gotta say.
The whole neuroscience "explanation" of meaning in terms of gestalt and
binding circuits, everything a metaphor for how neurons are thought to
literally behave: another word salad by the anglophone asylum, with fellow
thinkers in Italy (Parma was it? [0]).
Hey, I do agree that Enlightenment Rationalism has been superseded and I can
understand the psychoanalytic threads about conservative politics stoking a
"strict father" vibe, but this desire to anchor these "meanings" in literal circuits,
like with some collagen structure for dealing with the word "into" -- I mean please!
I asked him during the more intimate dinner, to which I had privileged access as
a board member (mom my valued guest), whether he had any sense of a
countering school of thought. He mentioned Searle and this hazy legion of
analytic philosophers but I think he's got no clue re the Wittgensteinians.
The analytics are clinging to Enlightenment Rationalism in his view. He
senses the demise of positivism, as we all do. That's quite the backward-
looking view though.
Hey, you can't know everything under the sun, even if a professor of OmniScience
at UC Berkeley or whatever it is (Bishop Berkeley thought calculus was of the
devil, so excuuuuse me (not) for not caring for the calculus on odd days of the
week, or rather not caring for how it's been used, as a prolonged aptitude
and compliance test [1]).
What passes for logic in this neuro DLL hell (so many dependencies, spaghetti
code, brains-in-a-blender) is familiar as "bastardized" Python. They've got
What passes for logic in this neuro DLL hell (so many dependencies, spaghetti
code, brains-in-a-blender) is familiar as "bastardized" Python. They've got
"frames" (every word has one), schemas... even if the "thoughts as software /
brain has hardware" meme has been purged from the mix, the ghost of
computer science is everywhere echoing in these mental chambers.
A "gestalt circuit" would be like your meaning for "hospital"....
Hey, as a secret code, this kinda works.
Hey, as a secret code, this kinda works.
I'm really into gestalts and I've worked extensively with hospitals, more
than average. So if he were just talking to me... but that wasn't it. As a
theory, I sense another proto-alchemy, a displacement, a shadow of one
set of patterns on another shadowing scale, with funding and everything.
I'm often amazed and agog, at what passes for sanity in this world. But
then who said California was sane.
During the Q&A, some girl asked about growing up on a desert island
and not having the gestalt for "hospital". Ah, but the basil metaphor circuits
are all there (gotta be): warmth and good, purity and morality, and the
local shaman -- crept in from the comic book margins, might be a head
shrinker -- would be like the [witch] doctor would he not? Voila, we're in
Paris (hi Nirel) [2].
It's not that I'm against MRIs showing parts of the brain lighting up when
one peals bananas (I did a lot of banana pealing today, at Food Not
Bombs).[3] I'm OK with glandular changes leading to more thoughts
about sex, or fewer.
Having what goes on in the body make a difference to patterns in thought
and vice versa: I'm all for exploring and acknowledging the contortions of
grammar needed to bind it all together, in a workable matrix, a tensegrity.
grammar needed to bind it all together, in a workable matrix, a tensegrity.
Paracelsus wasn't "wrong", he just wasn't using a language anyone
could really decipher in our day and age.[4] Nonsense happens.
I predict a relatively short half-life for this brand of Italo-Californian
neuro-philosophy. Doesn't mean it's not sweet and tasty.
I predict a relatively short half-life for this brand of Italo-Californian
neuro-philosophy. Doesn't mean it's not sweet and tasty.
Plus it may feed some healthy meme-spawn down the pike. Ya never
know how it'll twist 'n turn, though we're free (should be free) to speculate.
"Riding the dragon" is only doable in metaphor, as the reality it suggests
"Riding the dragon" is only doable in metaphor, as the reality it suggests
is rather impracticable.
George is an affable guy and clearly enjoying his journey. More power
George is an affable guy and clearly enjoying his journey. More power
to him and his gentle kind. Just be nice to those monkeys and cats.
Advertising is probably better left to the pros (?), but then it's good to see
academic literalists thinking metaphorically (more imaginatively) for a
change.
Norman O. Brown might see a glimmer of hope even for the left-brained
left-behind (not-yet-raptured). Just having the word "gestalt" in a frame,
albeit on life support (gasping for air), is good news for Operation DuckRabbit.[5]
Kirby
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Gallese (another avatar of
cognitivism)
[1] http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/msg/045dda11e31163e4
(digital vs analog math)
[2] http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2011/03/movie-making.html (hi Nirel)
[3] http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2011/05/fnb-gossip.html (see recent wittrsamr
post http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WittrsEX/message/4451 )
[4] http://www.levity.com/alchemy/paracel1.html (Nell's boyfriend? -- I note
Kirby
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Gallese (another avatar of
cognitivism)
[1] http://groups.google.com/group/mathfuture/msg/045dda11e31163e4
(digital vs analog math)
[2] http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2011/03/movie-making.html (hi Nirel)
[3] http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2011/05/fnb-gossip.html (see recent wittrsamr
post http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WittrsEX/message/4451 )
[4] http://www.levity.com/alchemy/paracel1.html (Nell's boyfriend? -- I note
Cornish quotes him)
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