The Julian Jaynes Collection

614 Pages·2019·6.472 MB·English

by  Marcel Kuijsten, Julian Jaynes

THE
ULIAN JAYNES
COLLECTION
BIOGRAPHY
ARTICLES
LECTURES
INTERVIEWS
DISCUSSION
EDITED BY
MARCEL KUIJSTEN
Praise for Julian Jaynes’s Theory
“Julian Jaynes’s theories for the nature of self-awareness,
introspection, and consciousness have replaced the
assumption of their almost ethereal uniqueness with
explanations that could initiate the next change in paradigm
for human thought.”
— Michael Persinger, in Reflections on the Dawn of
Consciousness
“...A theory that could alter our view of consciousness,
revise our conception of the history of mankind, and lay
bare the human dilemma in all its existential wonder.”
— James E. Morriss, in ETC: A Review of General
Semantics
“Some of Jaynes’s original ideas may be the most
important of our generation.”
— Ernest Rossi, in Psychological Perspectives
“Neuroimaging techniques of today have illuminated and
confirmed the importance of Jaynes’s hypothesis.”
— Robert Olin, in Lancet
“...One of the clearest and most perspicuous defenses of
the top-down approach [to consciousness] that I have ever
come across.”
— Daniel Dennett, in Brainchildren
“Julian Jaynes is a scholar in the broad original sense of
that term. A man of huge creative vitality, Julian Jaynes is
my academic man for all seasons.”
— Hubert Dolezal, in The MacLeod Symposium
“...I sympathize with Julian Jaynes’s claim that something
of great import may have happened to the human mind
during the relatively brief interval of time between the
events narrated in the Iliad and those that make up the
Odyssey.'"
— Antonio Damasio, in Self Comes to Mind
THE
JULIAN JAYNES
COLLECTION
Edited by
Marcel Kuijsten
Julian Jaynes Society
Copyright © 2019 by Marcel Kuijsten
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquiries
should be sent to the Julian Jaynes Society, e-mail:
[email protected].
First Julian Jaynes Society Digital Edition 2019
Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kuijsten, Marcel
The Julian Jaynes Collection
Julian Jaynes Society
Henderson, NV
julianjaynes.org
CONTENTS
Praise
Introduction, Marcel Kuijsten
Part I: Biography
1. Julian Jaynes: 1920-1997, Byron A. Campbell,
Sam Glucksberg, Marcia K. Johnson
2. Humility as a Profession: A Memorial to Julian
Jaynes, Brian J. McVeigh
3. Julian Jaynes: Portrait of the Psychologist as a
Maverick Theorizer, Sam Keen
Part II: Articles & Lectures
4. The Routes of Science
5. Edwin Garrigues Boring: 1886-1968
6. The Study of the History of Psychology
7. The Problem of Animate Motion in the
Seventeenth Century
8. The Origin of Consciousness
9. The Evolution of Language in the Late Pleistocene
10. In A Manner of Speaking
11. Paleolithic Cave Paintings as Eidetic Images
12. Remembrance of Things (Far) Past
13. Art and the Right Hemisphere
14. Imagination and the Dance of the Self
15. Representations as Metaphiers
16. A Two-Tiered Theory of Emotions: Affect and
Feeling
17. Four Hypotheses on the Origin of Mind
18. Sensory Pain and Conscious Pain
19. Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind
20. The Dream of Agamemnon
21. Hearing Voices and the Bicameral Mind
Part III: Interviews
22. The Lost Voices of the Gods
23. Alone in the Country of the Mind
24. Princeton University Interview
25. Psychologist Concentrates on How We Think
26. Portland Radio Interview
27. Baltimore Radio Interview
28. Prying Open the Barrel of Snakes
29. Library of Science Interview
Part IV: Discussion
30. Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind:
Yellow Springs Institute Discussion
31. Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind: Tufts
University Discussion
32. Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind:
University of New Hampshire Discussion
33. Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind:
McMaster-Bauer Symposium Discussion
34. McMaster-Bauer Symposium: Response to
Discussants
35. McMaster-Bauer Symposium: Panel Discussion
36. McMaster-Bauer Symposium: Open Discussion
37. The Consequences of Consciousness: Emory
University Discussion
38. The Consequences of Consciousness: Harvard
University Discussion
Introduction
MARCEL KUIJSTEN
In January of 1977, Julian Jaynes released to the world his
book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the
Bicameral Mind. It was the culmination of decades of
thinking and research and proposed a radical new theory on
the origin of the modem mind. Integrating psychology,
neurology, anthropology, ancient history, and linguistics,
Jaynes argues that subjective consciousness is a learned
process based on metaphorical language and, in historical
terms, a relatively recent development.
Prior to the development of consciousness, Jaynes argues
that humans could communicate, learn, organize, and
problem-solve, but did so without introspection. The brain
used language to convey experience from the right
hemisphere to the left hemisphere in the form of verbal
commands, which directed non-habitual behavior and were
triggered by the stress of decision-making. Jaynes called
this earlier mentality the bicameral mind. Today we see
vestiges of the bicameral mind in a wide range of
phenomena such as the command hallucinations of
schizophrenia patients, the loss of personal authorization in
hypnosis, “possession” and poetic frenzy, the imaginary
companions of children, and the nostalgic quest of modem
religions for the lost voices of the gods.
Calling into question conventional views of human
history, Jaynes’s theory is initially shocking to many
readers. Yet this should not be surprising, as nearly all new
ideas that do not simply build on previous theories are
initially met with skepticism, and theories that deal with
“the big questions” — such as the origin of consciousness
and religion — provoke even greater resistance. As the
biologist William Ian Beveridge notes in The Art of
Scientific Investigation, “The human mind likes a strange
idea as little as the body likes a strange protein, and resists
it with a similar energy.” The tendency toward rejection of
the unfamiliar is widespread, even among academics, who
are often thought to be more rational or impartial. 1 The
progress of science requires agnosticism toward new ideas
rather than an unthinking or irrational skepticism. As
pointed out by the cognitive neuroscientist Michael
Persinger in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness,
“reflexive rejection of novel concepts is the antithesis of
discovery.”
Another obstacle to the acceptance of new ideas is the
general propensity to quickly form a strong opinion based
on limited information. This is even more problematic in
light of the fact that once an opinion is formed, even if
based on the flimsiest of evidence, we tend to seek
information that confirms that opinion and avoid
information that contradicts it. Known in psychology as the
confirmation bias, this tendency leads to group polarization.
When a person is asked the reasons why they hold an
opinion on a subject that does not involve their day-to-day
experience, they often cannot say. Similarly, those who