NOTES: I will be adding new material in this section soon. For now some preliminaries that sketch in the foundation from which I'm trying to build:
October 27. Just before going on to graduate school I took a course called “Social Psychology,” offered in the Sociology Department at San Diego State College (now University). I had been trying to decide whether to do graduate work in sociology or political science, and the text we used in that class inspired me to go into sociology – Lindesmith and Strauss, Social Psychology, published in 1949 by Dryden Press.
I remembered that book so fondly that I recently bought a copy through the internet (for $8). As I read through it I could see how it set the foundation for how I think today about Mind, Consciousness, and such. Then I came to this quote from the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer, 1874-1945, based on work he did from 1923-1929:
“Man lives in a symbolic universe… {He does not] confront reality immediately; he cannot see it, as it were, face to face… Instead of dealing with things themselves man is in a sense constantly conversing with himself. He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms… that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of this artificial medium.”
That quote is actually from An Essay on Man, a one -volume overview he wrote in 1944, one year before having a heart attack and dying. I just ordered a copy.
I remembered that book so fondly that I recently bought a copy through the internet (for $8). As I read through it I could see how it set the foundation for how I think today about Mind, Consciousness, and such. Then I came to this quote from the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer, 1874-1945, based on work he did from 1923-1929:
“Man lives in a symbolic universe… {He does not] confront reality immediately; he cannot see it, as it were, face to face… Instead of dealing with things themselves man is in a sense constantly conversing with himself. He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms… that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of this artificial medium.”
That quote is actually from An Essay on Man, a one -volume overview he wrote in 1944, one year before having a heart attack and dying. I just ordered a copy.
Publications
Realizing Awakened Conscioiusness: Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind
Columbia University Press, 2015
Cracking the Buddhist Code: A Contemporary Theory of First-Stage Awakening
Journal of Consciousness Studies, volume 14: pages 156-180, 2017
Columbia University Press, 2015
Cracking the Buddhist Code: A Contemporary Theory of First-Stage Awakening
Journal of Consciousness Studies, volume 14: pages 156-180, 2017
