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
Read moreIt’s been said that Philip Pullman, who wrote “His Dark Materials,” drew inspiration from Julian Jaynes, with the characters’ spirit-animals
Read moreBeginning in 1999, research began to emerge confirming Julian Jaynes’s neurological model for the bicameral mind: fMRI studies showing a
Read moreCritics of Jaynes’s theory generally attempt to show that Jaynes was wrong on one or two very specific points, and
Read moreMyth 9: Chimpanzees can recognize themselves in a mirror, and this “provides clear evidence of self-awareness in chimpanzees” (Griffin, 1978).
Read moreMyth 8: Jaynes argues that people in ancient times heard the actual voices of gods or other supernatural entities. Fact: I
Read moreMyth 7: Confusing bicamerality with schizophrenia, or thinking that Jaynes claimed that people in ancient civilizations suffered from mental illness.
Read moreMyth 6: More recent studies in neuroscience have disconfirmed Jaynes’s ideas. Fact: Quite the opposite. Recent neuroimaging studies have largely confirmed
Read moreMyth 5: Jaynes’s theory has been “debunked” or Jaynes’s theory has been disproven. Fact: There are no substantive critiques of Jaynes’s
Read moreMyth 4: The gods in the Iliad were “just a literary device;” the Iliad is “just a story” and as
Read moreMyth 3: Jaynes’s theory does not apply to cultures outside of the Eastern Mediterranean. Fact: This origin of this misconception is
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