Re: [xmca] Polls are closed: Manfred Holodynsk's article is choice

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-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
Sender: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:42:43 
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity<xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Reply-To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: [xmca] Polls are closed: Manfred Holodynsk's article is choice

Martin,
This answer is very helpful for situating our understanding of *mental
states* as a particular cosmovision with its corresponding understanding of
*thinking* and *thought*.

I find your invitation to explore an alternative cosmovision which
understands *thinking* and *thought* AS creative active imagination
connects to your article on Ifa divination. I share taylor's desire to
consider mental states as a particular type of ontology which develops
historically AS a particular type of thinking/being.

The other tension I consider relevant is the notions of *overcoming* and
*undergoing* as ways of understanding *participation*.
I remember mike mentioning how some scholars question the tool metaphor as
emphasizing *instrumental reasoning* as ways of   *overcoming* problems. If
we question the tool metaphor as  imagining picking up and putting down
tools as needed which we HAVE to use we may be representing mental states
as a particular folk psychology of overcoming using instruments.

Active imagination and active participation as undergoing implies a
contrasting metaphor and model of participation which understands mental
states as a particular folk psychology which emphasizes instrumental
reasoning.

To return these musings back to Manfred's article and your comments on
intention in action and intention as anticipatory planning.
Is it possible to embrace the fundamental understanding of expressive signs
(and gestures) as imaginative understandings without the use of *mental
state* language??

I hope these musings are on topic.

Larry



On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 7:54 AM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:

> Larry,
>
> Charles Taylor has traced the history of the modern Western
> folk-psychology of self, in Sources of the Self. He traces three main
> lines, one of which has emphasized the power of disengaged, instrumental
> reason. I think you can see this at work in the contemporary psychology of
> mental states, which has a distinct flavor of Machiavellian strategizing:
> the individual planning in advance the impact they wish to have on others.
> Or the individual analyzing in a detached manner the beliefs and desires of
> another person in order to, I don't know, sell them a used car.  Taylor
> himself wants us to pay more attention to the historical line which has
> emphasized human imagination, creativity and involvement, and which he
> argues has had a much richer understanding of nature and our place within
> it.
>
> Martin
>
> On Mar 19, 2013, at 11:11 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Do you know of any authors or books which have traced the history of the
> > development of *mental states* as a *folk* psychology?
>
>
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