From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Sat Jul 23 2005 - 00:13:56 BST
Hi Paul, Ham, and all,
Ham said:
I think we are long overdue for an exploration of
Consciousness itself -- not in the collective or historical
sense, but as the uniquely human process we all
depend on to convert sensory awareness into our
tangible experience of the physical world.
Or, is that too much for a sometime dissenter to ask?
Paul replied:
No, it's not too much to ask, it just begs the question right from
the off, i.e. you make the assumption that proprietary intellectual
consciousness is something that is the direct result of a certain
level of biological sophistication, that e.g. a human born into
isolation or at any time or place in history would think and perceive
the same way we do.
ham 7-21-05:
You offer the example of "a human born into isolation". Do you
believe that thought (e.g., cognition and reasoning) cannot occur
without language or a cultural heritage? That the "isolated" human
being can only experience without thinking?
msh 7-21-05:
I won't speak for Paul, but I think you can answer this question for
yourself. Imagine an individual transferred straight from the womb
into a sensory deprivation chamber, to be kept there in total
isolation for 21 years. What sort of cognition or reasoning would
this individual be capable of upon release?
ham 7-21-05:
Putting it another way, is it your position that the
consciousness or mind of a human being is no more than a reflection
of his or her acculturation?
msh 7-21-05:
Again not answering for Paul, I'd say that this correct, which is not
to say that the behavior we associate with the presence of
consciousness or mind is forever FIXED by one's cultural environment.
People exposed to different ideas flowing from different cultures
will certainly be changed by such exposure. This is why, I think, it
is important to make available to everyone as wide a variety of
experience and information as possible, so that, as fully-realized
human beings, we might enhance, not hinder, our common evolution
toward Quality.
ham 7-21-05:
If it is your belief that the individual contributes nothing of his
own tosociety, how do you explain the intellectual advance of a
culture? Does one simply "tap into" a higher quality intellectual
stratum to form new thoughts? If so, where do you think this stratum
is, and who or what is the source of its intellectual knowledge?
msh 7-21-05:
Again not speaking for Paul, it's clear to me that an individual
isolated from experience, including interaction with other human
beings, would be a thoughtless lump of quivering hydrocarbons. No
brilliant insights, no great inventions, no cultural contributions of
any kind. Cultures and civilizations advance, to the extent that
they do, by virtue of the fact that they ARE cultures and
civilizations, that is, they are conglomerations of highly-
interactive people, all of whom, in a moral society, would be capable
of making quality decisions based on input from their environment.
The idea of the lone genius working away in isolation to make the
world a better place is pure Randian fantasy.
IMHO, of course.
Best,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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