I would encourage you to write this up as an article. It is important. M

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 10:14 AM Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hi TOK List,
>
>
>
>   So I am doing Chapter 13 in my book, *The Problem of Psychology and Its
> Solution*. It is titled Mind2: Subjective Conscious Experiences in
> Animals and Humans. I am writing you all about it because I thought folks
> might find this interesting.
>
>
>
>   In the chapter, I wanted to make a contrast between historical points of
> view on animal consciousness. So, I wrote about Descartes being very
> skeptical of animal consciousness and then, to contrast him, I was looking
> at the work of the early comparative psychologist George Romanes. He is
> often referenced as someone who was hugely guilty of anthropomorphizing and
> imputing massive levels of consciousness in animals. However, I am now in
> the process of actually reading what he wrote, especially his work Mental
> Evolution <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.biodiversitylibrary.org_item_85138-23page_8_mode_1up&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=s1PNWdvbiV9C9E7Sm8rSPA2o2E4siTO_a64kSu_b4Vw&s=Pzw6lzeJk4KyyHacg4D9nxXAHG3cSW_dz7H1sgsTqJo&e= >.
> It is amazing, and actually quite prescient, minus a few stretches. Check
> out the attached graph that depicts Romanes model of the 50 steps of mental
> evolution and forms the central argument. As you will see, It is remarkably
> close to the ToK and map of mind that John and I laid out in Untangling the
> Word Knot!
>
>
>
>   Here is another fascinating thing. In the series, John helped me get a
> better frame on what Descartes really meant about “consciousness.” In Map
> of Mind1,2,3 terms, consciousness for Descartes was how perceptions and
> feelings become *ready for reason*. In other words, it was the jump
> between Mind2 and Mind3 and to have full consciousness, you needed both.
> Ergo, no (self-reflective) consciousness for animals.
>
>
>
>   Now, we go back to Romanes. He has a 50 step latter. The first half is
> the evolution of animal consciousness…but animals (e.g., dogs and apes)
> only get up to level 28. The latter half is all human! And it is cultural
> evolution and self-reflective capacities. In other words, the evolution of
> Mind3 and the Culture-Person plane of existence!
>
>
>
>   All of this means something quite remarkable. The two individuals who I
> was about to lay out as having the most diametric opposed views on animal
> consciousness agree almost completely! They agree that the ground is in the
> animal kingdom and it starts with a nonconscious Mind1. Then subjective
> experience (i.e., inner perceptions and feelings appear at some point).
> That is, they both would have agreed Mind2 is present in many animals. And
> they both would have agreed that Mind3 is the domain of the human!
>
>
>
> The take home point here is that we had a HUGE problem of language and
> conceptual fields. The Enlightenment Gap on matter v mind blinded us to the
> proper language and grammar. With the proper language, we can achieve much
> greater clarity on what we are talking about! And when we do that, we can
> see that what sounded like radically different proposals (animals have NO
> consciousness versus animals have consciousness that resembles humans) are
> actually remarkably well aligned! It is all based on inadequate language
> games!
>
>
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
> Professor
> Department of Graduate Psychology
> 216 Johnston Hall
> MSC 7401
> James Madison University
> Harrisonburg, VA 22807
> (540) 568-7857 (phone)
> (540) 568-4747 (fax)
>
>
> *Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.*
>
> Check out the Unified Theory Of Knowledge homepage at:
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.unifiedtheoryofknowledge.org_&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=s1PNWdvbiV9C9E7Sm8rSPA2o2E4siTO_a64kSu_b4Vw&s=6ItQhFT4imd8FJVlPI3tHbscQlefVXZ0lHvKXRZMgoo&e= 
>
>
> ############################
>
> To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to:
> mailto:[log in to unmask] or click the
> following link:
> http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1
>

############################

To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1