Random Notes
An example:
For much of human history the role of shamans, or their like, used story, and other tools, to guide the community through a tough time. Or to equip us to think laterally or outside the box. This often lead to outright lies being told to wake the sleeper to the mysteries of nature and the world. They were not just myth makers, there were liars and con men. They were so effective at this, that the role has been reinvented in every culture. But they were vital for the survival of the group.
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From a humble and more modern reference, informed by both post-continental philosophy and buddhist psychology.
Perhaps we could define two types of or reason, “embodied reason”, and "mens hominis" reason, or reason of the human mind only.
To begin I will put on my T-shirt that says, "René Descartes was not even wrong", (on the front), and "Anatta = that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon." (on the back). This will get me in the right mood. And confuse any onlookers.
For many sloppy thinkers, all reason, and you might put ContraPoints in this bucket, springs solely from behind the eyeballs, an exercise of pure thought. A Vulcan saying "that is illogical" to a hot blooded Kirk. Or Jack Web demanding "just the facts ma'am".
This "mens hominis" reason, is in fact a very resent phenomena. I can find no reference to it before the late 19th century. And it did not bloom until the onset of mass communication in the 20th century. It comes hidden in many culture disguises. Strong among them is the idea of sole inventor, the genius entrepreneur. The singular great idea. But also in the academic work of moral relativism, and the general idea of individualism. I strongly contest this is a product of culture, and not an idea born out of empirical evidence. Its appeal to, and its birth form cultural tropes, gives it repeatability in mass media.
Yet it is completely wrong. "Reason" of facts, and pure thought, logics of rational thinking divorced from the rest of the universe floating alone in the void. Suffers form so many category errors it's hard to enumerate them. It is like using a "meditation" app on your iPhone to gain enlightenment. It is pointing vaguely in the right direction, but missing the whole point. So let's move on.
What I am calling "embodied reason", is at once hard to describe, and harder still to communicate in today’s "It is good to be able to relate to the world in a manner that evokes and engages the various dimensions of our human personhood—embodied, imaginative, intellectual, emotional, moral, spiritual, etc.—particularly in relationship with others. But our techno-economic environment generates an experience of the world that is hostile to this ideal. It operates at a pace, scale, and intensity that undermines our capacity to relate to the world with the fulness of our presence, thought, and care."sound bite, meme filled world. Yet its history goes back in a continuous line to Neolithic shamanism.
Granted, it is hard to resist the promise of ease, safety, efficiency, and convenience, particularly when many of us may already be operating with some degree of burnout and exhausted by what is demanded of us to simply get by day to day. This is the trap set for us by our existing social order. When society is built to run like a machine for the optimization of profit and productivity with little regard for the constraints inherent in the embodied human condition, then we are tempted to embrace the device paradigm as a matter of survival or because we have been conditioned by the machine and have internalized its values.
~~~~~~
"Buddhism is not a "belief system". It's a series of hypotheses for you to investigate if you choose to.
One thing I've discovered: when I first "have an idea", it's wordless, and THEN I "narrate it" to myself all over again, and imagined that this "narration" was "thinking".
An example:
For much of human history the role of shamans, or their like, used story, and other tools, to guide the community through a tough time. Or to equip us to think laterally or outside the box. This often lead to outright lies being told to wake the sleeper to the mysteries of nature and the world. They were not just myth makers, there were liars and con men. They were so effective at this, that the role has been reinvented in every culture. But they were vital for the survival of the group.
~~~~
From a humble and more modern reference, informed by both post-continental philosophy and buddhist psychology.
Perhaps we could define two types of or reason, “embodied reason”, and "mens hominis" reason, or reason of the human mind only.
To begin I will put on my T-shirt that says, "René Descartes was not even wrong", (on the front), and "Anatta = that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon." (on the back). This will get me in the right mood. And confuse any onlookers.
For many sloppy thinkers, all reason, and you might put ContraPoints in this bucket, springs solely from behind the eyeballs, an exercise of pure thought. A Vulcan saying "that is illogical" to a hot blooded Kirk. Or Jack Web demanding "just the facts ma'am".
This "mens hominis" reason, is in fact a very resent phenomena. I can find no reference to it before the late 19th century. And it did not bloom until the onset of mass communication in the 20th century. It comes hidden in many culture disguises. Strong among them is the idea of sole inventor, the genius entrepreneur. The singular great idea. But also in the academic work of moral relativism, and the general idea of individualism. I strongly contest this is a product of culture, and not an idea born out of empirical evidence. Its appeal to, and its birth form cultural tropes, gives it repeatability in mass media.
Yet it is completely wrong. "Reason" of facts, and pure thought, logics of rational thinking divorced from the rest of the universe floating alone in the void. Suffers form so many category errors it's hard to enumerate them. It is like using a "meditation" app on your iPhone to gain enlightenment. It is pointing vaguely in the right direction, but missing the whole point. So let's move on.
What I am calling "embodied reason", is at once hard to describe, and harder still to communicate in today’s "It is good to be able to relate to the world in a manner that evokes and engages the various dimensions of our human personhood—embodied, imaginative, intellectual, emotional, moral, spiritual, etc.—particularly in relationship with others. But our techno-economic environment generates an experience of the world that is hostile to this ideal. It operates at a pace, scale, and intensity that undermines our capacity to relate to the world with the fulness of our presence, thought, and care."sound bite, meme filled world. Yet its history goes back in a continuous line to Neolithic shamanism.
Granted, it is hard to resist the promise of ease, safety, efficiency, and convenience, particularly when many of us may already be operating with some degree of burnout and exhausted by what is demanded of us to simply get by day to day. This is the trap set for us by our existing social order. When society is built to run like a machine for the optimization of profit and productivity with little regard for the constraints inherent in the embodied human condition, then we are tempted to embrace the device paradigm as a matter of survival or because we have been conditioned by the machine and have internalized its values.
~~~~~~
"Buddhism is not a "belief system". It's a series of hypotheses for you to investigate if you choose to.
One thing I've discovered: when I first "have an idea", it's wordless, and THEN I "narrate it" to myself all over again, and imagined that this "narration" was "thinking".