Late morning. You and Carol have been busy with Brennan – helping him learn to get his butt up to eventually crawl now that he has mastered the turning over onto his stomach and then back over. You both speak to him in English and when you go over the one through ten in English, German and Portuguese you tap on his foot or touch a toe(s) in sequence with the numbers. The same sort of thing you did with Kim when she was that age.
Carol works on the French sounds. Being partially tone deaf I have a terrible problem with languages, even some English as far as pronunciation is concerned.
Yesterday afternoon I was toying with Aristotle’s sense of metaphysics: (that is, reality itself) existence, change, properties, space, time, causality and possibility. Then, Ontology (relationship of being and things); Cosmology: origins of universe; and Epistemology: theories of ‘knowing’ – though I would rather focus on understanding than knowing. One cannot know metaphysics. It is hard enough to know in physics (at least as of today) if a Higgs Boson is the Higgs Boson. I suppose I will have to continue with the sense of “the use of” within metaphysics in the books and blog”.
Carol is readying lunch for a picnic at Shaker Heights pond park. Post. - Amorella
Lesson Eight
We need to develop a metaphysical geography in which to place the individual soul then partner souls, then collective souls, such as the collective souls of the Living and the collective souls of the Dead. - Amorella
The first thing, from my perspective, is to bring up the geography of the individual soul from yesterday’s completion.
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How does the soul exist?
The soul exists as a condensed spiritual dropping formed from a vapor of a natural decorum, a foreshadowing of light, a halo if you will, of Presence. As dignity forms into substance it communicates ‘humanity’ in the form of the spiritual thought: dignity and freedom exist even within adversity as the attendant exists in the soul to receive the flowering heart and mind, protecting physical individuals with higher consciousness from spiritual death after the physical body has perished.
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The first word that comes to mind is the soul exists in a “puddle” that holds a ‘shower’ of souls. But then, what container holds the puddle? We might say water is held in a depression of earth. Is continuing this line of analogy plausible in context?
Stay with uses in a grammatical system rather than things, such as how does the soul rest (as a thought might rest in a paragraph). We have to keep AC in mind; higher consciousness with a different value and survival system or mechanism. Grammar is a prerequisite to higher consciousness in these books. Post. - Amorella
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Grammar as Geography in the HeartanSoulanMind:
[Content To Be Adapted from Wikipedia]
English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences.
Grammar is divided into morphology, which describes the formation of words, and syntax, which describes the construction of meaningful phrases, clauses, and sentences out of words.
Word classes and phrase classes:
Seven major word classes are described here. These are: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition and conjunction. These are traditionally referred to as the "parts of speech".
Selected and Edited from Wikipedia – English Grammar
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Use The Elements of Style if and when needed for clarification. Now, look up the simple definition of geography and create an adaptive definition for our specific purpose. – Amorella.
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metaphysical geography - the study of metaphysical nature and applied conditionals to the relative dimensional arrangement of abstractions, features and uses in a grammatical context.
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Now look up and select specific detailed definitions of ‘metaphysics’ and ‘geography’ in Wikipedia. - Amorella
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Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being: the heartansoulanmind.
The metaphysician attempts to clarify the fundamental notions by which beings of higher consciousness understand the nature of existence and the properties, space, time, cause, effect and ontology, the investigation of basic categories of being and how they relate to each other and how this fits in the study of all phenomena in the universe of the heartansoulanmind.
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Aristotle’s Metaphysics was divided into three parts, which are now regarded as the proper branches of traditional Western metaphysics:
Ontology: The study of being and existence; includes the definition and classification of entities, physical or mental, the nature of their properties, and the nature of change.
Natural Theology: The study of a God or Gods; involves many topics, including among others the nature of religion and the world, existence of the divine, questions about Creation, and the numerous spiritual issues that concern humankind in general.
Universal science: The study of first principles, such as the law of non-contradiction, which Aristotle believed were the foundation of all other inquiries.
Universal science or first philosophy treats of "being qua being"—that is, what is basic to all science before one adds the particular details of any one science. Essentially "being qua being" may be translated as "being insofar as being goes" or as "being in terms of being." This includes topics such as causality, substance, species and elements, as well as the notions of relation, interaction, and finitude.
Geography studies the phenomena within the heartansoulanmind.
Selected, edited and adapted for specific use from Wikipedia – Geography
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The above are definitions to be used in “The Metaphysical Geography of the HeartanSoulanMind”. – Amorella
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We need to keep this simple. The idea is to communicate within first then share. Simple and sparingly, follow the concept of the Presence as you understand its first principle – a Presence is never more than a Presence need be – we have an understanding here. I am talking about the metaphysical system here, the economically spiritual aspect of heartansoulanmind in its ‘being’ both individually and communal. – Amorella
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[Upon writing about blood and spirit lines] I have never thought about bloodlines and spirit lines in the same sentence before.
That is my thought, orndorff, not yours. A slice of the novels are about DNA, the double helix and bloodlines; and the books demonstrate a connection between the Living and the Dead, that the line is genetic, I am suggesting that in order for a spiritual line (the soul) to enter whatever the genetic species with a heartansoulanmind – well, what do you think? Is the soul built in the DNA like the Attendant is built into the soul or does it enter before birth, immediately after birth (legal), or sometime later, perhaps at it’s own digression? – Amorella
The Merlyn series are just novels, Amorella.
No, they are not. They represent who you are in heartansoulanmind. You requested the Angel. SheanHe has to be addressed. – Amorella
This was/is a concept to keep me honest, Amorella, not literal. It is like swearing an oath on the Bible, to me at least. I am not dead. It is a hypothetical concept at best.
You want to remain your best before an Angel, do you not? – Amorella
This is just fiction, Amorella.
So are you, boy, or so you say – mostly fiction. – Amorella
You want the honest truth? That’s because of the 'spiritual dance with you' in the eighties, Amorella. The dance made me realize that I am mostly fiction because during the dance you were more real than I was. I felt/sensed (soberly mind you) I was and I wasn’t in existence at the same time; but you were "Always" – nothing intermittent. That’s the crux. That was a “real” learning experience no matter what caused it. Angel around or not, that’s who I am; changed in perspective and thought. I am mostly fiction and since the addition of the blog, I am more transparent than ever.
Angel or not, you still need to know where you are coming from. Why? Because I want you to remain what you wished for, to die an honest man. – You have free will; abdicate on your wish. – Amorella
I will not be who I am if I do so, Amorella
That is the point, my man, and let this be a lesson to you. Post. - Amorella
Notes – readying is all / perspectives on the mystical
The recent article you read yesterday, Sherry Baker’s “Ways to Leave Your Body,” Discover. July/August, also mention something I would like you to consider. – Amorella
The Buddhist priest is the only thing that comes to mind. If it isn’t nothing else is registering. I have more or less forgotten the article Amorella. We are going to leave for supper soon. I’ll find the article to have it ready.
In a quick scan you found the two segments on pages 53 and 56 I want you to place into today’s post. In a subsection of ‘Travel Outside Your Body’ on page 53 is the DIY caption on how it’s done. On page 56 under the subsection of “The Total Body Swap” is another DIY notation on how it’s done. Quote them both later, then I’ll add an explanation. – Amorella
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Do It Yourself: Float Outside Yourself
Unless you volunteer for an out-of-body experiment in a neuroscience lab, there is no reliable way to induce the experience on demand. But spontaneous ones can occur. One way to induce the experience, according to reports, is meditation. “In many meditations you avoid moving; the focus is on breathing, and information from the rest of the body is reduced. This seems to be a state that is prone to lead to illusory perceptions.” Blanke says. In one small study, researchers reported that floating in sensory deprivation tanks like those developed in the 1950’s (and available to try for a fee in many cities) produced out-of-body experiences in some users.
Sherry Baker, “Ways to Leave Your Body,” ‘Travel Out of Body,’ Discover, July/August, p. 53
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Orndorff, you hardly focus on anything physical let alone breathing. Only when you are doing your exercises do you focus, but the focus is on the count, usually by thirties. And, when you relax you do attempt to be in a meditative state, not to meditate mind you, but to relax and let your mind do the work. The mind takes far less physical energy from your perspective. You remember when you were nineteen and painting Uncle Ernie’s house and you suddenly saw yourself painting. It has been common in your life for you to have periods (weeks or a month or two) when you fully lucid dreams. Somewhere in your vast notes from your college days on you have these described in spiral college lined notebooks still in the basement. Inside and out, you understand the experience of floating outside yourself. As it was/is felt as an authentically real experience that’s how I find an honest use for it in the books. - Amorella
Below, the total body swap is your version of an exchange of souls, or a partial exchange of souls. You have written poems about such experiences which you felt were real in that they appeared authentic at the time of the experience. Sometimes, what you experience is not imagination. You need to realize that. – Amorella
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Do It Yourself: The Total Body Swap
Even if you aren’t a Trekkie, you probably know the phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty” from the vintage Star Trek television show. In that ultimate version of high-speed travel, a person’s atoms are disconnected, transported and reassembled at the destination of choice. A real-life (but alas, only perceptual) version of beaming is currently under development by Mel Slater, a professor of visual environments at the ICREA research institute at the University of Barcelona. Unlike the Star Trek approach Slater keeps bodies intact while transforming their sense of location. The participant needs to wear virtual reality gear: a motion-capture suit and goggles connected to a real-time, 3-D video of a location – a conference, to pick a dull but practical example. People at the conference would see an avatar of the participant or a humanoid robot that embodies the person who has body-swapped in. The next step is adding a sense of touch to the simulation, so a person’s beaming to a remote location could feel himself hugging or shaking hands with a colleague far away.
Slater’s ultimate goal is nothing less than dissolving “the boundary between the human body and surrogate representations.” If he succeeds, paralyzed people could someday be connected wirelessly to humanoid robots and experience the real world. A few researchers have already tested implants that can read brain waves of paralyzed people. A head-mounted display connected to a video camera, auditory pickup, and other sensors in the robot would let such patients virtually move about and experience the world, even if their physical bodies are immobile. Says Slater, “They will be embodied in that robot, seeing through its eyes, interacting and talking with people, moving through the world.”
Sherry Baker, “Ways to Leave Your Body,” ‘The Total Body Swap,’ Discover, July/August, p. 56
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This (above) is the reason I say I am honest when I report such experiences?
Yes. Being honest is not the same as being correct in your reading of your senses, yet the experience is authentically felt. The problem comes not with the existential experience; the problem comes with whether any spiritual-like experience you have ever had was/is a real spiritual experience.
I downloaded The Varieties of Religious Experience by Willam James. I have read this book several times in an attempt to understand my experiences better. It is easier to download than it is to walk to the basement and find the book in my collection.
You do not need to upload entire chapters here as you have remembrances of the readings; however a few chapter introductions will be helpful I will chose and you can chose to concur or not. Post only the ones you agree with in importance, not only here but also in terms of heartansoulanmind. – Amorella
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From: "Contents" The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
Lecture III: The Reality of the Unseen
Percepts versus abstract concepts-- Influence of the latter on belief-- Kant's theological Ideas-- We have a sense of reality other than that given by the special senses-- Examples of "sense of presence"—The feeling of unreality-- Sense of a divine presence: examples—Mystical experiences: examples-- Other cases of sense of God's presence-- Convincingness of unreasoned experience-- Inferiority of rationalism in establishing belief-- Either enthusiasm or solemnity may in the religious attitude of individuals.
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Lectures XVI and XVII: Mysticism
Mysticism defined -- Four marks of mystic states-- They form a distinct
region of consciousness-- Examples of their lower grades-- Mysticism
and alcohol-- "The anaesthetic revelation"-- Religious mysticism--
Aspects of Nature-- Consciousness of God-- "Cosmic
consciousness"—
Yoga-- Buddhistic mysticism-- Sufism-- Christian mystics-- Their sense of revelation—
Tonic effects of mystic states-- They describe by negatives-- Sense of union with the Absolute-- Mysticism and music--
Three conclusions-- (1) Mystical states carry authority for him who has them-- (2) But for no one else-- (3) Nevertheless, they break down the exclusive authority of rationalistic states-- They strengthen monistic and optimistic hypotheses.
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Lecture XVIII: Philosophy
Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary function--
Intellectualism professes to escape objective standards in her theological constructions-- "Dogmatic theology"-- Criticism of its account of God's attributes-- "Pragmatism" as a test of the value of conceptions-- God's metaphysical attributes have no practical significance-- His moral attributes are proved by bad arguments; collapse of systematic theology-- Does transcendental idealism fare better? Its principles-- Quotations from John Caird-- They are good as restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive as reasoned proof-- What philosophy CAN do for religion by transforming herself into "science of religions."
William James, [Selections of] “Contents”, The Varieties of Religious Experience.
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This does give a perspective that allows me some confidence in my reasoning and associative thoughts on the subject.
Good. – Amorella
Notes – the soul and accidental free will
I would like to get back on the various aspects of heartansoulanmind as to be seen in the Merlyn’s Mind series.
What about dimensional levels within the metaphysics, that is, if you consider the living consciously living in the basic four, height, width, depth (space) and the forward flowing appearance of time? – Amorella
Levels of the soul and the heart and the mind?
I prefer regions of the soul, first, and you already appear stuck with vertical and horizontal orientations. – Amorella
Up or down or in or out or some sort of roll to the right or left – those are the simplest and most easily understood dimensional aspects within the physical world. If you are going into some non space-time continuum forget it. Solid, liquid or gas, again, I can hope to comprehend it.
Accident
Accident is not premeditated and if one believes in destiny, it may be, but it is not premeditated from a human perspective. How many times historically a person or a tribe or other social community considered ‘destiny’ to be a part of an individual’s or a group’s social identity? When have those events/happenings worked out with the best laid schemes of mice an men? Edit and post as I see fit, orndorff. - Amorella
You are wondering how the sense of free will and destiny fit into the gear work of the soul? – Can the soul freely choose its counterpart heartanmind? – Amorella
I have another question, for what reason would the soul wish to interfere (ever so slightly) with the heartanmind’s sense of free will?
You lean to accidentally free will. – Amorella
I do see a complication – what if this falling heartanmind is only half picked up by a particular soul? That the heart has one soul protector after physical death and another soul has the mind? [How would/could this affect/effect the conclusion of the in our modern time rebellion of the Dead?]
Such an accident would be possible following your logic. Post. – Amorella
Sometimes a Cigar
I have been considering ‘sincerity’ (free of pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy) as it appears to be connected to honesty and authenticity of personal character. You spoke of gear work and regions of the soul. How is this business of ‘sincerity’ going to work in the book? And, why is it important in terms of the story as well as contentment in heartansoulanmind?
These regions are a different perspective of Freud’s definitions of id, ego and superego. This is a human being going into the psychological aspects of mind. I am giving perspective from the soul first, then the heart and then the mind (it makes no difference if it is soul to mind to heart) as this is not a point A to point B operation. ‘Humanity’ encompasses the unit, if you will, not a partial unit. A dead person in the books stands, sits or lies in the totality of herorhis humanity past and present. A body-shape comparison can be made with Freud's id, ego and superego becoming as the metaphysical body-unit of each and total heartansoulanmind.
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(Below edited from Wikipedia)
Id, ego and super-ego are . . . are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the ego is the organized, realistic part; and the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role.
Even though the model is structural and makes reference to an apparatus, the id, ego and super-ego are functions of the mind rather than parts of the brain and do not correspond one-to-one with actual somatic structures of the kind dealt with by neuroscience. . . .
Id
The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure which contains the basic drives. The id contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The id acts according to the “pleasure principle”, seeking to avoid pain or displeasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.
The id is unconscious by definition:
In the id, "contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other out....There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation...nothing in the id which corresponds to the idea of time."
Developmentally, the id precedes the ego; i.e. the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as an undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. Thus, the id: "...contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution — above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us." . . .
The id is responsible for our basic drives, "knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality...Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge — that, in our view, is all there is in the id." . . . Freud considered that "the id, the whole person...originally includes all the instinctual impulses...the destructive instinct as well." as Eros or the life instincts.
Ego
The ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief. At the same time, Nanda concedes that as the ego "attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the Ucs. [Unconscious] commands of the id with its own Pcs. [Preconscious] rationalizations, to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess...to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding."
. . . The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us. "The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world ... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces." Still worse, "it serves three severe masters...the external world, the super-ego and the id." Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and super-ego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. "Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles...[in] bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it," and readily "breaks out in anxiety — realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id." It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every one of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inferiority. . . .
"The ego is not sharply separated from the id; its lower portion merges into it... But the repressed merges into the id as well, and is merely a part of it. The repressed is only cut off sharply from the ego by the resistances of repression; it can communicate with the ego through the id." (Sigmund Freud, 1923) In a diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted to be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the other quarter lies in the unconscious.
In modern English, ego has many meanings. It could mean one’s self-esteem, an inflated sense of self-worth, or in philosophical terms, one’s self. Ego development is known as the development of multiple processes, cognitive function, defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego processes are emerged.
Super-ego
Freud developed his concept of the super-ego from an earlier combination of the ego ideal and the "special psychical agency which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction from the ego ideal is ensured...what we call our 'conscience'." For him "the installation of the super-ego can be described as a successful instance of identification with the parental agency," while as development proceeds "the super-ego also takes on the influence of those who have stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models."
The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organised part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt. . . .
The super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The super-ego strives to act in a socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-gratification. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways.
The super-ego's demands often oppose the id’s, so the ego sometimes has a hard time in reconciling the two. . . .
In Sigmund Freud's work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), he also discusses the concept of a "cultural super-ego". Freud suggested that the demands of the super-ego "coincide with the precepts of the prevailing cultural super-ego. At this point the two processes, that of the cultural development of the group and that of the cultural development of the individual, are, as it were, always interlocked." Ethics are a central element in the demands of the cultural super-ego, but Freud (as analytic moralist) protested against what he called "the unpsychological proceedings of the cultural super-ego...the ethical demands of the cultural super-ego. It does not trouble itself enough about the facts of the mental constitution of human beings."
Translation
The terms "id", "ego", and "super-ego" are not Freud's own. They are latinisations by his translator James Strachey. Freud himself wrote of "das Es," "das Ich," and "das Über-Ich"—respectively, "the It", "the I", and the "Over-I" (or "I above"); thus to the German reader, Freud's original terms are more or less self-explanatory. Freud borrowed the term "das Es" from Georg Groddeck, a German physician to whose unconventional ideas Freud was much attracted (Groddeck's translators render the term in English as "the It"). The word ego is taken directly from Latin, where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis.
Figures like Bruno Bettelheim have criticized the way "the English translations impeded students' efforts to gain a true understanding of Freud." by substituting the formalised language of the elaborated code for the homely immediacy of Freud's own language.
Edited from: Wikipedia: id, ego, superego
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[In these books] As a host to the heartanmind the soul is built to accept this psychological machinery into itself but “The It”, “The I”, and the “Over-I” are locked in with the soul (as the female) accepting the male oriented heartanmind/or/mindanheart. That should be enough sexual gratification to meet most anyone’s needs as heart and mind are both male for demonstrational purposes here; comrades-in-arms, so to speak. – Amorella
What a fun sense of humor Amorella. I am instantly reminded of the sexual aspects of our hybrid character Diplomat.
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We are not to the ‘gear-works’ and region yet; this is on the coupling of psychological media. The above so called id, ego, and superego is the “metaphysical body shape” of heart-and-soul-and-mind.
A (be)foreskin so to speak.
At least you didn’t apologize for your naturally rising humor. - Amorella
The virtue and vice motor & A moral dilemma
When you awoke the Virtues popped into mind, you were remembering that Plato said they were all encompassing, that it is not reasonable to say that one virtue is more important than another.
This is (for me) simplifying the human condition via heartansoulanmind. Moral aspects are important as Freud shows, both cultural and individual, but it seems to me it is the cultural virtues (and balancing vices) that are woven in almost unnoticed because the parents and/or adult (media reinforced) guides that set the early patterns followed quickly by one’s friends and fellow peers. Guilt appears to come from not keeping one’s own standards (virtues). I realize I am generalizing but this line of thought is (in my mind) setting up basic parameters of a psychological motor mentally directed to/at/for the definition of one’s self-identity. This is a part of the gear works.
Not exactly, boy, but let’s continue on in this direction so you can see where it leads. You need a reminder of the virtues and sins as you are currently spending brain time trying to remember each by definition.
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A virtue is a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. The opposite of virtue is vice. (Wikipedia)
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Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society.. . . The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means "full of vice". In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning "failing or defect". Vice is the opposite of virtue. (edited from Wikipedia)
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The Virtues and the Vices are historically coming from culture. Substitutions can be invented and then open for consideration. You don’t want to forget to include the humanity of Diplomat’s miniscule AC. – Amorella
I did forget. I wanted to revert to the medieval list of seven virtues and seven ‘countered’ sins – too much complication and they certainly wouldn’t necessarily have meaning for a once-upon-a-time-a-floating-seed being with higher consciousness.
A Moral Dilemma
After supper Paul came in with the gun you gave him from your Dad’s collection last week.
One of Dad’s guns is a German Drilling double-barreled [?] gauge with a 8mm rifle barrel below and a scope up above; I assume it was a civilian sports gun. Along the barrel is printed “Krupp Laufstahd”, Krupp steel barrel, I imagine. At the barrel’s near trigger edge is printed “Nitro” and “578mm”/”537 SUHL”. On the barrel bottom is “13GR”. The gun has decorated-with-animal figures engraved in the silver inlay plates.
I do not enjoy shooting guns (target and clay pigeon) like I did in my youth. I was never a hunter but I respect those who love such weaponry for sport, especially balanced weapons; works of art and design and those also built practically for uncommon accuracy.
This above material on weaponry has nothing to do with our discussion. – Amorella
I know, but when Paul showed me the ‘numbers’ he found on the gun (ones that I did not already know were there) I found/find it interesting. I love the engineering and design of things. While at Indian Hill we had some discussions on art in the teachers' lounge, and I remember a heated discussion about the efficiency in the design of a nuclear weapon. I said I might love the design (schematic diagram) if I saw one but I deplore the destructive use of the actual weapon.
You have a moral dilemma here, do you not? – Amorella
Yes.
Why don’t we use this later as an example of how the heartansoulanmind work to balance such a problem with a humanely reasonable wise decision? – Amorella
I think it is impossible to make a humane moral decision on this specific subject matter: The original question that started the question is this: Can the design, the schematic diagram, of a nuclear weapon be considered a work of art?
Condensation of Lessons
In checking email I found this short work that fits in with thoughts on heartansoulanmind.
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“The False Allure of Group Selection”
An Edge Original Essay
Steven Pinker [6.18.12]
Steven Pinker is a Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology; Harvard University. Author, The Better Angels Of Our Nature: How Violence Has Declined, The Language Instinct, and How the Mind Works.
The False Allure of Group Selection
Human beings live in groups, are affected by the fortunes of their groups, and sometimes make sacrifices that benefit their groups. Does this mean that the human brain has been shaped by natural selection to promote the welfare of the group in competition with other groups, even when it damages the welfare of the person and his or her kin? If so, does the theory of natural selection have to be revamped to designate "groups" as units of selection, analogous to the role played in the theory by genes?
Several scientists whom I greatly respect have said so in prominent places. And they have gone on to use the theory of group selection to make eye-opening claims about the human condition.[i] They have claimed that human morality, particularly our willingness to engage in acts of altruism, can be explained as an adaptation to group-against-group competition. As E. O. Wilson explains, "In a group, selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals. But, groups of altruistic individuals beat groups of selfish individuals." They have proposed that group selection can explain the mystery of religion, because a shared belief in supernatural beings can foster group cohesion. They suggest that evolution has equipped humans to solve tragedies of the commons (also known as collective action dilemmas and public goods games), in which actions that benefit the individual may harm the community; familiar examples include overfishing, highway congestion, tax evasion, and carbon emissions. And they have drawn normative moral and political conclusions from these scientific beliefs, such as that we should recognize the wisdom behind conservative values, like religiosity, patriotism, and Puritanism, and that we should valorize a communitarian loyalty and sacrifice for the good of the group over an every-man-for-himself individualism.
From: Edge 371: Pinker on The False Allure of Group Selection; (Edge.org June 18, 2012)
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Let’s summarize what we have on The Uses of the Soul. – Amorella
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