Deacon's book is very good. It also provides a very strong
counter-arguement to the Chomskian paradigm.
Andy
Judy Diamondstone wrote:
>Tony,
>
>you said>>>
>I wonder if you could say just a little more
>
>
>>about what he means by "mind," in relation to "brain,"
>>
>>
>
>(sorry I missed this)
>Great question, but I encourage you to go to the source, since my own
>understanding of the relationship between brain & mind is necessarily hazy.
>Deacon's examples are illuminating for those of us without background in
>neurophysiology. His understanding of evolution & complex systems seems on
>the mark; in tune with discussions 'here.'
>
>My best approximation is that he sees brains as he sees minds as the
>products of multi-level evolutionay processes, with the more biological
>processes being much slower than the social ones. Duh.
>
>I opened the book to an extended explanation of color recognition &
>reference, which he gives as an example of *nongenetic* evolutionary forces,
>all in the service of explaining structures that appear to us
>determinate....:
>
>"What is built into the brain is a rather subtle set of perceptual biases
>that have none of the categorical and symbolic properties of words.... even
>weak biases, *if constantly and invariably present* can produce social
>evolutionary consequences that appear so ubiquitous as to be considered
>completely determinate.....
>
>linguistic "universals" are "only statistical universals, but supported by
>the astronomical statistics of millions of speakers over tens of thousands
>of years. They are, despite their almost epiphenomenal origin, for all
>practical purposes categorically universal.....
>
>"Languages have adapted to human brains and human brains have adapted to
>languages, but the rate of language change is hundreds or thousands of times
>more rapid than biological change...."
>
>I don't know if that helps. You should read what the horse says.
>
>
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Tony Whitson [mailto:twhitson@udel.edu]
>>Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 7:27 PM
>>To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>Subject: RE: One last word on Peirce - signs minds & other implicated
>>systems -- LONNNG
>>
>>
>>Thanks, Judy, This looks like a book I need to read!
>>Before I get to it though, I wonder if you could say just a little more
>>about what he means by "mind," in relation to "brain," as when in his
>>conclusion Deacon
>>
>>" discusses the implications of the "mind virus"
>>that we host (language is the virus that has bred itself in the
>>human brain,
>>... - our minds are overdesigned to
>>ensure that symbols get discovered). "We inevitably imagine ourselves as
>>symbols, as the tokens of a deeper discourse of the world. But symbols are
>>subject to being rendered meaningless by contradiction, and this makes
>>alternative models of the world direct threats to existence." P. 437 "
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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