The eminent physicist John Wheeler said, some decades ago, that
no phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.
He was referrring to the collapse of the quantum wave by conscious
observation.
I got this on another list:
"Dr. John Fentress will show some of his extensive library of tapes,
collected over 3 decades, that reveal the strategies that we share with
wolves and what we might learn about ourselves from them as they are
reintroduced into many sections of the United States.  Wolves, far smarter
than dogs, accomplish complex social results but without the tools that
language offers or the need for human companions.  This material is
suitable for a general adult audience."
Do wolves collapse the quantum wave ? And if so, does that result in a
'wolf reality' or in an 'objective reality' ? Would they collapse it in the
same careless manner that most humans appear to do, or would a wolf's
more harmonious and discriminating relationship with being result in
a different quality of interaction with the ground of existence ? The wolf's
universe would seem to have an aspect of social construction to it. Does
the 'wolf identity' include the local habitat, landscape, as being seemlessly
incorporated into wolfness ? The distinction self/other, which possibly
was familiar to the earliest amoebae - what you want outside you and what
you want inside (your stomach) - must be clear to the wolfish mode of life,
as it seems to be to Jim. Those ancient Greeks had women and slaves to do
the work, so they could fill their bellies easily, lay back in the 
Mediterranean
sunshine, adjust their shades, and contemplate their insides and outsides
in eloquent flights of fancy. The flickering images of Plato's Cave must have
passed across the faces of those seated around every campfire since the first,
hundreds of thousands of years ago. Do the presocratics assist ?
I like Heraclitus the best, but seeing as his major work is lost, anybody can
extrapolate to their heart's content. The Heraclitean foundation of Logos
has much in common with Tao, IMO. So why did Greek and Chinese thought
diverge ? so that a taoist worldview seeks harmony with Logos, whilst a
Western worldview seeks intrusive exploitation ? Was it the influence of
Sumer/Babylon/Jerusalem via Genesis and the injunction to go forth and
multiply and dominate every living thing ?

C.L.

-------------------------------------

>A brief reminder: "3 Seminars in July: Our Shared Natures" at the 1st
>Congregational Church of Wellfleet, 200 Main St, Wellfleet, MA. (on Cape
>Cod, about 15 miles south of Provincetown), July 18-20, 2000, 7 P.M.  NO
>DONATIONS, NO FEES
>
>Please share this with anyone whom you know in the Cape Cod area and who is
>interested in these topics.
>
>#1: Nature and Our Common Sense ... Tuesday, July 18, 2000
>Dr. James Brody will discuss, with the help of a lot of slides and an
>enthusiastic manner and dry sense of humor, aspects of child rearing,
>marriage, and moral judgments with the intent of showing our traditional
>"common sense," as it is shared by other humans, to have great merit.  He
>will also make the point that changing climate and loss of resources will
>force us to distinguish more sharply between our wants --- the displays
>that we use to decorate ourselves in order to impress others --- and our
>survival needs.  This material is suitable for a general adult audience.
>
>#2: Darwin and Psychotherapy ... Wednesday, July 19, 2000
>Dr. John Price will speak about evolution and how we might understand and
>treat anxiety and depression.   His material is tailored for mental health
>professionals including pastoral counselors, social workers, psychologists,
>psychiatrists, and physicians in general practice who take an interest in
>the emotional components of their patient's distress.   Depending on his
>audience, his talk may be extended into a second evening on treatment
>considerations.
>
>#3: My Life With Wolves ... Thursday, July 20, 2000
>Dr. John Fentress will show some of his extensive library of tapes,
>collected over 3 decades, that reveal the strategies that we share with
>wolves and what we might learn about ourselves from them as they are
>reintroduced into many sections of the United States.  Wolves, far smarter
>than dogs, accomplish complex social results but without the tools that
>language offers or the need for human companions.  This material is
>suitable for a general adult audience.
>
>SPEAKER BACKGROUNDS
>Dr. Price, along with Nancy Segal, Ph.D., James Brody, Ph.D., Russell
>Gardner, MD, and John Fentress, Ph.D. will be present on different
>evenings.  (Dr. Segal will teach a morning class, "Twins and Us," July
>17-21, 2000, at the Nauset Regional High School as part of Cape Cod 2000,
>formerly the Cape Cod Institute.) They bring rich, unmatched backgrounds to
>that week in July.
>
>James Brody, Ph. D., is the developer of an interdisciplinary symposium
>series on evolutionary psychology and clinical sociobiology for the Cape
>Cod Institute/Cape Cod 2000. He has used evolutionary concepts in his
>private practice for a dozen years in Pennsylvania and is a regular speaker
>at professional meetings and business associations.  He is intensely
>interested in our evolved "common sense," the individual differences
>between people, and the complex workings of genetics and environment in the
>outcomes of our children.  He sees an urgent need for collaboration between
>religious organizations and science in regard to managing ourselves and
>handling global changes that are unfolding.  This is his 4th summer of
>teaching on the Cape.
>
>John Fentress, Ph. D. is a distinguished neurodevelopmental scientist and
>ethologist, currently with the University of Oregon and former Chair of
>Neuroscience and Psychology at Dalhousie University.  He is also an
>extremely likeable clear thinker on issues in development and behavior
>genetics.  He began his career with a strong interest in personality theory
>and the evolution of human actions.  After meeting with Carl Jung in 1959
>he decided to take up animal behavior research, and went to the University
>of Cambridge in England where he studied ethology.  There he worked with
>R.A. Hinde and W.H. Thorpe, and was a contemporary of Patrick Bateson and
>Jane Goodall.  He also kept a wolf as a pet.  His first academic
>appointment was in Biology and Psychology at the University of Oregon in
>Eugene, where he founded the BioSocial Research Center.  In 1974 he
>accepted a position as professor and chair in psychology at Dalhousie
>University in Nova Scotia.  He has enduring interests in the social
>behavior of wolves.  He is interested in animal communication as well as
>the neural control and development of movement patterns.  He has taught on
>the Cape for the last 2 summers.
>
>John Price, D.M.  has practiced psychiatry in Great Britain, where
>medications are used more conservatively, and is past president of the
>Division on Psychotherapy, World Psychiatric Association.  He is also a
>charming speaker and distinguished scientist and author.  His book,
>"Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning," has just been released in its
>second edition.  You will enjoy him if you watch the Discovery Channel,
>enjoy animal stories, and wonder how we fit in with other living creatures.
>  This is his second summer teaching on the Cape.


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