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coberst
Skeptic Friend
182 Posts |
 Posted - 07/07/2004 : 03:12:41
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Paradigms
The study of brain is now at the same point as was the study of biology before Darwin. There is no paradigm of mind.
For anyone wishing to understand brain does this mean that we cannot go on? Does a lack of a paradigm halt all investigation by the laymen? Are we laywomen without recourse in our interest in mind? Must we fold our tent and go home until we are summoned forth with a paradigm in hand?
Let us examine the positive side of this matter. AD (after Darwin) students of biology merely go to school where a teacher will tell them all about the Theory. We will walk away from class with the knowledge of the paradigm and all of its associated algorithms. Haven't we, who come after the paradigm, missed all the fun? Haven't we missed the experience of learning for ourselves just how a paradigm is developed?
It seems to me that ‘brain' is a perfect place for us to develop an understanding of how a paradigm is born. It is a perfect place because each of us has our own private laboratory. Laboratories free of charge, without the expense of technicians, wherein we can develop our own hypothesis and test empirically the validity of that hypothesis. We can apply the scientific method on our very own theory. We need not mention our hypothesis to others until we feel confident that it has some value. We need not display our foolishness until our ego forces us to pronounce to the world our discovery.
With the existence of a paradigm the didactic teaching technique, which forms the foundation of our educational system, saves us all this effort.
We do not have to understand how assumptions are made and tested. We do not have to waste time imagining theories that, when compared to reality, are proven incorrect. We do not have to waste months of intellectual effort questioning our own inner reality to ascertain the structure of mind.
We do not have to read books written by authors working in fields of study that may help us in our lonely efforts. We do not have to suffer the solitude that is necessary for intellectual contemplation. We do not have to develop an understanding of how one goes about finding the logic of discovery. We do not have to read the experiences of other intellectual explorers looking for helpful hints. We do not have to read books about such discoveries as DNA, or Newton's discoveries, or Feynman's work on the inner world of the atom. We do not have to read the history of the development of Relativity.
With the presence of a paradigm a teacher can easily package all the necessary paradigms and algorithms that our chosen profession demands of us. Most important we do not need to waste time studying Critical Thinking so that we will have at hand the levels and plumb-bobs which make up the logical standards of cogent thought.
The paradigm and its associated algorithms allow us to continue our intellectual slumber.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2004 : 08:46:40 [Permalink]
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quote:
The study of brain is now at the same point as was the study of biology before Darwin. There is no paradigm of mind.
Show me some evidence that the brain and the mind (I assume your talking about conciousness here) are separate things.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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coberst
Skeptic Friend
182 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2004 : 12:47:14 [Permalink]
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I do not wish to claim that they are separate. Our culture is so influenced by Idealism philosophy going back to Plato I guess that we seem constantly to assume that there is a reality that is matter and a reality that is spirit. Certainly religios people belive that and the average guy may not express it that way but in fact the assumption of a spirit and a matter are part of Western culture.
This duality permiates all that we thing I suspect. If you talk with the average person they will display this assumption I find.
Even in my post I display this duality of which I certainly do not believe in a spirit world different to a physical world. One reason I posted this is I wished to point to this problem.
Any person who thinks there is a heaven or hell or a god certainly believes in a spirit world. As I understand almost everyone in American believes such things. |
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wajo
New Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2004 : 18:18:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
This duality permiates all that we thing I suspect. If you talk with the average person they will display this assumption I find.
This assumption is certainly part of our culture and I often find myself speaking in those terms, even though I don't believe in this duality. My son has autism and it seems clear to me that there is no aspect of his consciousness that is inextricable from the autistic hardwiring in his brain (so to speak). The impaired ability of autistic people to empathise, for example, strikes me as evidence that our spirit/consciousness is really just part of our grey matter! |
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