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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Author: Marcel Kuijsten
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: People in ancient civilizations could not have been “crazy”
Myth 7: People could not have functioned in ancient civilizations if they were “crazy” or suffering from mental illness. Fact: This
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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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Myth 2: Jaynes was mistaken in areas outside of his expertise
Myth 2: Jaynes was mistaken in areas outside of his expertise. Fact: Jaynes — unmarried, without children, and uninterested in
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