Transformational Consciousness in Youth

Discussion of Julian Jaynes's first hypothesis - that consciousness (as he carefully defines it) is based on language, specifically the development of consciousness in children based on language.
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rosetheprof
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Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:21 am
Location: N. California, USA

Transformational Consciousness in Youth

Post by rosetheprof »

This is partly a reply to Rob(ert), but maybe enough of its own posting to start a thread. The following is an excerpt of a letter to the friend who introduced me to Dr. Jaynes' work:

I've given a bit of thought to how this theory might relate to individual human development. When I re-worked John Waskom's notes and tapes, I coined the term "metaphorical transformation" to describe how in middle childhood there was the beginning of physical senses transforming into abstract ones: e.g. physical sight giving rise to insight and "seeing into" things. Since this is the age of the atrophying of the thymus, fully-developing eyesight, and the ability to read-to-learn rather than learn-to-read, it makes me think that younger children are more auditory (hearing commands of authority around them), while older children are more visual and self-discerning -- sort of a moving from bicameral to self-conscious activity. If you want to check out the work in progress (as of the end of 2005), it's downloadable at: http://geocities.com/rosetheprof/design/design.pdf

--Norman
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Return to “1.02. Hypothesis One: Consciousness Based On Language | Subtopic: Consciousness in Children”