Friday, October 24, 2014

Reflection on Julian Jaynes' THe Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind


Sorting out one’s place in the universe. This describes the web of activities  I pursue, some activities I employ to attempt to grasp
my way or ‘place’ in the universe---thinking my ‘out of the puzzle’ or rather ‘into the puzzle’. Like a bunny lop born into the cellar or the rabbitry ‘knows’ it’s place and its way around the cage floor or the enclosure of the rabbit house, and the outdoor corral, then one day, miraculously the rabbit having escaped the enclosure of the rabbitry now roams as far as heart allows. Now this is an experience that is novel to the rabbit! ...Experience of... let’s call it the great wide open world, the world of God’s light. Don’t forget that this mini-lop's ancestors used to roam in the wild in Germany mid-19th century. All of its domesticated  predecessors were bred in captivity and some travelled to the US to find their way into my breeding line via: Blackberry and Snowflake.Wikipedia; Mini-Lops Entry

Like a rabbit I am puzzling my way out of this or rather ‘into all of this’---the language is of assistance---up to a certain point. Do you see how the use of the expressions referring to puzzling: ‘into all of this’ or ‘out of this’ refer to a direction --- and yet the universe may be dimensionless---hence the in vs. out is arbitrary depending on the scale of the enclosure under discussion (cf. the rabbit house analogy above). In or out find their meaning when we get out of or into a new enclosure, but if there is no getting in or out with regard to being in the great wide open, then inside or outside is a question of relative scale----a home inside a cage, a cage within a rabbit house, the corral attached to the rabbitry, the yard and then the open beyond!

One comes up against the actual day, one surfaces ‘there’ this particular ‘there’ that is here! The source and fountain of this experience. This day is so magnificently beautiful that I blaspheme to remain indoors writing about ‘this day’ (and perhaps, reader, you blaspheme as well, by reading this thing---while all around you the day clusters like a scrapping wind in the oak’s bony fingertips setting the merry leaves into their frolic ::;)  

In searching ‘further, outside, inside---does not matter what I am searching for...because by definition like the rabbit I have no way of knowing if I am working my way into or out of the “problem”, “answer,” God”, “Being”, “truth”, “universe”, I am searching severally, questing for what...? How can the rabbit having escaped from the rabbitry orient himself or herself? What is the new enclosure?

Next Essay: The limit of the speakable as we learn from Wittgenstein. Encyclopedia Entry: Ludwig Wittgenstein

Knowledge of God is always indirectly stated---the idea is found in Kierkegaard---Encyclopedia Entry: Soren Kierkegaard