JONATHAN COMMENTS ON GLOVE'S
"Force of Value in the Metaphysics of Quality"
AND DISCUSSES LEFT-BRAIN/RIGHT-BRAIN ISSUE
"Pattern matching" seems to be a central theme ...
URL - http://members.tripod.com/~Glove_r/Jaynes.html
Hi Glove, Fintan, Squad,
Several aspects of Glove's paper are interesting. First, there are
the word-matching experiments which show that the subject of the
experiment unconsciously "understands" before consciously thinking about
the task.
<<<<
What seemed to be happening was that thinking was automatic and not
really conscious once a stimulus word had been given, and, previous to
that, the particular type of association demanded had been adequately
understood by the observer.
This was a remarkable result. Another way of saying it is that one does
one's thinking before one knows what one is to think about.
>>>>
This is pattern matching at work. The "understanding" is the brain
detecting and deriving meaning from the word. The subject hears "oak"
and immediately the neurons start firing and making all sorts of word
and image associations. Utter the word "oak" to a non-English speaker
and the pattern matching doesn't take place - THE WORD HAS NO MEANING.
This is exactly what Fintan wrote in his MoM (derived from me, of
course;-)
In the paper Glove wrote:-
<<<Speech is a social pattern of value in the Metaphysics of Quality.
Therefore I would like to equate the left side of the brain to the
social level, and the right side of the brain to the intellect. >>>
This is the exact opposite of what Fintan wrote. Fintan went along with
conventional wisdom that says that logical thought is word manipulation,
a Left-brain function. Fintan puts Society on the Right (with emotion?),
while you put it on the Left with language - society's main
communication tool.
Glove, I can see value in both approaches. Perhaps the real solution is
that neither intellect nor society are really "half-brain" phenomena.
In support, I have a quote from Albert Einstein which I have been saved
for the RighT moment:-
The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery.
There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition
or what you will, and the solution comes to you and
you don't know how or why.
— Albert Einstein
Jonathan
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