The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

Description

This book provides a framework that encompasses both physics and cognitive science – integrating them into a ‘theory of everything’ to establish a basis for both our scientific and humanistic endeavours. It explores the implications of brain laterality for understanding the emergence of mind and its relation to the physical world – arguing that the analytic vs. holistic cognitive differences of the left and right human cerebral hemispheres are key to understanding not only human self-consciousness and language, but also sociocultural phenomena ranging from the emergence of the scientific method and axes of political orientation to the direction of development of conceptions of God and the fundamental differences between polarizing philosophical traditions. In a further step, the book draws on the Darwinian principle that our cognitive apparatus is shaped by the environment in which it evolved to argue that human bilaterality mirrors the fundamental hylomorphic relation between formal organization and material components that constitutes physical nature itself. The logical division between holistic and analytic categories thereby offers a principled basis for a metaphilosophy. Acknowledgments Previously Published Sources for This Book Contents List of Figures 1: Introduction: Analysis and Holism Metaphysical Analysis and Holism: Hylomorphism Epistemological Analysis and Holism: Brain Laterality Mirroring Nature: The Bilateral Mind and Hylomorphism Metaphilosophy Two “Theories of Everything” From Physics to Metaphysics Two Cautions The “Left Brain/Right Brain” Craze Neuroscientific Reductionism and “Naturalized Philosophy” A Somewhat Comparable Treatment Philosophy and Cognitive Science Hemispheres, Handedness and the Cognitive Left and Right Part I: Metaphysics: Analysis and Holism in Nature Chapter 2: Reductionism and Emergence Chapter 3: Purely Physical Emergence Chapter 4: Protective Enclosures and the Emergence of Life Chapter 5: Virtual Reality and the Emergence of Mind. Chapter 6: Physics and Theology: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? Part II: Epistemology: Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind Chapter 7: Inter-Hemispheric Dialogue Chapter 8: One Method for All Inquiry Part III: Moral and Political Philosophy: Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind Chapter 9: Morality and the Rational Control of Desire Chapter 10: Freud and the Physics of Civilization Chap. 11: Hemispheric Politics Part IV: Philosophy of Religion and Natural Theology: Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind Chapter 12: Archaic and Modern Religious Ontologies Chapter 13: An Empty Holy of Holies Part V: Academic Philosophy: Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind Chapter 14: Analytic vs. Continental Philosophy Part I: Metaphysics Analysis and Holism in Nature 2: Reductionism and Emergence Analysis and Holism A Second Type of Anti-Reductionism Burial of the Dead The Death of a Non-Human Animal Getting to the Bottom of Things What’s at the Bottom of a Reduction? Beyond Materialism Coming and Going: The Asymmetry Between Birth and Death Reductionism and Emergence in Ancient and Modern Philosophy The End of Metaphysics? 3: Purely Physical Emergence Materialism: A Bottom-Up Metaphysics Non-Essential and Essential Properties Universal Emergence “Emergence” as “Evolutionary Development” “Natural Things” and Invariance The Constraint Interpretation of Emergence Trivial Constraint Cosmic Constraint Constraints That Constitute Actual Natural Things Early Versions of the Constraint Interpretation Reciprocal “Fixing of Values” Individuation Differentiation Are Artifacts Genuine Things? Layers of Structure in Emergent Things Structures of Structures The “Bottom of Things” Aristotle vs. Democritus 4: Protective Enclosures and the Emergence of Life The Trans-Molecular Breakthrough Stable Invariance and Protection from Disturbance How Can You Be a Biologist Without Knowing Much Physics? New Levels—New Autonomy Things that Eat Things that Reproduce Themselves: Species over Individuals Things that Make Their Own Specialized Parts Things with Executive Parts Things with “Interior” Maps The Evolution of “Thing” Degrees of Reality Degrees of “Society” How Deep a Hierarchy? Reductionism vs. Emergence: Physics Backwards and Forwards A “Theory of Half of Everything” Matter and Form: The Metaphysics of Analysis and Holism Reciprocal Fixing of Values in Epistemology 5: Virtual Reality and the Emergence of Mind The “Hard Problem” The Emergence of Consciousness in Animals Softening the “Hard Problem” I: Autonomy and Hierarchical Isolation Hardware and Software Softening the “Hard Problem” II: Artificial Intelligence vs. Artificial Sensation Splitting Sensation: The Beginnings of First and Third Person Maps and Memory The “Hard Problem”: Not Just First Person but Third Person as Well First and Third Person: Right and Left Hemispheres? First and Third Person: Left and Right Hemispheres? Softening the “Hard Problem” III: Consciousness and Virtuality Virtuality and Universality Virtuality: The Basis for All Consciousness Neither Reductionism nor Atomism Self-Awareness and the Digital Representation of Analog Representation Cultural Evolution The Trans-Darwinian Breakthrough Back to the “Hard Problem” Beyond the Here and Now Beyond the Physical? 6: Physics and Theology: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? Our Inability to Know the Nature of “God” “First Philosophy” Today Revelation: News from the Future? “To the Unknown God” Sketch of a Contemporary Philosophy of God An Emergent God The Phases of God The Other Half of the Metaphysical Picture? Hegel’s Logic Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? Nothingness vs. Possibility The Emergence of Actual Entities via Two Species of Possibility Material and Formal Possibility in Aristotle Beginnings and Ends Part II: Epistemology Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind 7: Inter-Hemispheric Dialogue A Memory Aid? Inner Speech as Monologue Inner Speech as Dialogue Two Different Cognitive Agents Do Non-Human Animals Think? A Conversation Between Cognitively Different Partners Charades The Police Artist The Delphic Oracle Outer Speech Before Inner Speech Analog and Digital Representation The Digital Aspects of Perception Holistic vs. Analytic Representation Analog/Holistic Perception Analog “Coming Together” Analog and Digital Cognition in Chess and Music The Microstructure of Analog and Digital Representations Left and Right Cerebral Hemispheres Split Brains Parallel and Serial Processing Language vs. Art The Left Hemisphere’s Role in Art The Right Hemisphere’s Role in Language Analytic and Holistic? Why Our Hemispheres Need to Communicate with Each Other The Content and Agency of Our Internal Dialogue Two Brains Are Better Than One Non-Verbal Dialogues Art Before Language? Brain Lateralization and Epistemology 8: One Method for All Inquiry What Do We Really Know? Science vs. Scientific Method Deductive and Inductive Inference Truth vs. Validity Models of Scientific Method Abduction The Correction Model Scientific Method in Science Textbooks “There Is No Scientific Method” Epistemology and the Cognitive Left and Right The Representation of Experience Method in the Articulation of Meaning Socratic Definition Method in the Scientific Explanation of Natural Phenomena The Meno Paradox and the Logic of Correction The Correcting/Editing Process Differences Between Scientific and Non-Scientific Inquiry Scientists and Metaphysics The Implicit Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics Scientists and Epistemology Part III: Moral & Political Philosophy Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind 9: Morality and the Rational Control of Desire Knowledge and Morality The Cognitive Left and Right in the Rise of Civilization The Left Hemisphere as a Softener of the Harshness of Nature The Left Hemisphere as a Magnifier of Fear From Outer to Inner Worlds Fear in a Virtual World The Rise of Negative Morality Human Evolution Out of Phase Negative and Positive Morality Negative Morality and Incommensurate Desire Morality: Cause or Effect of Restraining Desire? The Conflict Between Biology and Human Cognition The End of Negative Morality New Selves for a New Environment Altering the Objects of Desire I: Limiting Excessive Satisfaction Altering the Objects of Desire II: Full Material Satisfaction Altering the Objects of Desire III: Cultural Satisfaction Sublimation Illusion, Fantasy and Delusion Love Civilization: Repression or Expression of Desire? Altering the Desiring Subject Biological Changes Psychological Changes Self-Control Even Higher-Level Immorality? Self-Control and Egoism Self-Denial 10: Freud and the Physics of Civilization Analysis and Holism Id vs. Ego Reductionism and Emergence Do We Civilize Because We Want To or Because We Have To? Psychology as a Natural Science Freud’s Dilemma A Death Instinct and Its Consequences Death as Pleasure Abandoning a Scientific Solution? Evolution and Equilibrium Freud’s Wish Fulfilled “Resistances to Discharge” 11: Hemispheric Politics The Red and the Black Nature vs. Nurture Urban/Suburban/Rural The Biology Beneath Politics I: Cognitive and Political Laterality The Sociopolitical Right (Conservatism) The Sociopolitical Left (Liberalism) Cognitive Right (Left Hemisphere) Cognitive Left (Right Hemisphere) Soft vs. Hard Intuitive Intelligence Competition vs. Collaboration The Efficiency of Top-Down Organization Hemispheres vs. Individuals II: Cognitive and Political Hemisphericity From Laterality to Hemisphericity Evidence for Hemisphericity? Do the Amygdala and Anterior Cingulate Cortex Determine Hemispheric Preference? Liberal Hunters vs. Conservative Farmers The Rise of the Left Hemisphere in the Neolithic Revolution Ancient Conservatives and Liberals? The Fascism of the Right and the Left An Evolutionary Advantage in Having Both Conservatives and Liberals? Two “Group Brains” May Be Better Than One The Future of the Political Left and the Right Part IV: Philosophy of Religion & Natural Theology Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind 12: Archaic and Modern Religious Ontologies The Emergence of Human Consciousness Motion Manipulation Communication Possibility The Fear of Death Death and the Origin of Religion Virtuality and Symbolic Representation Return to Thoughtlessness? From Cyclical to Linear Time Archaic Cyclical Human Consciousness Modern Linear Human Consciousness The Love of Life The Species over the Individual The Evolution of Death The Inconceivability of Death Taking an Afterlife Seriously What Dies and What May Not 13: An Empty Holy of Holies Natural Theology in the Light of Brain Laterality Judaism and the Spirituality of Reason The Emergence of Monotheism From Prehistoric to More Urban Societies From Bronze-Age to Iron-Age Societies From “Robust” to “Decadent” Societies An Analytic Conception of God Intuition and Inference Fast vs. Slow Inference The “Geometric” and “Finesse” Minds French vs. English Physics Dual-Processing Theories Greek Geometry and Semitic Algebra Greek vs. Hebrew Thought Monotheism and Moral Logic The Analog Kabbalah Reason and Beyond Reason Analysis and Holism Together Part V: Academic Philosophy Analysis and Holism in the Bilateral Mind 14: Analytic Vs. Continental Philosophy The “Logicians and the Lotus Eaters” Philosophy as Science and as Art? The Lotus Eaters The Logicians The “Riddle of Style” Philosophy as Design The Cognitive Left and Right A Division of Labor? Hybrid Hemisphericity The Hidden Agenda in Politics and Philosophy Humanism and Science General Bibliography Index