.
Evolution, Error and Intentionality. Here.
The Origins of Selves, here. Excerpt:
The original distinction between self and other is a deep biological principle; one might say it is the deepest principle, for biology begins in self-preservation--in the emergence of entities (the simplest replicators) who resisted destruction and decay, who combatted, at least for a short time, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and passed on their capacity to do this to their descendants [...]
Our human environment contains not just food and shelter, enemies to fight or flee and conspecifics with whom to mate, but words, words, words. These words are potent elements of our environment that we readily incorporate, ingesting and extruding them, weaving them like spiderwebs into self-protective strings of narrative. Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control, and self-definition is not building dams or spinning webs, but telling stories--and more particularly concociting and controlling the story we tell others--and ourselves--about who we are.
Now we are ready for the strangest idea in my talk, but also, I think, the most important: there is a further similarity between the spiders, the beavers, and us. Spiders don't have to think, consciously and deliberately, about how to spin their webs; that is just something that spider brains are designed to get spiders to do. And even beavers, unlike professional human engineers, do not consciously and deliberately plan the structures they build. And finally, we, (unlike professional human storytellers) do not consciously and deliberately figure out what narratives to tell and how to tell them; like spider webs, our tales are spun by us; our human consciousness, and our narrative selfhood, is their product, not their source.
Learning & Labeling. Here.
Evolution as Algorithm - the Ultimate Insult? Here.
Did HAL Commit Murder? Here.
Quantum Incoherence. Here.
Wired for Sound. Here.
Evolution, Teleology, Intentionality. Here.
Evolution, Error and Intentionality. Here.
The Origins of Selves, here. Excerpt:
The original distinction between self and other is a deep biological principle; one might say it is the deepest principle, for biology begins in self-preservation--in the emergence of entities (the simplest replicators) who resisted destruction and decay, who combatted, at least for a short time, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and passed on their capacity to do this to their descendants [...]
Our human environment contains not just food and shelter, enemies to fight or flee and conspecifics with whom to mate, but words, words, words. These words are potent elements of our environment that we readily incorporate, ingesting and extruding them, weaving them like spiderwebs into self-protective strings of narrative. Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control, and self-definition is not building dams or spinning webs, but telling stories--and more particularly concociting and controlling the story we tell others--and ourselves--about who we are.
Now we are ready for the strangest idea in my talk, but also, I think, the most important: there is a further similarity between the spiders, the beavers, and us. Spiders don't have to think, consciously and deliberately, about how to spin their webs; that is just something that spider brains are designed to get spiders to do. And even beavers, unlike professional human engineers, do not consciously and deliberately plan the structures they build. And finally, we, (unlike professional human storytellers) do not consciously and deliberately figure out what narratives to tell and how to tell them; like spider webs, our tales are spun by us; our human consciousness, and our narrative selfhood, is their product, not their source.
Learning & Labeling. Here.
Evolution as Algorithm - the Ultimate Insult? Here.
Did HAL Commit Murder? Here.
Quantum Incoherence. Here.
Wired for Sound. Here.
posted by John Aristides at 3/04/2006 11:48:00 AM
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