Final Study Sheet - Prof David William Bates PDF

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Prof David William Bates...

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CENTRAL ARGUMENT SUPPORTED BY TEXTS AND EXAMPLES Rhetoric Review  Essay should include arguments, differences, assumption of various authors  Use 1 author to organize the other ones as foils  8 questions, 2 choices, don’t choose same authors (only 1 crossover text) Hobbes: deduction  ideas, add/ subtract definitions. Imagination, senses, memory Rousseau: perfectability and human freedom, induction compare with others -----------------------------------------------------------------------Rousseau linked human freedom with what he called “perfectibility.” To what extent can this freedom be understood as a relation to technology? Explain how Leroi-Gourhan’s ideas about the origins of the human help us frame Rousseau’s argument, then show whether or not Stiegler’s claim that the human “is” technics is consistent with Rousseau’s own position on human freedom. ROUSSEAU: perfectability  human freedom 1. relation of technology to human freedom 2. how LG frames R’s argument (exteriorization) 3. Stiegler consistent with Rousseau? ARGUMENT: ASSUMPTIONS OF AUTHORS: Rousseau’s 2nd Discourse: (not read original)  political implications of human and nature, what is inequality in society? Where did it come from? Based on natural inequality? NO  2 principles prior to reason: (1) interest in well-being/ self-preservation (2) repugnance of suffering of sentient being like us (cooperation, combination)  2 types of inequality: (1) physical/nature, (2) moral/political (depends political convention, authorized by men’s consent)  Don’t know, would have to look at natural condition  challenge?  IMAGINE state of nature and humans w/o unnecessary features of civilized humanity (lacks unique instinct, imitate animals, becomes stronger, understands uniformity of nature, no longer fearful, use body as a tool) o Stripped of “supernatural gifts” or “articificial faculties”, issued from the “hands of Nature” o Less strong or aglile than others, but most advantageously organized o Simple needs: eat drink sleep sex o Since his body is the only tool which savage man knows, he puts it to various uses of which our bodies are incapable for want of practice...” (animals do not use bodies as tools?) o “To go naked, to be without habitation, and to be deprived of all the useless things we believe so necessary is, then, not such a great misfortune for these first men, nor, above all, is it such a great obstacle to their preservation.”

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Part 1: scientific experiment, Nature: large terrarium, human stripped of everything (no language , reason, relationships) ONLY desire to live and physical means to satisfy them Perfectability, free agent, essence of humans, open to change, not defined by “real nature” or driven by instinct, not machine, BUT deviate to his detriment Humans imitates animals, later obstacles create need to change to survive, awakens cognition o (relations, comparisons- not driven by train of thought like Hobbes’, stop look for similarities, anticipate future, new ideas) “Desires do not exceed his physical needs”, hence not need speech and cannot have foresight/ curiosity/ reasoning (though language greatly increases cognitive capacity) need 1) communication and 2) necessity to cross so great a divide Society = hut  groups of hut communities, independent and equal and free in nature & society Original humans = independent, equal, free in nature and early society Humans become unequal when comparison happens in econ with division of labor Challengers French philosopher Condillac’s idea of origin of language: it assumes society Family/society not natural: sex is one-night stand, love born in civilization, mom feeds kids out of own need and kid leaves after becoming independent no natural bond of sociability Crucial development for learning/thinking: general terms (commonality by comparison, difficult, first notice differences) Change environment “foreign causes”: various difficulties  inventions to overcome o “.... everything obliged him to attend to bodily exercise; he had to become agile, run fast, fight vigorously. The natural weapons, branches and stones, were soon at hand. He learned to overcome the obstacles of Nature, fight other animals when necessary, contend even with men for his subsistence, or make up for what had to be yielded to the stronger.” o Increase in cognitive capacity Learning from past for future: induction (putting together diff experiences from diff times) Result: increased cognitive capacity, reason= observation/comparison (interruption of mechanical chain of association)  knowledge, recognize similarity, ability to cooperate (temp/unnecessary) Origin of society: (1) Hut “first revolution”  sex makes family  paternal love (transfer self love through comparison)  community: inequality of judgment (preference, jealousy, disappointment) o imperceptibly they acquire ideas of merit and of beauty which produce sentiments of preference.” o Leading to: jealousy, disappointment, violence. Nascent society civilization: division of labor creates dependency, metallurgy and agriculture balance soon upset and talents not equal, natural inequality now matters for survival (exacerbates social inequality)

Applies LG: shows limited exteriorization of humans in their natural condition already, and the potential for further exteriorization when need and opportunity arises  More cynical view of exteriorization, the development of society and community is a result of exteriorization

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E clouds men from seeing their “original constitution” (R)

Leroi-Gourhan’s Gesture and Program (not read original)  Humans specialize in generalizing- can learn everything o “brain super-specialized in the skill of generalizing” (LG) o human brain is virtually empty at birth, evolved in a way that it is capable of thinking everything (LG)  Freeing of tools allowed transferring of memory to external social organization outside outselves- culture, social, econ, language, practice, makes us human o Patheolithic hearth, upper Paleolithic shelter made up of bones, upper Paleolithic tools  Animals- gesture and program merged in same organ, bodies: inherent and natural- use bodies as tools or tools as extensions of biology, finds gesture in their own nervous system  Humans- tools separated from biology, but given and shared in an external, cultural memory; tools substitute for body parts, exteriorization related to survival (not completely necessary) o Spear straightener, spear thrower o Evolves to using animals (mules), nature (windmill) and machines (in factors) to work o E.g. clocks, o LG: our evolution has been oritented toward placing outside ourselves what in the rest of the animal world is achieved inside by species adaptaion”  Technogenesis (origin of technology/craft-skill) = Anthropogenesis (origin of human) o Technology is first moment of liberation from experience and body (conditioned by society/ culture instead of brain)  exteriorization: separation of “gesture” (action) from “program” (neurological capacity for generating actions and responses), linked with interiorization Program in humans comes from somewhere else (other humans, culture) Not present in animals, only regulated by genes, gesture and program integrated Stielger’s Interview: the system does not produce pleasure anymore (read original):

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humans = technics, humans cannot be understood without technics o “original absence of origin” Human = technical + social + nervous-psychic system, happening at the same time criticizes contemporary capitalist and postmodern society (profit maximization) o suffers from general proletarianization loss of knowledge/ know-how o 1) delegate to machine 2)preformat and standardize lifestyle o NOT knowledge society, “cognitive capitalism”, but destruction of knowledge Constant threat to men, evolves though process of technical exteriorization, accompanied by interiorization (individuate, transforming his brain, his psyche) o Autonomy? Heretomy (r seems to say heretomy) o Gilbert Simondon calls it disinviduation (loss of individuation) because one can individuate only through the unique, singular knowledge I possess Industrialization of human memory and cognition through digital technologies Tech = evolutionary process o Before anthropogenesis, life transformed only through genetic process of transformation  new system of inheritance based on technical artifacts o Child  potentiality of human, but not human!!!!!! (rousseau) LG: shows new techniques created by cooperating with other technicians, but destroys, disequilibrium Pharmakon (greek) o Dual nature: poison and remedy o Technology = pharmakon, technics = speech (exteriorizing of knowledge in technics) o E.g. writing- help memory or destroy memory State used to organize appropriation of technical exteriorization  libidinal economy, “psychic equilibrium”  started to let market organize, toxic and negative ??? How does technology relate to human domains of the psychic apparatus, social and tech organization “technics is always in excess with respect to the society, always a pharmarkon, creating a disequilibrium in society” o technology destructs social organization o but also alleviation of disruptions o Role of freedom? Exteriorization & human action. Expansion/regression of possibilities of expression?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------Habitual thinking, the kind of thinking that relies on normal expectations about the world, is often maligned as uncritical, or lacking rational reflection. But is habitual thinking always unproductive? Trace the theory of habitual or “normal” thinking, beginning with either Descartes’s critique or Hobbes’s theory of cognition, then by analyzing two of the following authors, paying attention to the creative or productive capacities of this kind of thought: Peirce, Poe, Kuhn, Kahneman, Gigerenzer.

HABITUAL THINKING – always unproductive? 1. Hobbes’ theory of cognition 2. GG & Kahneman – creative / productive capacities ARGUMENT:

Hobbes: like Descartes, body as machine, unlike Descartes, there is NO “pure intellect” as foundation of rational judgment, ONLY sensations and combinations of sensations 5- HOBBES, REASON AND THE BODY  Similitude of passions with other men, can inference what each other are thinking  Part 1 Of sense: all thoughts are from sense (= organ of body vibration, through nerve, to brain, produces idea “fancy” in mind), original fancy created by external pressure on organs  Part 2 Of imagination : thoughts are persistent because of inertia, imagination as decaying sense- memory, imagination of those sleeping- dreams o Memory: ideas from present and past can “connect to produce new ideas and activate old ones o Learning = repetition of experiences connected with other experiences  Understanding/reasoning unique to man: will, conception and thoughts put in affirmations, negations or some speech  Part 3 Of Consequence/Train of Imagination: connected ideas: Passion, desires fuel cognition o 2 types of mental discourse “train of thought, succession of one thought to another”  sense impressions liberated to contact and connect with others because of desire o (1) unguided, without design but secret behind it o (2) regulated and constant, driven by desire/passion, find means and reach goal  2 kinds 1. Find causes- common to beast/men  Animal & Human cognition = activation of past trains of thought connected to present passion  2. Imagine possible consequences- only man  Human cognition = reason: organization of connected thought that allows thinking about future st  1 step to reason: transfer thoughts to words (mental discourse  verbal discourse) o Ad: connect ideas w/ words, not just experiences, possibilities in future through definitions o Still powered by desire, mainly desire to survive  Word and speech improved by study and industry distinguishes men from animals  Part 4: God is author of speech, but only humans capable of naming, need taught humans to speak a diversity of languages; General use of speech transfers mental discourse  verbal discourse, Special use of speech: use words independently to form new thought, observations of cause and effect, problem of cognition & reasoning  Advantages of speech: (1) notes of remembrance, (2) communication, (3) satisfy desires

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Two kinds of names: (1) proper (2) universal allows association, save mental labor with ability to store consequences Truth (attributes of speech, not thing) - proper use of names, error when we use correctly but still turns out to be wrong Thirst: desire/activation of past water searches (a/h) / not thirsty, links water to survival and fear of death from not having water later -> decides to store water in bottle for future thirst Part 5: Reasoning- mind adding and subtracting definitions, not born with humans, attained by study; Science- knowledge of consequences and dependence or facts Political argument: strongest fear of death  violence reigns, constant state of war  peace > war only solution for permanent peace is to give up all powers to a sovereign who guarantees peace and defends nation against enemy in war

Unconscious reasoning- cognitive science approach, different from Freudian desire and repressions Brains evolved to respond rapidly to environmental cues, not conscious Gigerenzer: unconscious “heuristic” tricks to navigate world quickly Kahneman: many fast and efficient analyses of situations from unconscious system 1 Kahneman: system 2 attentive reasoning used when system 1 cannot answer/ meet expectations

 Gigerenzer: “cerebral cortex in which the flame of consciousness resides is packed with unconscious processes, erroneous to assume that intelligence is necessarily conscious ad deliberate”  Not provoke unconscious feelings  Shows glimpses and insights in unconscious cognition  E.g. Kekule’s dream (led to discovery of structure of benzene) “flash of lightning”  mind as “adaptive toolbox” with genetically, culturally and individually created and transmitted rules of thumb  Unconscious inferences combine data from the senses using prior knowledge about the world  Unconscious perceptual inferences strong enough to act upon, but not flexible, but triggered by external stimuli in an automatic way: process cannot be changed by information/ insight external to the process  Other rules of thumb not fully automatic in the use, typically unconscious in nature, can be subjected to conscious intervention o Ex. Tracking eyes to interpret interest of other person  generally uncoded/unconscious, but brought under voluntary control  Gaze heuristic, recognition heuristic (american students knew too much about both Milwaukee and Detroit, muddled judgment ignorance can be valuable), mind reading heuristic  Gut feelings exist and both experts and laypeople rely on them, can’t always trust it o 2 ways to understand nature of gut feelings: 1) derived from logical principles and assumes intuition solves a complex problem with a complex strategy 2) psychological principles, bet on simplicity and take advantage of evolved brain o when does it work: using rules of thumb made of evolved capacities produce gut feelings in the right context: environmental structures/ context is the factor that determines the value of gut feeling o doesn’t work: conjunction fallacy (Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist movement), when unconscious rules of thumbs have intuitions about meaning (last example and marriage and pregnancy example)        

intuition more flexible than perception logical arguments may conflict with intuition, often the better guide in the real world (mathematical argument different from practical behavior) “logical norms are blind to content and culture, ignoring evolved capacities and environmental structures Unconscious cerebration: mind undergoing important modifications, without itself being conscious of the process (by William Carpenter) Logic merely sanctions the conquests of the intuition (Jacques Hadamard) People hostile to investigation of creativity, maintaining it is some kind of gift which cannot be understood or mechanized (Marvin Minsky) “intelligence emerges out of the interactions of many thousands of parallel processes that take place within milliseconds and are inaccessible to introspection.” (Douglas Hofstadter) “the most perfected parts of the brain are those whose action are least determinate. It is this very vagueness which constitutes their advantage.” (William James)

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adaptive unconscious is thought of a giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need to keep functioning as human beings” (Malcolm Gladwell)

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“the zombie challenge is based on an amazing wealth of findings in recent cognitive science that demonstrate the surprising ways in which out everyday behavior is controlled by automatic processes that unfold in the complete absence of consciousness” (Andy Clark)    

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Much of our mental life is unconscious “limitations” of the mind can be its strengths, how the mind adapts and economizes by relying on the unconscious, on rules of thumbs, and on evolved capacities Unconscious decisions are often the ones that make us more happy (deliberate thinking  sadness) Satisficers (engaged in limited search settled quickly with first satisfactory alternative, more optimistic, higher self-esteem, life satisfaction) VS. maximizers (depression, perfectionism, regret, self-blame)

Daniel Kahneman: Thinking Fast and Slow

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2 systems  1) system 1: hero o operates automatically, quickly, little/no effort, no sense of voluntary control o unconscious operations  “surprisingly complex patterns of ideas”  2) system 2: we identify with system 2 o effortful mental activities that demand attention (like complex computations), often associated with subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration, slower  “construct thought in an orderly series of steps” (Descartes)

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1 orients to something interesting, so 2 pays attention 2  1 reverse also o e.g. attention can be voluntarily selected: looking for someone to meet at the train station filtering means blindness to other info while focusing on something o e.g. Invisible Gorilla 2 mobilized when a question arises for which 1 does not offer answer o e.g. 17 * 24 = ? o division of labor between 1 and 2 is highly efficient: minimizes effort and optimizes performance, works well because 1 is generally very good/accurate at what it does 1 has biases, systemic errors prone in specified circumstances o e.g. little understanding of logic and substance 2 activated when something violates the model of the world 1 maintains o e.g. illusions: vision illusion analogous to cognitive illusion (cognitive illusion: bias when interpreting a situation a certain way due to environmental clues processes by unconscious 1) PRIMING- unconscious association guide “choice” (thinks it’s a free choice when you were actually manipulated) o E.g. voting for school funding @ a school, prejudice, political, social 1 takes over in sudden emergency, to improve chance of survival (evolution) 1) Association of ideas: 1 makes sense of the situation and prepares for likely events, creates context for the current event by evaluating how surprising it was 2) used for novel and surprising stimuli o in stereotypical world where nothing changes, only need 1 not 2, because body could perfectly do all routine things (Christof Koch)

Multitasking: benefit of a dual system  1 execute background tasks, 2 perform more difficult tasks (Lisman, Sternberg)

1 generates suggestions for 2, if endorsed, impressions/ intuitions turn into beliefs, impulses into voluntary action As you become skilled in a task, you need less energy to carry it out System 2 only one that can follow rules, compare objects on attributes and make deliberate choice...