Re: Soulless brutes

Glenn Morton (grmorton@gnn.com)
Wed, 15 Jan 1997 18:04:17

Burgy writes:
>Understanding your base argument, Glenn, let me suggest you read yet
>another book -- Julian Jaynes' THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN
>OF THE BICAMERAL MIND. Not that I think Jaynes "has got it right," but I do
>think his thesis, that humanity was really not "aware" until a late stage
>of civilization, is one which needs to be argued. If his thesis is right,
>then the building of walls, the practice of music and mining, etc. are not
>indicative of humans as we know them today. The thesis is very well argued,
>whatever one may decide about it personally.

It has been many years since I perused that book. I admit to not having read
it in its entirety. My recollection was that he placed this change somewhere
in the first or second millenium BC (correct me if I am wrong) and placed lots
of weight on the change in prophetic utterances at that time (Prophets used to
hear the other half of their brain and believe it was God--my recollection I
may be wrong).

If my recollection is correct, then this is a change in a mental state which
left no mark on the artifactual record. Mankind did not suddenly start
building cities etc. Once again ASSUMING my memory is correct, then IMO it is
an unverifiable claim. The only reason I have for believing you are human,
apart from the Biblical statement, is your behavior. If you behave like me,
then we probably are the same. Otherwise, one must reason that you are able to
behave like me but might not be human. You might have the bicameral mind.
How does my memory match up with the facts. Nothing like a
conclusion-first-facts-later type of post.:-)

I am willing to be corrected.

glenn

Foundation,Fall and Flood
http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm