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8f712d8 O, what a world of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind! What ineffable essences, these touchless rememberings and unshowable reveries! And the privacy of it all! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries. A whole kingdom where each of us reigns reclusively alone, questi.. mind Julian Jaynes
5246f60 Our sense of justice depends on our sense of time. Justice is a phenomenon only of consciousness, because time spread out in a spatial succession is its very essence. And this is possible only in a spatial metaphor of time. psychology Julian Jaynes
1cbaf10 All of these concrete metaphors increase enormously our powers of perception of the world about us and our understanding of it, and literally create new objects. Indeed, language is an organ of perception, not simply a means of communication. Julian Jaynes
950ed91 Words have meaning, not life or persons or the universe itself," he said. "Our search for certainty rests in our attempts at understanding the history of all individual selves and all civilizations. Beyond that, there is only awe." From a Life Magazine interview in 1988." Julian Jaynes
5363e1a No one is moral among the god-controlled puppets of the Good and evil do not exist. morality psychology Julian Jaynes
bb62e46 Logic is the science of the justification of conclusions we have reached by natural reasoning. My point is that, for such natural reasoning to occur, consciousness is not necessary. The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all. science metaconsciousness definition reasoning consciousness logic Julian Jaynes
604471a We are thus conscious less of the time than we think, because we cannot be conscious of when we are not conscious. Julian Jaynes
9c553b8 And as you read, you are not conscious of the letters or even of the words or even of the syntax or the sentences and punctuation, but only of their meaning. As you listen to an address, phonemes disappear into words and words into sentences and sentences disappear into what they are trying to say, into meaning. To be conscious of the elements of speech is to destroy the intention of the speech. Julian Jaynes
5512183 Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywh.. argument-by-analogy consciousness psychology Julian Jaynes
596e0bd The lexicon of language, then, is a finite set of terms that by metaphor is able to stretch out over an infinite set of circumstances, even to creating new circumstances thereby. Julian Jaynes
4ce7284 Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. Julian Jaynes
0abfa67 Alfred Russel Wallace, the codiscoverer of the theory of natural selection. Following their twin announcements of the theory in 1858, both Darwin and Wallace struggled like Laocoons with the serpentine problem of human evolution and its encoiling difficulty of consciousness. But where Darwin clouded the problem with his own naivete, seeing only continuity in evolution, Wallace could not do so. Julian Jaynes
74c7062 Memory is the medium of the must-have-been. Julian Jaynes
d674a79 Thinking, then, is not conscious. Rather, it is an automatic process following a struction and the materials on which the struction is to operate. Julian Jaynes
dbb75e0 What was then an augury for direction of action among the ruins of an archaic mentality is now the search for an innocence of certainty among the mythologies of facts. Julian Jaynes
55a2a2f And why are we least conscious when doing something most habitual? Certainly this seesawing relationship between consciousness and actions is something that any theory of consciousness must explain. Julian Jaynes
932a8f7 As the stag pants after the waterbrooks, So pants my mind after you, O gods! My mind thirsts for gods! for living gods! When shall I come face to face with gods? --Psalm 42 Julian Jaynes
7a5dd94 We sometimes think, and even like to think, that the two greatest exertions that have influenced mankind, religion and science, have always been historical enemies, intriguing us in opposite directions. But this effort at special identity is loudly false. It is not religion but the church and science that were hostile to each other. And it was rivalry, not contravention. Both were religious. They were two giants fuming at each other over th.. church-politics the-auguries-of-science inquisition science-vs-religion Julian Jaynes
c3e0529 Language too is a brake upon social change. Julian Jaynes
224d519 Courtiers in some of their inscriptions referring to the king say, "I did what his ka loved" or "I did that which his ka approved," Julian Jaynes
d6f78c0 He felt the evidence showed that some metaphysical force had directed evolution at three different points: the beginning of life, the beginning of consciousness, and the beginning of civilized culture. Julian Jaynes
306e168 nkhstyn sh`rn khdyn bwdnd Julian Jaynes
64be4c8 Osiris, to go directly to the important part of this, was not a "dying god," not "life caught in the spell of death," or "a dead god," as modern interpreters have said. He was the hallucinated voice of a dead king whose admonitions could still carry weight. And since he could still be heard, there is no paradox in the fact that the body from which the voice once came should be mummified, with all the equipment of the tomb providing life's n.. dead-god egyptian-mythology hallucination horus memphite-theology mummification osiris Julian Jaynes
f39f460 Indeed I have begun in this fashion, and place great importance on this opening chapter, for unless you are here convinced that a civilization without consciousness is possible, you will find the discussion that follows unconvincing and paradoxical. Julian Jaynes
4a631d3 CIVILIZATION is the art of living in towns of such size that everyone does not know everyone else. Julian Jaynes
df1dec1 The intellectual life of man, his culture and history and religion and science, is different from anything else we know of in the universe. That is fact. Julian Jaynes
472837d Signal learning (or classical or conditioning) is the simplest example [of learning without consciousness]. If a light signal immediately followed by a puff of air through a rubber tube is directed at a person's eye about ten times, the eyelid, which previously blinked only to the puff of air, will begin to blink to the light signal alone, and this becomes more and more frequent as trials proceed. Subjects who have undergone this well-kno.. classical-conditioning signal-learning unconscious-learning pavlov consciousness Julian Jaynes
91ffe05 We can only know in the nervous system what we have known in behavior first. Julian Jaynes
c0264dd The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all. Julian Jaynes
3bda136 Indeed, it is sometimes almost as if the problem had to be forgotten to be solved. Julian Jaynes
7e25706 It is by metaphor that language grows. Julian Jaynes
339fc69 The king dead is a living god. Julian Jaynes
634eda3 There is no such thing as a complete consciousness. Julian Jaynes
f33c13f Every god is a jealous god after the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Julian Jaynes
1162286 Idolatry is still a socially cohesive force - its original function. Julian Jaynes
483f61f The vestiges of the bicameral mind do not exist in any empty psychological space. Julian Jaynes
ec3af2a We know too much to command ourselves very far. Julian Jaynes
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