Notes:
The philosophy of Rationalism:It all started with Descartes.
The prejudice shared by Rationalism and Empiricism is that man does not know
things directly but grasps only their impressions (phenomena). Rationalism is
concerned with the impressions made on the intellect, Empiricism with those on
the senses. Hence the question arises: Can the knowing subject be certain of
the existence of known objects? If so, to what extent can he be certain?
Both Rationalism and Empiricism needed a new method; the former adopted
mathematical deduction, the latter scientific induction.
René Descartes (1596-1650) is one of the most important Western philosophers
of the past few centuries. During his lifetime, Descartes was just as famous as
an original physicist, physiologist and mathematician. But it is as a highly original
philosopher that he is most frequently read today. He attempted to restart philosophy
in a fresh direction. For example, his philosophy refused to accept the Aristotelian
and Scholastic traditions that had dominated philosophical thought throughout the
Medieval period; it attempted to fully integrate philosophy with the 'new' sciences;
and Descartes changed the relationship between philosophy and theology. Such new
directions
for philosophy made Descartes into a revolutionary figure.
The two most widely known of Descartes' philosophical ideas are those of a method of
hyperbolic doubt, and the argument that, though he may doubt, he cannot doubt that he
exists.
The first of these comprises a key aspect of Descartes' philosophical method. As noted
above,
he refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers - but he also refused to
accept
the obviousness of his own senses. In the search for a foundation for philosophy,
whatever
could be doubted must be rejected. He resolves to trust only that which is clearly
and distinctly
seen to be beyond any doubt. In this manner, Descartes peels away the layers of
beliefs and
opinions that clouded his view of the truth. But, very little remains, only the
simple fact
of doubting itself, and the inescapable inference that something exists doubting,
namely Descartes
himself. Rene Decart - is a great French philosopher facinated
by crosseted woman. Decart was the first to
connect the
ideas of the greatest Italian physicist and German astronomer.
Galilei law about inertia and constructed the mechanism of Universe, where all
the solids are made more by pushing. Decart system was the first attempt to
describe the origin of Universe without miracles and divinely wonders, he
scientifically explained the planets turning to one side and in one plane
and its coordinated rotation. Young Newton was meditating over Decart's
ideas and Newton pointed out the planets as the celestial bodies, which
"wandered" near the Sun in any directions. He returned the Space to the
hollowness again, which Decart drove out from the Universe.
Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677) was the son of a
Jewish merchant from
Amsterdam. His father and grandfather were originally
Portuguese crypto-Jews
-- that is, Jews who were forced to adopt Christianity
in Portugal, but secretly
remained Jewish. He was educated in a traditional Jewish
Curriculum. His father died
when he was 21, after which he was embroiled in a lawsuit
with his stepsister over his father's estate. Spinoza won
the suit, but nevertheless handed virtually all of it over
to his stepsister. Shortly after, Spinoza's budding
theological speculations prompted conflict with Jewish
leaders. Spinoza publicly contended that the scriptures
do not maintain that God has no body, that angels exist,
or that the soul is immortal. After failed attempts to
silence him, he was excommunicated in 1656. For a time
Spinoza was associated with a former Jesuit who ran a
school for children. Spinoza used this as an opportunity
to further his own education and to supplement his income
by teaching in the school. At this time he also learned the
trade of lens grinding for glasses and telescopes.
Yet, in an amazing and very arrogant way, I decide that I am "a kingdom within a kingdom"
(Spinoza). That is, I perceive myself as an independent and autonomous
center of consciousness, creator of its own thoughts and decisions and cut off from the world.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
Isaac Newton was the greatest English mathematician of his generation.
He laid the foundation for differential and integral calculus. His work
on optics and gravitation make him one of the greatest scientists the world has known.
MECHANICS AND GRAVITATION:
According to the well-known story, it was on seeing an apple fall in his orchard at some time during
1665 or 1666 that Newton conceived that the same force governed the motion of the Moon and the apple.
He calculated the force needed to hold the Moon in its orbit, as compared with the force pulling an
object to the ground. He also calculated the centripetal force needed to hold a stone in a sling,
and the relation between the length of a pendulum and the time of its swing. These early explorations
were not soon exploited by Newton, though he studied astronomy and the problems of planetary motion.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German philosopher, mathematician,
and logician who is probably most well known for having invented the differential and
integral calculus (independently of Sir Isaac Newton). In his correspondence with the
leading intellectual and political figures of his era, he discussed mathematics, logic,
science, history, law, and theology.
Wundt's revolutionary approach to psychological experimentation moved
psychological study from the domain of philosophy and the natural sciences
and began to utilize physiological experimental techniques in the laboratory.
To Wundt, the essence of all total adjustments of the organism was a
psychophysical process, an organic response mediated by both the physiological
and the psychological. He pioneered the concept of stating mental events
in relation
to objectively knowable and measurable stimuli and reactions. Wundt perceived
psychology as part of an elaborate philosophy where mind is seen as an
activity,
not a substance. The basic mental activity was designated by Wundt as
'apperception'.
Physiological psychology was concerned with the process of excitations from
stimulation of the sense organs, through sensory neurons to the lower and
higher brain centers, and from these centers to the muscles. Parallel with
this process ran the events of mental life, known through introspection.
Introspection became, for Wundt, the primary tool of experimental psychology.
In Wundt's 1893 edition of Physiological Psychology, he published thetridimensional
theory of feeling': feelings were classified as pleasant or unpleasant,
tense or relaxed,excited or depressed. A given feeling might be at the same time a
combination of oneof each of the categories.
Wundt's method of introspection did not remain a fundamental tool of
psychological experimentation past the early 1920's. His greatest contribution was
to showthat psychology could be a valid experimental science. His influence
in promoting psychology as a science was enormous. Despite poor eyesight, Wundt,
it has been estimated, published 53,000 pages, enough to stock a complete library.
As noted above, a primary preoccupation of many early psychologists, such as
Wundt and Fechner, was with the measurement of powers of sensory
discrimination, resulting in the theory and methodology of psychophysics,
the science of quantitative relations between physical magnitudes and
sensations. This interest with measurements led Wundt to develop what
would be the foundation for Binet's scale of intelligence. Binet had developed
a scale where specific tasks were directly correlated to different levels of abilities
or a mental age. However, Binet was not suggesting that each task would
correspond exactly and reliably to a particular mental level. As the scale developed,
Binet found it necessary to use a number of tasks at each level to determine mental
age. At this point, the task of determining a person's mental age was reminiscent
of one of the psychophysical methods developed by Wundt to determine the level of
a person's sensitivity to faint stimuli or to small physical differences in stimuli.
Questions for this chapter developed by Richard Liebow:
- What is G.s opinion of those who wish to acquire cosmic consciousness?
- What is consciousness?
- What does Ouspensky say about his own attempts to remember himself?
- How does Ouspensky describe the process of divided attention?
- What is the Law of Intervals?
- What is a subordinate octave?
- What is an inner octave?
- What is the cosmic function of organic life on earth?
- Which do you prefer: Your inner world or your outer world?
- Which do you have more control over: Your inner world or your outer
world?
- Without a series of conscious efforts and deliberate course corrections,
could you get your body, your mind, and your feelings all the way to Mr.
Gurdjieffs gravesite in the cemetary of Avon and back to San Francisco within the
course of a couple of weeks?
- Do you consider the effects of simply pausing to be present some kind of
miracle?
- Does pausing just to be present give you access to some new level of
consciousness?
- Is pausing just to be present an attempt to enrich consciousness by
mechanical means?
- Is the cultivating of an intentional personal ritual practice an attempt
to enrich consciousness by mechanical means?
- Do you think of the thin film of organic life covering the surface of
the earth of which we are a part as the earths organ of perception?
- Does going to some place you have never been before, or doing something
you have never done before, give you access to some new level of consciousness?
- Is it possible that our study of Ouspenskys In Search of the Miraculous
is giving us access to some sort of map of pre-sand Egypt?
- How often do you intentionally listen to your own breathing?
- How often do you intentionally sense the beating of your own heart?
- How often, when speaking, do you intentionally listen to your own voice?
Glossary:
The state of being conscious: Knowledge
of one's own existence, condition, sensations, mental operations,
acts, etc. "Consciousness is thus, on the one hand, the recognition
by the mind or "ego" of its acts and affections; -- in other words,
the self-affirmation that certain modifications are known by me,
and that these modifications are mine." Sir W. Hamilton.
(1) Immediate knowledge or perception of the presence of any object,
state, or sensation. See the Note under Attention. "Annihilate the
consciousness of the object, you annihilate the consciousness of
the operation." Sir W. Hamilton. "And, when the steam Which
overflowed the soul had passed away, A consciousness remained
that it had left. . . . images and precious thoughts That shall
not die, and can not be destroyed." Wordsworth. "The consciousness
of wrong brought with it the consciousness of weakness." (Froude.)
(2) Feeling, persuasion, or expectation; esp., inward sense of guilt
or innocence. [R.] "An honest mind is not in the power of a
dishonest: to break its peace there must be some guilt or consciousness.
Is it possible that everything that one is, does, and experiences is a function of the
brain? that one is who one is because of what one's brain is? that becoming something
different means changing the brain? And, if so, what are the implications of this? Do we
lose something, or is the brain actually big enough, as Dickinson suggested, to contain
everything? If so, what might we be able to do that has never before been possible?
What are the risks, the gains, the new landscapes which would be opened to explore?
" Pope.
The seven tone scale=heptatonic scale
from Encyclopædia Britannica Article: also called Seven-note Scale, or Seven-tone Scale,
musical scale made up of seven different tones. The major
and minor scales of Western art music are the most commonly
known heptatonic scales, but different forms of seven-tone scales exist.
Medieval church modes, each having its characteristic pattern of whole and half steps,
used seven tones. Scales that resemble the medieval modes are found in some European
folk music. In Java, many forms of the seven-tone pelog scale occur. Heptatonic scales
can also be found in the music of black Africa and of some American Indians.
The law of “intervals”=
Additional shocs=
The law of seven or the law of octaves=
Subordinate octaves=
Inner octaves=
artificial schock= an effort is made or (a kind of action) at the moment
of preception of the impression.
ordinary condition= generally all the time when we do not remember ourselves.
Additional Notes:
This will probably be moved to Chapter #7
Trick: True Perception - Put your conceptual thinking, paradigms and intellect aside and try(do)
the following trick: pick an object in front of you. Where is this object in relation to You, where
you are, as awareness. Now pick one behind you, then see where it is(the memory) in relation to You.
Now, close your eyes, and scratch your nose. Where is this happening, in relation to You? Scratch the
back of your neck. Look closely, where is this taking place, in relation to You? Hint: having a double
arrow of attention is imperative: one pointed towards the object; one back inwards toward the Unknown.
Trap: Visualizing the thought of 'now' and projecting it to the exclusion of all other thoughts, and
believing this to be the actual present moment, or 'being in the now'. This mistaking of a projected
memory for the 'now' simply leads to frustration as it soon collapses and leaves one worse than before,
forcing a new round of projection as the circle of mind, memory, and imagination continues to spin.
From Bob Fergeson
MANY YEARS PASS before these young future priestesses are allowed to dance in
the temple, where only elderly and experienced priestesses may dance.
Everyone in the monastery knows the alphabet of these postures and when,
in the evening in the main hall of the temple, the priestesses perform the
dances indicated for the ritual of that day, the brethren may read in these
dances one or another truth which men have placed there thousands of years
before.
These dances correspond precisely to our books. Just as is now done on
paper, so, once, certain information about long past events was recorded in
dances and transmitted from century to century to people of subsequent
generations. And these dances are called sacred. Meetings with Remarable Man pp. 162–163
You saw the movements in the dances, but all you saw was the outer form—beauty, technique. But I do
not like the external side you see. For me, art is a means for harmonious development. In everything
we do the underlying idea is to do what cannot be done automatically and without thought. Ordinary
gymnastics and dances are mechanical. If our aim is a harmonious development of man, then for us,
dances and movements are a means of combining the mind and the feeling with movements of the body and
manifesting them together. In all things, we have the aim to develop something which cannot be developed
directly or mechanically—which interprets the whole man: mind, body and feeling. VIEWS FROM THE REAL
WORLD, p. 183
..
To know is good, but to DO is better..fg. from "To trust is good, but to control is better" by Lenin
The Selfisf Gene, Bicameral Mind, Richard Dawkins
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Chapter#6
Chapter#8