[FRIAM] Self-Consciousness, experience and metaphysics

[Jochen Fromm]

Nice link. IMHO the most interesting things in culture happen at the transition between the primitive cultures studied in anthropology and the modern societies studied in sociology. One could argue that self-awareness also happens at such a point: it is the transition moment between the "here-and-now" world of the child and the detached "non-obvious" reality of grown-ups.-J.
-------- Original message --------From: Roger Critchlow <rec at elf.org> Date: 7/24/24  7:58 PM  (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Self-Consciousness, experience and metaphysics Andrew Gelman's blog had a post this morning about his sister's research into the acquisition of reasoning.  https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2024/07/24/this-ones-important-looking-beyond-the-obvious-essentialism-and-abstraction-as-central-to-our-reasoning-and-beliefs/Children begin organizing their experience with concepts that have no material existence very early in life.  Perhaps as soon as they start talking to each other about WTF is going on.  Not in the research, but I expect they talk to their pets about this, too.-- rec --On Wed, Jul 24, 2024 at 11:31 AM Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:Nick, Looking for self-awareness in animals before language emerged feels to me like searching for culture in anthropology before civilizations appeared.People in anthropology study human societies, cultures and their development, but sadly mostly in the time before it gets interesting (when religions, writing systems and civilizations emerged in ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia). They examine for instance primitive hunter gatherer groups in Africa or ancient tribes in the Amazon region. Looking for examples of particular experiences with animals that show signs of self-awareness (and not only respond to the world around them, but also respond to their own responding to the world around them) feels similar to me: it is like focusing on a fascinating phenomenon but at a place before it gets interesting.If this comment bends the thread too much then please ignore it :-)J.-------- Original message --------From: Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> Date: 7/23/24  6:57 PM  (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>, Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> Subject: [FRIAM] Self-Consciousness, experience and metaphysics David's last post so effectively blurs the lines between these two that I am going to give up, for the moment, on my attempt to keep them straight.Intuition tells me that Dave's post falls on one side of the line, and Glen's on the other,  but I have to go shopping.   I am still hoping to hear examples of particular experiences with animals, computers, spouses, etc., that confirm your sense that they are not  only responding to the world around them, but also responding to their own responding to the world around them. Back to this later when stocked upIn the meantime, Please, you-all, don't dick with this thread, don't fork it and do, if you are responding to a particular comment, speak to that person, don't just fling your wisdom out into the ether.I never thought you guys would turn me into a thread-Nazi.  Nick
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