My usual disclaimer:
I am not a stupid person, but!:
What does any of this have to do with poetry? Did I miss an
important post somewhere at the beginning? Thanks,
Debbie Brown
On 19 Feb 2001, at 4:29, Daniel Jab wrote:
> "...it might be worth sharpening your
> > tools. "Logic" is not a synonym for "mental processes", and is
> > rather misleading."
>
> Dear Alison, I agree that I must sharpen my tools, but then again it
> has only been two months since I began looking into language theory. I
> came into it via my studies in sensation and after reading
> Wittgenstein and Avrum Stroll's "Analytic Philosophy" (not the exact
> title). I wouldn't say that "logic" and "mental processes" are
> synonymous because i think in their definitions they are on different
> levels. I would say mental processes are guided by logical principles.
> For example, mental processes such as thinking, remembering,
> imagining, have one thing in common, a fundamental logical structure.
> This may seem idealistic and to be sure we do a lot of seemingly
> superfluous thinking but here i would like to stress the difference
> between the "content" of our thoughts and the "structure" of our
> thinking. The reason that I don't think it's a form of reductionism is
> because I don't believe the "logical principles" that guide thinking
> are actually immanent in our thinking processes. It's as if we can
> make a schemata of our thinking as we would make a schemata of the
> growth of a tree. We can map the whole process of a tree's life and in
> this way "show" the "logic" that guides a tree's growth. This map or
> scheme reveals a certain logic that all trees share, a fundamental
> pattern, so to speak. Now surely no two trees are alike, however they
> all share this fundamental scheme, this fundamental logical map of
> their growth. But this "logic" is not immanent in each tree, but
> nonetheless is manifested by the fact that we can make a basic scheme
> that all trees share. This is what i am driving at. It is not
> well-developed but i hope you can see what i mean. This is why I think
> that Wittgenstein's comment "Logic is transcendent" is particularly
> applicable to this idea.
>
> and i have browsed through the book you suggested and it seemed
> similar to all the other cognitive science takes on the mind and so i
> didn't buy it, but if you say its different maybe ill take a second
> look.
>
> sincerely,
> d
>
> >
>
>
>
> On Mon, 19 Feb 2001 06:12:15 +1100, Poetryetc provides a venue for a
> dialogue relating to poetry and poetics wrote:
>
> > >what i have been saying all along is that maybe we have defined
> > >"logic"
> to
> > >narrowly.
> >
> > Daniel, I don't want to get into a quarrel about semantics. But
> > since language, consciousness and anything to do with the human
> > mind and brain are to say the least complex matters, it might be
> > worth sharpening your tools. "Logic" is not a synonym for "mental
> > processes", and is rather misleading.
> >
> > >About neurology i am definitely against current theories of
> > >cognitive science and all forms of reductionism of mental states
> > >into brain
> activity
> > >so I really doubt i would get much out of reading neurology.
> >
> > I too am deeply disturbed by all kinds of biological determinism
> > and reductionism. The description of all kinds of mental activity
> > as "logic" strikes me as reductionism, which is why I don't like
> > it.
> >
> > I have recently read a very interesting book by the neurologist
> > Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens, which is neither of
> > these things, and which I highly recommend. Quite obviously, if
> > you don't read it, you won't find out what he's saying. As for the
> > rest - there is plenty of research on childhood development,
> > starting with the excellent Piaget, which might help; or you could
> > always study a real child.
> >
> > Best
> >
> > A
>
>
>
>
>
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Debra L. Brown
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