I do think we once perceived the world in way radically different from how we perceive it today. Jaynes always seemed like a stretch to me, though. Not only is he's positing something that is unfalsifiable, I just think there's a much simpler explanation that we can still experience for ourselves. Just go for a hike or spend a few days in the woods! The chattery part of your brain eventually slows down and you begin to experience the world in a much more holistic way. You'll notice that your creativity improves, your dreams become more vivid, and you'll also start to feel a sense of "presence" about you. Now imagine if you grew up in that environment. Imagine if your neurons mapped themselves according to those conditions. What would your experience of the world be like? I mean, if you want to know, take a weekend and read Mark Pltokin's Tales of the Shaman's Apprentice or Vine Deloria's The World We Used to Live In. This is an experience that is still available to us. We still have the same hardware. It's just no longer the default experience. It requires effort and skill to find and develop.
While reading the post, i thought, that this model relates to Freud's trinity of It, I, Over-I. I know of no Freudian explanation of their existence, so Jaynes work counts at least as an explanation of how.
Thanks for writing about Jaynes - a truly original mind. I read the book when first published and have been an avid fan ever since. I think it probably is a flawed experiment but it’s dramatically unusual and very thought provoking. I wish I had met him and heard him speak.
I do think we once perceived the world in way radically different from how we perceive it today. Jaynes always seemed like a stretch to me, though. Not only is he's positing something that is unfalsifiable, I just think there's a much simpler explanation that we can still experience for ourselves. Just go for a hike or spend a few days in the woods! The chattery part of your brain eventually slows down and you begin to experience the world in a much more holistic way. You'll notice that your creativity improves, your dreams become more vivid, and you'll also start to feel a sense of "presence" about you. Now imagine if you grew up in that environment. Imagine if your neurons mapped themselves according to those conditions. What would your experience of the world be like? I mean, if you want to know, take a weekend and read Mark Pltokin's Tales of the Shaman's Apprentice or Vine Deloria's The World We Used to Live In. This is an experience that is still available to us. We still have the same hardware. It's just no longer the default experience. It requires effort and skill to find and develop.
While reading the post, i thought, that this model relates to Freud's trinity of It, I, Over-I. I know of no Freudian explanation of their existence, so Jaynes work counts at least as an explanation of how.
Thanks for writing about Jaynes - a truly original mind. I read the book when first published and have been an avid fan ever since. I think it probably is a flawed experiment but it’s dramatically unusual and very thought provoking. I wish I had met him and heard him speak.