From: mike99 (mike99@lascruces.com)
Date: Thu Jun 17 2004 - 16:47:39 MDT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org]On Behalf Of Marc
> Geddes
....
>
> Further, what evolutionary psychology fails to
> consider is the power of memes and the feed-back loop
> between the conscious and unconscious mind. Sure I'm
> prepared to believe that our immediate conscious
> experience is largely just a reflection of our
> sub-conscious impluses aka Libet , but what shaped
> those sub-conscious impluses in the first place?
> Answer: Conscious belief putting feed-back into the
> unconscious mind. In fact conscious belief might well
> be the most important factor. So even as a guide to
> explaining behaviour, evolutionary psychology fails.
I think the problem here, Marc, is that we cannot be certain that what you
term "conscious belief" is not the result of subconscious forces (pace
Libet, Gazzaniga and others). The causal chain may work exactly opposite
from what you described: it may be unconscious belief feeding-back into the
conscious mind.
Determining which (if either) of these is the case is a question for
cognitive psychology. I don't think we can philosophize our way to the
answer.
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:47 MDT