Thanks for that Mike. I will follow up on Sperry. :-)
It seems to me that the problem of causality vs human freedom poses itself
at two distinct places. For the "physicalists" whom Sperry is countering,
it is at the point of the individual human organism being subject to the
laws of physics (a problem for analytical philosophers, natural scientists
and small children); for the issues raised in Kevin's paper it is at the
point of dominant social structures (institutions, discourses, culture) vs
the autonomy of a socially constructed social agent.
I think it is a crucial issue for cultural psychology to clarify. How does
socialisation become appropriation?
Andy
At 09:29 AM 14/07/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>I realize that people are reading Kevin's article when they have time and
>that time is scarce. I pass along the
>following as a contribution to the "causations sub-thread" of that
>discussion.
>mike
>
> "Countering prior physicalist views, the new principles
> of causality affirm that subjective human values are today
> the most strategically powerful driving force governing the
> course of events in the civilized world--and the key to our
> global predicament and its solution." (p. 8)
>
> "The dynamics of the mental progression are determined
> presumably by emergent cognitive properties functioning
> as wholes and as subjectively experienced. The dynamics
> and laws for causal progression at the mental or cognitive
> level are thus quite different from those in the lower-level
> neurophysiology....Human values...are no longer treated as
> being merely parallel or epiphenomenal to brain function.
> Subjective values become causally interactive...and thus
> qualify as legitimate causal constructs, ineliminable in
> scientific explanation." (p. 28)
>
>Reference
> Sperry, R. (1995). The Riddle of Consciousness and the Changing
>Scientific Worldview. *Journal of Humanistic Psychology* 35(2).
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