From: Steve Peterson (peterson.steve@verizon.net)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 13:06:12 BST
Hi Rich, Platt,
I think it would be correct to say that the human brain evolved from a
reptilian brain that is based on reflexes and instinctive behavior that
regulates bodily functions (doesn't learn very well) still present in our
brains as the brain stem, to a lower mammalian brain that preserves the
functionality of the reptilian brain while adding the capacity for emotions
(limbic system), to our more advanced brain that includes a neocortex as
well as the other parts adding the functionality of manipulating symbols
that stand for patters of experience. (At least the Wilber book I'm reading
says something like that.)
So, I think you are correct to say that emotions are closer to direct
experience than thoughts are. Experience occurs in the same evolutionary
order as described above. Thoughts do come last. Reflexive responses come
even before emotions. Before a reflex, the brain receives sensory data.
But the Quality event is before the emotional response and before the
reflex. It is the Experience that provides the experience (sensory data).
Once the brain has sensory data to process, that which is experienced and
the one doing the experiencing (subject and object) have already been
differentiated.
Platt, when you say, "Experience (Quality) is always the primary context.
Thus, truth is experience-dependent, experience being the germinal context
from which all other subsidiary contexts (such as historicism) are derived,"
I'm not sure I understand what you are referring to. If you mean experience
*of* something, you aren't talking about the Quality event. These
"experiences of" occur within specific contexts. Truths that we can write
down describe "experiences of" not Experience and so are context dependent.
Regards,
Steve
Rich said:
> Yeah Platt, consciousness. That makes sense, because when your conscious you
> can experience things, and when your unconscious, like knocked out or asleep,
> you can't. This thing about directly experiencing is more akin to emotions
> than rational thought though, no? You experience emotions before thought and
> this is very much like experiencing Dynamic Quality before static quality. The
> Dynamic Quality is primary to static quality, just like emotions are primary
> to thought. I read an article in Parade magazine a couple weeks ago where it
> talked about emotions being processed first in the limbic system and some part
> of it called the amygdala, an almond shaped thing in the brain, being
> important to processing emotions. Only later (not real long, like a second)
> does the frontal cortex get involved and thoughts emerge. Perhaps all this
> metaphysical talk about Dynamic Quality being primary to static quality is
> really a natural outcome of the way the brain works.
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