Monday, June 30, 2014

neurohermeneutics: why does the brain toy with the puzzlebox in the first place?

amazon |  How are philosophical and theological concepts conceived in the mind? Why are certain topics of greater importance to philosophers and theologians? Why do people think about these issues in the first place? These are the questions that are explored in the ground breaking book, “The Metaphysical Mind”. Philosophy and theology usually considers various fundamental concepts such as those related to being, reality, causality, logic, or phenomenology. But the philosophical approach to these topics often leaves out one of the most important things – the human brain. After all, it is the brain that is actually thinking about these ideas in the first place. “The Metaphysical Mind” explores the relationship between the brain and philosophical thought and helps us to understand how the brain enables and restricts our ability to think about these metaphysical concepts. 

One of the major developments of contemporary thought has been the field of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics considers the environmental, linguistic, and cultural factors that influence a given philosopher in order to determine how particular ideas or texts may have been shaped. However, no one has ever examined philosophical and theological thought specifically from the hermeneutical perspective of the neurobiological and genetic substrate that underlies such thinking. This “neuroscientific hermeneutic” or “neurohermeneutic” refers specifically to the functions of the brain and how they are related to various thought processes which have been at the cornerstone of philosophical and theological thought throughout history. Additionally, this neurohermeneutic helps to better interpret how and why such thoughts develop. Neurohermeneutics is based upon a synthesis of information from multiple fields including anthropology, neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, genetics, theology, and philosophy. Many of the major milestones in the history of philosophical and theological thought from pre-Socratic thinkers to the present day can be considered from the perspective of the functioning of the human mind and its multimodal interaction with the social, cultural, intellectual, and physical environment. In particular, the development of some of the most dramatic concepts in philosophy and theology can be considered in relation to certain brain functions and how those functions enable human beings to interpret meaning in the world. Similarly, contemplative/meditative traditions can be considered to be associated with certain brain functions in order to explore how such experiences are perceived and interpreted. 

This book will also consider the issue of the experience of reality from a neurophysiological perspective. This leads to fascinating conclusions regarding the nature and degrees of reality and how the brain experiences that reality. Although not all philosophical and theological concepts will be examined, many of the major movements will be considered in order to extrapolate to the notion that a neurobiological hermeneutic may provide a basis and fundamental bias for all philosophical thinking – a “metaphilosophy” (or “metatheology” in the specific context of religion). Ultimately, this approach might even lead to a “megaphilosophy” containing universal concepts that could be conceived of from any philosophical or theological perspective. The result of this analysis leads to a description of the "metaphysical mind" which is necessarily driven to pursue philosophical and theological questions, but also shapes how the answers to such questions arise. Thus, the brain itself is “designed” to function in a philosophical or metaphysical manner. This revolutionary approach to philosophical and theological thought will provide readers something to think about for the millennium to come.

11 comments:

umbrarchist said...

European pseudo-intellectualism is about dummies trying to convince other people that they are intelligent. 500 years ago what percentage of the European population knew how to read? Did readers think they had superior "intelligence" to the illiterate?

So what happens if most people can read? What happens when everyone has easy access to info? Bombard everybody with complicated BS.

CNu said...

Are you dismissing the philosophic and metaphysical enterprises as pseudo-intellectual? Just trying to keep the actors straight. So, if the philosopherss and metaphysicians are faking it, who is left to concoct the gedanken which are a necessary precursor to experiments?

Vic78 said...

Bobby Fischer didn't like the evolution. He was upset that a clever 15 year old could beat Capablanca(1920s world champion) because computer programs were that sophisticated. Kasparov has the right approach. Adapt and accept the changes.

As far as the brain stimulation, it depends on what the focus is. That reading list might just be your baby. Figure out a way to put that shit out there. Get the credit.

Vic78 said...

The Administration's pretty slow about dealing with their weed problem. It wouldn't be so bad if people weren't getting fucked around when the word was the Feds would leave them alone. I blame the conservative middle class. They're the most useless part of the population.

CNu said...

LAUSD shows what the "educators", or the teens can do? There are literally mountains of iPads stacked up in a warehouse in LA at this moment, because they're not manageable or controllable on an enterprise-wide basis. The iPad is an expensive consumer toy. It was never intended for this use. iTunes is an unworkable model for digital content distribution on an enterprise scale, it is instead, strictly an individual consumer content distribution mechanism.

Very simply, what happened here was that the decision-makers had no first hand knowledge of the subject they are(were) responsible for governing. They not only didn't know what they were talking about, they flatly didn't know what they were doing. Consequently, the deal was done on the basis of slick and flashy presentations and the sale of "good intentions". That's a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

As far as the kids repurposing the iPads to their own uses. All that amounted to was uninstalling an app or two, or, resetting the device to factory defaults and voila, the iPad was converted to their personal toy. After years of experience with iPods and iPhones, only the most clueless administrators could have ever even imagined it would turn out otherwise. (Same clueless administrators thieving six figure salaries from the school district, but fundamentally incapable of doing the basic little device reconfigurations that the kids take for granted)

CNu said...

The so-called "greatest" generation was fed reams and reams of nonsense about the ganja http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-mysterious-history-of-marijuana.html and had the truth occulted http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-emperor-wears-no-clothes.html to the point where - like LAUSD with its iPads - it was fundamentally unqualified to make a sensible judgement. Lacking first hand knowledge of the thing, or fuzzy recollections of it (and its illegality), and then imbibing nothing more than the propaganda about it, while the propagandists and the commercial interests who lobby for and maintain the occulting walls of illegality and propaganda profit from the same - it's a recipe for disaster.

That puff-puff pass politicians like the Clintons and Obamas are cynically and hypocritically non-plussed about the clearly negative consequences of the prohibition, they're much too shrewdly self-serving to put themselves on the line for "do the right thing" policies when they can instead just wait for the states to grind through the political process and throw off the yoke of an unsustainable and terrible "just say no" war on drugs policy for which there remains a substantial block of "greatest" generation support.

The "greatest" generation is of course the fat hump of the bell curve of the dopamine hegemony. You don't want to go messing around with such a reliably governable flock of two-legged livestock.

John Kurman said...

So, how about encouraging cannabis-as-sacrament closely-held corporations, what with all the Hobby Lobby horseshit?

CNu said...

How'd that work for the native american church and peyote?

John Kurman said...

Not so well, we got the Religious Freedom Restoration Act out of it, which resulted in the current clusterfuck. I'm just hoping some sort of cannabis case of unintended consequences irritates Alito into an early grave.

John Kurman said...

On the other hand, this looks like a fun little hack: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/07/when-the-taliban-meets-hobby-lobby.html

CNu said...

Here's our huckleberry http://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/2013/05/new-twist-in-rastafarians-religious-pot-case-where-is-he.html

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