Home / Quotes / Quote by Julian Jaynes

Quote by Julian Jaynes

“We invent mind-space inside our own heads as well as the heads of others ... we assume these 'spaces' without question. They are a part of what it is to be conscious. Moreover, things that in the physical-behavioural world that do not have a spatial quality are made to have such in consciousness. Otherwise we cannot be conscious of them.”

Quote by Julian Jaynes

Author

Julian Jaynes was a psychologist known for his hypothesis on the origin of human consciousness. His book 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' proposed a theory that human consciousness experienced a shift from collective unconsciousness to individual consciousness around 1000 BCE. more

You May Also Like

“Something about the topic of consciousness makes people, like the White Queen in Through The Looking Glass, believe six impossible things before breakfast.”

People Believe White Consciousness Impossible Evolution Six Glasses Queens Breakfast Topics Impossible Things Through The Looking Glass

Book:How the Mind Works

Source: How the Mind Works

“There are many other (besides testosterone) behaviour-eliciting hormones fundamental for humen well-being, including estrogen and progesterone in females. The fact that complex behavioural patterns can be triggered by a tiny concentration of moleculas coursing through the bloodstream, and that different animals of the same species generate different amounts of these hormones, is something worth thinking about when it's time to judge such matters as free will, individual responsibility, and law and order.”

“This is the universal property of the human mind. Abstract rules form the core of everything from computer programs to grammars. Our results show that babies' minds are built to look for such rules - even without being told.”

Mind Humans Looks Shows Form Results Baby Evolution Computer Built Program Universal Property Core Abstract Human Mind Grammar

Author:Gary Marcus

“The newborn infant is now seen to be wired with awesome precision... This marvelous robot will be launched into the world under the care of its parents... But to what extent does the wiring of the neurons, so undeniably encoded in the genes, preordain the directions that social development will follow?”

World Doe Care Social Parent Development Evolution Genes Marvelous Robots Infant Precision Social Development Newborn Neurons Wiring

Author:E. O. Wilson

“It is the assumption of this book that there is a typical human nature. It is the aim of this book to seek it. Just like a surgeon, a psychiatrist can make all sorts of basic assumptions when a patient lies down upon the couch. He can assume that the patient knows what it means to love, to envy, to trust, to think, to speak, to fear, to smile, to bargain, to covet, to dream, to remember, to sing, to quarrel, to lie. The 'smile' of a baboon is a threat; the smile of a man is a sign of pleasure: it is human nature, the world over.”

“As an evolutionary biologist, I have learned over the years that most people do not want to see themselves as lumbering robots programmed to ensure the survival of their genes. I don't think they will want to see themselves as digital computers either. To be told by someone with impeccable scientific credentials that they are nothing of the kind can only be pleasing.”

People Thinking Want Years Kind Evolution Computer Survival Digital Genes I Have Learned Robots Biologist Impeccable Credentials

Author:John Maynard Smith

“I have shown that those who deplore Artificial Intelligence are also those who deplore the evolutionary accounts of human mentality: if human minds are non-miraculous products of evolution, then they are, in the requisite sense, artifacts, and all their powers must have an ultimately mechanical explanation. We are descended from macros and made of macros, and nothing we can do is beyond the power of huge assemblies of macros.”

Ifs Mind Humans Made Can Do Products Huge Evolution Accounts Explanation Human Mind Artificial Intelligence Mentality Artificial Miraculous Assembly Artifacts Macro

Author:Daniel Dennett

“The usual sniggering examples of animal behaviour were brought in to explain cheating. Funny how the behaviour of shrews and gibbons is never used to explain table manners or road safety or gardening, only sex. Anyway, it was bad Darwinism. Taking the example of a monkey and applying it to yourself misses the point that animal behaviour is made for the benefit of the species, not as an excuse for the individual. Being incapable of sustaining a stable pair and supporting children is really not in the interests of our species. Neither is it really in the best interests of the philanderer.”

“Creationists reject Darwin's theory of evolution on the grounds that it is "just a theory". This is a valid criticism: evolution is indeed merely "a theory", albeit one with ten billion times more credence than the theory of creationism - although, to be fair, the theory of creationism is more than just a theory. It's also a fairy story. And children love fairy stories, which is presumably why so many creationists are keen to have their whimsical gibberish taught in schools.”

Children Stories School Taught Theory Evolution Ten Fairs Criticism Billions Fairy Rejects Children Love Creationism Theory Of Evolution Whimsical Credence Fairy Stories

Author:Charlie Brooker

“You are inhuman brutes determined to rob us of our spiritual consolations and sweep away the moral foundations of our civilization, and on the other: You are obscurantist ignoramuses who'd like to shut down progress and drag us all back to the 16th century, with kings and priests telling us what to think.”

Thinking Spiritual Moral Progress Century Evolution Kings Civilization Foundation Determined Priests Drag Consolation Brutes Inhuman

Author:John Derbyshire