<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">I would be skeptical of the possibility.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Studies in Neuro-Theology and Cognitive Anthropology might discover (and have)discovered) "universals:" e.g. suppression of activity in a specific brain location decreases one's sense of separation from the Universe; Xenophobia; etc. Other studies show interesting correlations: e.g. One's direct experience of "God" correlated with, what Sheldon called, Somatotype (endomorphs like St. Theresa experiences emotional/sexual rapture, ectomorphs like St. John as intellectual discourse). But there has, so far, been no evidence of any kind of "generative" link between universal primitives and the vast diversity of belief expressions.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">By the way, Chomsky was full of it. <b>:)</b><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Wed, Aug 5, 2020, at 12:04 PM, jon zingale wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FWIW, I occasionally entertain the idea of a *Universal Grammar* for<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> belief[⍦].<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> The idea being that there may be some genetic component of the belief<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> faculty,<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> and that by analogy to universal grammar, one acquires competence in one's<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> own<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> beliefs through performance[⌂][◇]. At any moment, a person makes decisions<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> and<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> suffers the reality that they did or did not believe what they thought they<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> might. Here, I am defining belief more narrowly than most. For me, beliefs<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> are<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> necessarily discovered, and not the kind of thing one 'discovers' by<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> considering<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> hypotheticals. Alternatively, it feels wonderful to reject *-archies in<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> favor<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> of rhizomatic thought[⍼], à la, "A Thousand Plateaus". Taken together, an<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> invigorating experience akin to visiting a sauna with a cold plunge.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> [⍦] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> [◇] The connection I am drawing to Glen's linked paper is to:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 1. similarities between alethic and doxastic modalities.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 2. highlighted tensions between constructivist and analytical modalities.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> [⌂] I think of a theory of this kind as weakly rejecting the notion of<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Peircean<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> truth. Different individuals, with different biologically determined<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> universal<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> belief structures, would ultimately believe different things in the long<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> run.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> What would be considered truth, in the long run, could only then be a<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> tragedy<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> of intersectional beliefs.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> [⍼] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_(philosophy)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_(philosophy)</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> --<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Sent from: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 <a href="http://bit.ly/virtualfriam">bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div></body></html>