Neuroscience Confirms Julian Jaynes’s Neurological Model
Beginning in 1999, research began to emerge confirming Julian Jaynes’s neurological model for the bicameral mind: fMRI studies showing a
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Author: Marcel Kuijsten
His Dark Materials & The Bicameral Mind
It’s been said that Philip Pullman, who wrote “His Dark Materials,” drew inspiration from Julian Jaynes, with the characters’ spirit-animals
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Ten Questions Critics Fail to Answer About Julian Jaynes’s Theory
Critics of Jaynes’s theory generally attempt to show that Jaynes was wrong on one or two very specific points, and
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Myth 9: The “mirror test” measures consciousness
Myth 9: Chimpanzees can recognize themselves in a mirror, and this “provides clear evidence of self-awareness in chimpanzees” (Griffin, 1978).
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Myth 8: The voices were actual gods or entities
Myth 8: Jaynes argues that people in ancient times heard the actual voices of gods or other supernatural entities. Fact: I
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Myth 7: Confusing bicamerality with schizophrenia
Myth 7: Confusing bicamerality with schizophrenia, or thinking that Jaynes claimed that people in ancient civilizations suffered from mental illness.
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Myth 6: Neuroscience has disconfirmed Jaynes’s ideas
Myth 6: More recent studies in neuroscience have disconfirmed Jaynes’s ideas. Fact: Quite the opposite. Recent neuroimaging studies have largely confirmed
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Myth 5: Jaynes’s theory has been “debunked”
Myth 5: Jaynes’s theory has been “debunked” or Jaynes’s theory has been disproven. Fact: There are no substantive critiques of Jaynes’s
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Myth 4: The gods in the Iliad were “just a literary device”
Myth 4: The gods in the Iliad were “just a literary device;” the Iliad is “just a story” and as
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Myth 3: Jaynes was an “ethnocentrist”
Myth 3: Jaynes was an “ethnocentrist.” Fact: This origin of this misconception is particularly confusing. A definition of ethnocentrist is: “the
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