MD The MOQ and Mysticism 101

From: Ant McWatt (antmcwatt@hotmail.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 12 2005 - 19:37:38 GMT

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    Platt Holden stated January 10th 2005:

    >Chin asked: If intuition is not DQ, then what is it?
    >
    >DMB replies: Instinct. A hunch. A feeling. Its a vague word and should be
    >avoided by philosophers for that reason, especially if we are trying to
    >distinguish instincts and feelings from a mystical experience.
    >
    >Chin: I guess it is possible we could reduce ourselves to non-intellectual
    >animals.
    >
    >Platt: Point well made, Chin. It looks more and more like mystic experience
    >is
    >like animal experience, i.e., without concepts.

    Ant McWatt notes:

    I don’t know if the following is of any help with understanding intuition
    and its link with (animal) instinct but Henri Bergson (“Creative Evolution”,
    1907, p.160) makes the interesting point that the intellect invented tools
    and then language to manipulate unorganized matter. This explains why, for
    instance, ant societies are based on instinct so their behaviour is
    pre-ordained (and static) while human societies are learnt (largely from
    copying? - see Susan Blackmore) and therefore not (so) pre-ordained (and, as
    such, relatively Dynamic). Abstract notions such as geometry and logic were
    then developed later by humans to specifically handle solids i.e. matter.
    So, in a sense, the concepts of mind and matter developed together – a
    similar point is made by Julian Jaynes in “The Bicameral Mind” (1976).

    Bergson (1907, p.p.176-179) then suggests that intellect is concerned with
    static parts while it is intuition (which he understands as instinct that
    has become conscious) that deals with Dynamic wholes.

    “The double form of consciousness is then due to the double form of the
    real”

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