At some point in our development we become aware of the fact that there is deep disagreement between human beings regarding the interpretation of events (figure).  Later still, we become aware that there is disagreement regarding reality itself (ground).  

For me, and perhaps others on this listserv, all earthly business and activities would have to be considered with this awareness in mind.  While many enjoy a stable position within a cultural flow, once we are out of sync with our school of fish there is a deliberateness to participation that creates the opportunity for a runaway self-consciousness. Sure, we can push aside the fundamental situation and drift into waking dreams of our own, or other's, stories, and this can temporarily soothe the hard edges of the existential situation.  And yet once seen, it seems it cannot be unseen. 

From there we seem to deal with the issue according to our unique arrival point in space-time.  Some of us, through inclination and opportunity, are thrown into a relationship with physics, and I cannot imagine how the masters of that discipline experiential perceive reality after 40 years of sensory adaptation to those principles.  Others with the deep need to determine or repair social reality may end up in disciplines such as math, religion, philosophy, biology, or psychology.  Others still may turn to mysticism and spiritual practices.  

No matter the discipline we were destined to follow, the fundamental situation is a relentless presence.  Leave it alone for too long and we find ourselves as though waking up having fallen asleep while driving.  Concentrate too hard and we feel estranged from the vibrancy of our own authentic being.  

My goal is to develop the most sustainable way of perceiving accurately and behaving effectively.  Gregg's work shows that this is impossible to do without an internalized justification system that is up to the task of assimilating all of the known variables in our personal world.  It is a bold ambition to develop such a justification system, and yet when I sit down, drop my ego, and take in all that I am aware of that is going on, and with the awareness that this is only the tiniest sliver of the total comprehensible situation, then I must acknowledge that the present situation is, by all objective measures, unnervingly grandiose.  The view of the fundamental situation is determined by the scope and quality of the theory one is able to internalize as a justification system.

I cannot speak to how Gregg would fare amongst professional modern philosophers.  If the structure of the profession is the same as psychology's, then at the highest levels it is a highly elaborate and exclusive dance.  However, for those of us who fell into the profession of psychology out of that desire to determine or repair the discrepancies observed in social reality, it seems obvious to us that the human knower must be accounted for in the equation.  The Justification Hypothesis allows us to become self aware of the mechanism of justification, which then allows us, with confidence, to factor that mechanism into any subsequent interpretations of the fundamental situation. 

The establishment of such solid ground is a relief.  In the same way that if we were trekking up a tall and perilous mountain, we would seek out a secure and stable position to set camp at the highest level possible.  From this camp we can safely survey horizontal and vertical terrain, and return to that point for orientation.  

Mark, I cannot track it down, but I have memory that Marshal McLuhan commented that the popularity of Zen Buddhism in Japan was a consequence of an intolerably chaotic social reality.  That the retention of sanity demanded that consciousness contract to the immediacy of the knowable, and verifiable, present moment situation.  From my humble position in space-time, I believe that we are being thrashed around by intense, unregulated quantities of information and social influence.  Along a continuum, those that are temperamentally Open to Experience will find themselves energetically expanding and complexifying, whereas those that are temperamentally conservative in their orientation will be contracting and hardening.  

Zen, and similar forms, becomes a refuge when one wishes to retain integrity of the self in the midst of the bombardment you eloquently articulate when describing the effects of media.

I am saddled with an early psychic imprinting of a Gnostic-Christian worldview and several seasons of Mattel's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Advertisers know this, as they are now trying to sell me Honda cars by looping back on the religion they created for me in the first place:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9Su9Sy6Ao

For me, the Justification Hypothesis is base camp that allows me observe, meta-cognitively, the ways in which the social maelstrom rapidly reconfigures my beliefs, assumptions, and social positioning.  As you say, everything must go, but one thing that we know will not go is the justification mechanism itself, which is built upon other tiered and reliable principles of human/animal/biological/physical nature. 

I hope everyone is doing well!

-Chance


















On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 8:43 AM Mark Stahlman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Gregg &al:

As has been noted many times on this list, psychology just isn't 
"theoretical" anymore.  It has become overwhelmingly "clinical."

But then there is Gregg.  While he is trying to generate a *new* 
"philosophy" (from bits-and-pieces of old philosophies), even he has 
to couch his activity in terms of the clinical implications.  Such is 
psychology today.

Gregg is no philosopher.  He has, however, read Will Durant's 1926 
"The Story of Philosophy."  My guess is that didn't help too much.

Alas, there is a thriving field known as "philosophical psychology" 
and, as it turns out, one branch of that field has been busy working 
on the key topics of perception for quite a while now.

They call themselves "Analytical Thomists" (yes, 100 years ago that 
would have been an oxomoron <g>) and one of their key textbooks is 
available for free (if you don't might tapping into the wonderful 
world of libgen.pw).

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__libgen.pw_item_adv_5a1f05a43a044650f5136f02&d=DwIDaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=4TiEKmwGbyfT9EP0D-JrfOJBwtn0YJ9uRinWjy_RPW4&s=kq0SUp4FEvHFVQeg0dQvKgcukYWxRT9HaQnSa8Ra9Qk&e= (or, if this 
doesn't work, just enter the title and get another link for 
downloading.)

Anthony Lisska's 2016 "Aquinas's Theory of Perception: An Analytical 
Reconstruction" is the latest monograph from this group.  It explains 
itself this way --

"This book is the result of several years spent undertaking research 
and writing on the difficult issues surrounding Thomas Aquinas’s 
theory of sensation and perception. It presents an attempt to 
‘reconstruct’ and interpret the texts of Thomas on sense knowledge. 
The emphasis in this inquiry, accordingly, is directed towards 
developing a philosophical analysis of the internal and the external 
senses, with particular reference to the internal sense of the vis 
cogitativa. Approaching the texts of Aquinas from contemporary 
analytic philosophy, this study suggests a modest ‘innate’ or 
‘structured’ interpretation for the role of this inner sense faculty. 
Furthermore, this analysis sheds light on the workings of what Aquinas 
calls the ‘agent intellect’ (intellectus agens) and its corresponding 
cognitive process of abstraction. Inner sense and abstraction are two 
concepts in general Aristotelian epistemology and philosophy of mind 
that require rethinking and tough-minded analysis."

I highly recommend it . . . !!

Mark

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