Vedr.: Re: Clarifying our aims

Dear Norbert (from S�ren Brier)

Allow me a somewhat late contribution to the topic of mind whit a quote from Peirce:

"Hence, it would be a mistake to conceive of the psychical and the physical aspects of matter as two aspects absolutely distinct. Viewing a thing from the outside, considering its relation of action and reaction with other things, it appears as matter. Viewing it from the inside, looking at its immediate character as feeling, it appears as consciousness. These two views are combined when we remember that mechanical laws are nothing but acquired habits, like all the regularities of mind, including the tendency to take habits, itself; and that this action of habit is nothing but generalization, and generalization is nothing but spreading of feelings." (Peirce 1931-58, CP 6.268).

S�ren Brier, +45 3528 2689

http://www.flec.kvl.dk/personalprofile.asp?id=sbr&p=engelsk

Ed. of Cybernetics & Human Knowing

http://www.imprint-academic.com/C&HK

>>> norbert@ufpa.br 26-05-02 22:19 >>>
Dear Fisers
A comment for Edwina:
I liked your comments to what we call reactive, reflexive and self-reflexive. There is still a lot of brain work to do to clearify these three steps of evolution.

You said:
As for 'mind' - that's a difficult topic. I don't agree with confining Mind to humans. Instead, I see energy/matter relations as operating within Mind, right from the start. NO. This is not God; it is not any a priori design. It is a theory (Peircean, Aristotelian) that all processes are logical; that interactions of matter are not random and haphazard but integrated and co-ordinated by the matter/energy processes themselves. This process of cohesive organization, such that a hydrogen molecule has a functional role in our total world, playing its role among the organisms ..etc.. is what I call Mind. It is an evolutionary process, becoming itself more complex as matter/energy relations become more complex.

With respect to what you said about mind: it sounds really interesting and I certainly will think about it.
Norbert
Received on Wed Jun 12 02:00:55 2002