Proof of Double-Mindedness?
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:19 am
The single biggest objection to A. L. Wigan's theory of the duality of the mind is that we don't seem to experience two trains of thought at the same time. Roland Puccetti tries to get around this by suggesting that each of the dual minds doesn't have introspective access to the other, and thus there would be no "double-mindedness." I think that the philosopher Roger Scruton has described this experience of two converging trains of thought with his concept of "double intentionality."
Scruton explains that when listening to music, “you hear in those sounds a melody that moves through the imaginary space of music. This is not something you believe to be occurring, but something you imagine: just as you imagine the face in the picture, while seeing that it is not literally there.†Notice that he uses the metaphor of "space." He goes on to show that double intentionality “is explained by our ability to organize a single Gestalt in two ways simultaneously—in one way as something literally present, in another way as something imagined.â€
“Double intentionality arises when a mental state involves both belief and imagination: the first focused on realities, the second on what can be imagined in those realities… And because they belong to different orders of mental organization, beliefs and imaginings can co-exist, with a common focus, so that the one informs and controls the other.†(p 45 of Understanding Music)
Could this business about "different orders of mental organization" be a description of double-mindedness? Does anyone else have a possible example of such a thing? (cognitive dissonance?) I wrote up a short sketch of this view and its implications for some big questions in philosophy if anybody is interested: http://thinkonthesethingstoo.wordpress. ... ciousness/
I was going to mention James Barlow's recent article in the Jaynesian, as there was a quote that I really liked that hinted to mental duality. However, I couldn't find his quote in any of the Nietzsche that I have read. Barlow's line goes as follows:
"For Nietzsche, this consists of unconscious elements commanding the ego: the artist is, for him, someone who 'is the vampire of his talent,' and makes it clear that consciousness, even self-consciousness, has little to do with it."
Anybody know where Nietzsche wrote this bit about the artist being the vampire of his talent?
Scruton explains that when listening to music, “you hear in those sounds a melody that moves through the imaginary space of music. This is not something you believe to be occurring, but something you imagine: just as you imagine the face in the picture, while seeing that it is not literally there.†Notice that he uses the metaphor of "space." He goes on to show that double intentionality “is explained by our ability to organize a single Gestalt in two ways simultaneously—in one way as something literally present, in another way as something imagined.â€
“Double intentionality arises when a mental state involves both belief and imagination: the first focused on realities, the second on what can be imagined in those realities… And because they belong to different orders of mental organization, beliefs and imaginings can co-exist, with a common focus, so that the one informs and controls the other.†(p 45 of Understanding Music)
Could this business about "different orders of mental organization" be a description of double-mindedness? Does anyone else have a possible example of such a thing? (cognitive dissonance?) I wrote up a short sketch of this view and its implications for some big questions in philosophy if anybody is interested: http://thinkonthesethingstoo.wordpress. ... ciousness/
I was going to mention James Barlow's recent article in the Jaynesian, as there was a quote that I really liked that hinted to mental duality. However, I couldn't find his quote in any of the Nietzsche that I have read. Barlow's line goes as follows:
"For Nietzsche, this consists of unconscious elements commanding the ego: the artist is, for him, someone who 'is the vampire of his talent,' and makes it clear that consciousness, even self-consciousness, has little to do with it."
Anybody know where Nietzsche wrote this bit about the artist being the vampire of his talent?