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Hi Jinan,
Thank you for your beautifully written post.
Another way of seeing this is in terms of how we become fully human. Here is a short version in a slightly more formal and less poetic style!
Human animals first developed the ability to respond to their environments without conscious abstract representation. This 'spontaneous' way of being and learning aligns with your post. For brevity I'll call this way of being and learning 'A'.
In addition, human animals have also developed the ability to consciously represent in their minds and bodily feelings their environment and themselves. This enables a sort of conscious story-telling to ourselves that offers the ability to look at possible futures in mind. I'll call this B.
This latter ability, B, gives enormous advantages in terms of survival and development.
If it is correct that language emerged from gesture rather than sound, this ability to consciously envision and forecast possible futures predates the use of words, and in essence does not depend on word use.
Later, of course, this B ability became sophisticatedly extended to use word-based language and the abstract languages of mathematics and other abstract conceptual language systems. This extended ability enables us to predict future outcomes in ways that go beyond the limitations of individual physical thinking 'in mind'. I'll call this highly abstract activity C.
A serious criticism of human life is it is nowadays spent primarily in the activities of B and C rather than A and does not consider, or is not aware of, the ability to do A. As you have described, this is quite limitation in our potential. Even more limiting is the habit of assuming one's individual identity, and the operation of the world, is limited to and only described by B and C.
How to change if one is a person embedded in B and C?
One effective approach is via meditation practices.
The aim of basic meditation practice is to increase individuals' awareness of A and to reveal the possibility to sometimes be in the A state. It also enables the awareness to operate and be functional without the use of thought or language.
Advanced meditation practices go beyond this and provide the learning for individuals to be in that A state more continuously. More usefully, the provide the ability to be in the A state and if necessary AT THE SAME TIME undertake the activities of B and C. That is, the B and C states become superficial relatively autonomous activities independent of identity involvement.
Such meditation methods offer many potential advantages for designers and design researchers both in spontaneous beauty and in improved rationality.
Best wishes,
Terence
==
Dr Terence Love,
School of Design and Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia
CEO, Design Out Crime and CPTED Centre
PO Box 226, Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
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Best wishes,
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Jinan K B
Sent: Sunday, 13 January 2019 10:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Spontaneity and Rationality- a fresh look
I have uploaded a paper at Academia site
DIFFICULTY IN UNDERSTANDING the spontaneous nature of CHILDREN by reason based knowledge system
See the first part is below......Hope to get some responses....
Once I happened to watch two people swimming and noticed that one's actions were totally spontaneous whereas the other person seemed to think and act, kind of mechanical. Sure enough, when I enquired I found out that the first one was self-taught and the second person was taught by a coach.
Self-taught is a way of expression that we have started using after we 'invented' teaching. Actually ' self-taught' in this case really means that it is the water that taught the person to swim. The person began to respond to the water as a whole (mind and body together), each moment attentively learning from water what to do next. Mind is totally present with the body and here thought doesn't seem to have any role. Whereas the one taught by the coach had to break down the learning, giving priority to the mind because the coach first taught the mind with the help of language and then the student taught the body how to act.
Seeing (sometimes even without seeing) and doing (learning) is different from instructing/ thinking/ understanding and then doing. In the first case, language does not come in as the primary source of knowledge (In this case it is the mirror neurons that is at work) whereas in the second case the teaching and instruction are happening in language. So here the mind learns first by creating an image and then the body executes the action. In autonomous learning, the feedback is internal and experiential whereas in teaching the feedback is external and in language.
With the mind and body thus fragmented and distanced, time entered our being. From timelessness, we got trapped in time.
I remember reading an anthropologists description of how these two cultures cross a river. In the case of the rational cultures first thing is to study various factors like the direction of the wind, the strength of the flow, variations in this at particular time etc etc and after a thorough study the total plan is made. Start at so and so time in this direction and at another point change the direction etc and several mental rehearsals and then they set out to do the act. So the mind does the act first and the body obeys the mind. In case of spontaneous cultures learning happens while in the act. Of course, they are indeed familiar with the river. They have been living there and 'knowing' the river without any conscious learning.
Two other situations worth exploring are one the football game and the traffic. In the case of football, the Brazilians are extremely spontaneous whereas the Germans and England etc are very rational in their moves. Even within Europe, one can see the difference between Spain, Italy- more spontaneous- on one side and North Europeans on the other. 'Rational' football looks like chess being played. When you watch Ronaldhino in action it is like reading poetry, beautiful, magical, flowing..... But the tragedy is that often the Europeans coaches are being hired by South Americans and that will kill their spontaneity.
I have noticed within India how various cultures respond to traffic.
The Calcutta traffic seems to be far more spontaneous where the traffic in Chennai is more organized. But in this case what one is pointing out is that even in traditional cultures where the mind and body is not fragmented, do have variations in response. (This difference can be felt even in the case of music- the Karnatic and Hindustani, one seems more mathematical and the other flowing) I am talking about the driving done by now and semi-literate people. When the 'educated' come into the floor, the game is very different. Here also one will find very civilized, rule-bound and total lawlessness.
One can now attempt to define spontaneity and rationality in terms of not only the behavior but also how one has acquired the knowledge.
Spontaneity is the result of autonomously learned (acquired) 'knowledge' and rationality is the result of taught knowledge. In rational behavior, the mind plans and the body executes whereas in spontaneous action the body and the mind function together. The idea of 'method' comes from the notion that the mind can be taught first and then applied. So spontaneity is a result of body and mind together engaging with the world- learning while doing and rational act is when the mind learns first and the body is taught later. So in spontaneous action, there is no conscious reasoning but the reason is inherent and integral to the act.
So what is irrationality? When did irrational behavior begin? Does the expression 'presence of mind' indicate the absence of mind?
See the link.....https://www.academia.edu/38065607/Spontaneity_and_Rationality-a_fresh_look
--
Jinan,
TEXT DISTORTS, DIGITAL DESTROYS, WORLD AWAKENS http://jinankb.in/ http://existentialknowledgefoundation.org/
http://rethinkingfoundation.weebly.com/
http://sadhanavillageschool.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sadhanavillagepune
https://www.youtube.com/user/jinansvideos
www.re-cognition.org
https://independent.academia.edu/JinanKodapully
09447121544
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