[Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein and "Brain Scripts"
- From: Sean Wilson <whoooo26505@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:38:38 -0700 (PDT)
Neil:
That's a good point, but allow me to present a competing idea:
1. Imagine a situation where the brain's concentration required that other
systems be "shut down" or put on automatic pilot. Vision therapy patients often
do things like clutch their fist or make funny faces when trying to teach their
brain (visual system) to see differently. It's common for anyone to concentrate
intently on something to have some other feature of the anatomy go on automatic
pilot. So I think it is possible that your student may have done what the brain
does with eyes during sleep because, well, that aspect of cognitive functioning
was being diverted to strenuous contemplation -- and because sighted
individuals had learned to control both at the same time. It's not that there
isn't enough capacity to do both; it is that the person hasn't learned to
coordinate it. It would be the same as people who can chew gum and rub their
stomach at the same time versus people who have to practice at this.
presumably, this student was not as practiced
in controlling sight while thinking because controlling sight was
not habituated in life. Also, think of sighted people who, when trying to
remember, look up in the upper (left or right) corner of their eyes. When you
think about it, eye diversion happens to some degree in sighted people too. We
wouldn't want to say that the eye movement was evidence of "the looking of
ideas." It was, rather, the same sort of thing that happens when people have
trouble walking a straight line or writing while on the phone.
2. It indeed is Wittgensteinian to say
that thinking/languaging is a "behavior." But, paradoxically, it may not be
"behaviorist." That depends upon what is being said. For my money, language as
a behavior is a different sort of thing -- it's cognitive behavior as opposed
to bodily (ordinary) behavior. The difference is that one is rather cold and
inanimate ("the behavior of organs") while the other is more of a choice ("do
the respondents choose Dentine or some other brand). In short, one is a family
resemblance.
Regards and thanks.
Dr. Sean Wilson, Esq.
Assistant Professor
Wright State University
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