We can only know in the nervous system what we have known in behavior first.
Even if we had a complete wiring diagram of the nervous system, we still would not be able to answer our basic question.
Though we knew the connections of every tickling that ever existed, together with all its neurotransmitters and how they varied in its billions of synapses of every brain that ever existed, we could still never -- not ever -- from a knowledge of the brain alone know if that brain contained a consciousness like our own.
We first have to start from the top, from some conception of what consciousness is, from what our own introspection is.
We have to be sure of that before we can enter the nervous system and talk about its neurology.
We must, therefore, try to make a new beginning by stating what consciousness is.
We have already seen that the history of the subject is an enormous confusion of metaphor with designation.
In any such situation, where something is so resistant to even the beginnings of clarity, it is wisdom to begin by determining what that something is not.
Julian Jaynes. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. (18)
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Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind ("Good Parts")
غير روائيJulian Jaynes's book "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind," has a lot of good parts. We've taken ONLY those good parts while ELIMINATING the bad parts, the boring parts, etc. Instead of reading nearly 500 pages, this...
