Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA00851 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 18 Sep 2000 02:15:55 +0100 Subject: Re: memetics and knowledge Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 21:13:09 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000918011306.AAA12739@camailp.harvard.edu@[204.96.32.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>>But, yes, somatic
>> 'knowledge' is another path the senses use to offer experience to the
>> brain.
>
>Wouldn't it be simpler to say: we can learn through our senses, as well
>as through symbolic communications?
'Learning through our senses' sounds nonsensical to me. Machines can
sense- all instrumentations are sensory systems at one level. I really
think 'offering experience to the brain' is a more apt and simpler way to
describe the functionality of the senses in the body, as they relate to
'mind'. And all that symbolic communication has to be sensed firstly and
primarily.
>> When I encounter the straw bicycle upon which to teach this straw man,
>> I'll let ya know....
>
>Why don't you just say what you mean? Unless, of course, you prefer
>mystification?
There is no way to pass on to someone else a somatic skill- regardless of
your completeness of explanation, there will never be a point at which
you can impart the skill to balance upon two wheels to another. You can
not, even, impart it to yourself without being astride a bicycle. The
straw here is that the mystic has no bicycle (of whatever material) to
offer the neophyte, and never did and never will. And there is no actual
skill the mystic has to impart. The mystic (and anyone else, for that
matter) can, at best, offer good explanations of perceptual states-
describe the point of balance, for instance- but somatic experience
itself will remain available only to the actual experiencer- indeed, only
to the actual set of senses and brain resident at one particular moment
in an individual. Mystics tend to, um, concentrate on areas of perception
that are difficult (if not uncannily and totally unnecessary) to reach.
Riding a bicycle gets more done than feeling the love at the center of
the universe.
Blessed be my Schwinn....
- Wade
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