Re: Why do we seek to transcend ourselves?

From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 20:00:44 MDT


On Monday, July 15, 2002, at 01:47 PM, Ben Goertzel wrote:

>>> According to David Bohm, in "Thought as a System," it comes from the
>>> "fragmentation of mind" that modern culture has brought, as opposed to
>>> the
>>> "wholeness" of the primitive mindset and the greater wholeness of the
>>> animal
>>> mindset before it.
>>
>> Bohm seems to have this a bit backwards. The human mind starts out
>> very
>> fragmented and has to be cultivated towards wholeness, which is away
>> from the primitive mind.
>
> I think he is more right than you do.
>
> I think modern culture does bring a lot of personality fragmentation.

I'm not so sure about this. I think that modern culture provides a
magnifying glass onto fragmentation. Human minds are as fragmented as
ever, but now this is more obvious because of the zany situations our
ape+ brains are getting thrown into. I do, however, suspect that
achieving wholeness is more difficult than it used to be because of more
complicated social attachments required by modern culture.

--
Gordon Worley                     `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty
http://www.rbisland.cx/            said, `it means just what I choose
redbird@rbisland.cx                it to mean--neither more nor less.'
PGP:  0xBBD3B003                                  --Lewis Carroll


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