Jonathan, 3WD, Bo, and Group,
I think that the idea of Intellect as Planning can be broadened to see a
bigger picture. Planning is a part of the intellectual process which, for
convenience, I have divided into 5 stages:
1. STIMULUS
2. INTERPRETATION (processed through existing intellectual patterns
(schemata: re: my previous MF post) often with sensory information)
3. CONFLICT? (if 'no' then end of process. if 'yes' then go to stage 4)
4. PLANNING (intellectualize - conceptualize)
5. ACTION (realize)
(At stages 2 thru 4, there is the ever-present threat of emotional
interference (SPoV).)
Here are two examples of this 5 step process, one involving a human being,
the other a dog...
Example A
STIMULUS: A child comes across a patch of ripe blackberries while out
playing one summer day.
INTERPRETATION: He remembers when he was a toddler, his mother picking one
of these berries and placing it in his mouth. "It was delicious. These
berries look bright and shiny just like back then. They'll be great to
eat!"
CONFLICT: "But I'm not hungry right now. What should I do?"
PLANNING: "I know, I'll pick a whole bunch, and keep them in the old bath
tub outside our house. Then eat them later."
ACTION: He picks the berries and stores them in the bath tub.
Example B
STIMULUS: A dog comes across a bone while out playing one summer day.
INTERPRETATION: Woof! Woof!
CONFLICT: Grrrrr!
PLANNING: Yap!
ACTION: He digs a hole and buries the bone.
In Example A, the story may have continued thus:
"We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not."
(from "Blackberry-picking" by Seamus Heaney)
The poet is surely using his license in the last line: a reasonably
intelligent child would be expected to learn from one or two experiences,
and then discover the utility of refrigeration.
On the other hand, a puppy without prior knowledge of a bone, would be
able to burry its first ever find and recover it later. IMO, Jonathan
offers a convincing explanation of this canine ability:
JONATHAN:
>"I don't know that a dog *plans* to recover its buried bone, but I
>do know that dogs have an inherent tendency to bury bones and dig them
>up later. I assume that this behaviour evolved incrementally, becoming
>"latched" because it offered some selective advantage [...I must stress
that intelligent >planning is conceptually quite different, and make great
leaps to anticipated goals, while >evolution is blind to those goals (and
thus goal-less) .
Regards,
Mark
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com/
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:24 BST