October 19, 2015: Three Minds: Science, Values and Economics
Today we talked about the various ways we categorize the "mind," with an eye towards understanding how the economic approach (logical and rational) represents a strategy for those who have already decided their priorities.
Economic arguments aren't effective when current economic interests are perceived as threatened. Threats trigger fear. Fear tends to hunker folks down in defensive positions. The idea is to focus on the tremendous human creative capacity to find "win-win" solutions. The challenge we face is the formidable corporate power whose "heart" seems set on maintaining its power, even at the expense of the eco-systems we have enjoyed for the past 40,000 - 60,000 years.
For those who don't yet get it, I suggested that the best approach is the development of relationships. For corporate power, I suggested that grassroots awareness of what is at stake can shift corporate priorities. After all, corporations are interested in staying in business, and their reputations are what marketing is all about. We'll work on ideas for various strategies in upcoming classes.
I suggested that Plato's three-part split of the mind as described in The Republic can be aligned with the three connected neural centers: brain, heart and gut. The surprise is that Plato's "reason" accords with the heart. It is the broader view that maintains the balance. And balance implies tension. Tension is inherent to balance. We need the gut-brain, and we need the logic-brain, and the heart can suggest a balance. The gut feeds us, and the logic of our pre-frontal cortex provides the tool to implement the strategies that are hearts discern.
Tor Nørretranders is the author of the book The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, which explains how the statistic 40 bits per second of conscious bandwidth versus 11,000,000 bits per second bandwidth for all other sensory perception is calculated (p. 125-126).
Here are links to the YouTubes we saw today:
Here is a photo of our notes from class today:
Economic arguments aren't effective when current economic interests are perceived as threatened. Threats trigger fear. Fear tends to hunker folks down in defensive positions. The idea is to focus on the tremendous human creative capacity to find "win-win" solutions. The challenge we face is the formidable corporate power whose "heart" seems set on maintaining its power, even at the expense of the eco-systems we have enjoyed for the past 40,000 - 60,000 years.
For those who don't yet get it, I suggested that the best approach is the development of relationships. For corporate power, I suggested that grassroots awareness of what is at stake can shift corporate priorities. After all, corporations are interested in staying in business, and their reputations are what marketing is all about. We'll work on ideas for various strategies in upcoming classes.
I suggested that Plato's three-part split of the mind as described in The Republic can be aligned with the three connected neural centers: brain, heart and gut. The surprise is that Plato's "reason" accords with the heart. It is the broader view that maintains the balance. And balance implies tension. Tension is inherent to balance. We need the gut-brain, and we need the logic-brain, and the heart can suggest a balance. The gut feeds us, and the logic of our pre-frontal cortex provides the tool to implement the strategies that are hearts discern.
Tor Nørretranders is the author of the book The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, which explains how the statistic 40 bits per second of conscious bandwidth versus 11,000,000 bits per second bandwidth for all other sensory perception is calculated (p. 125-126).
Here are links to the YouTubes we saw today:
- A six-year-old girl asks her mom to be friends with her dad
- Noam Chomsky on the grassroots approach to social change... with respect to climate change
Here is a photo of our notes from class today: