{"id":9651,"date":"2025-10-30T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9651"},"modified":"2025-05-24T12:16:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T12:16:36","slug":"a-first-look-at-julian-jayness-book-1976-the-origin-of-consciousness-in-the-breakdown-of-the-bicameral-mind-part-2-of-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9651","title":{"rendered":"A First Look at Julian Jaynes’s Book (1976) “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” (Part 2 of 21)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0246 Right at the start, a model… <\/em>or some sort of picture… of how humans think<\/em> should help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the uninitiated, A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form<\/em> and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction<\/em>(by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues) should assist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0247 Why do I say that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following figure presents the scholastic diagram of how humans think<\/em>.   The interscope is partially developed in Comments on John Deely’s Book (1994) New Beginnings<\/em> and completely elaborated in Razie Mah’s blog for October 2023, Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) “Semiotic Animal”<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0248 On the content level, the normal context of what is happening3a<\/sub><\/em> brings the actuality of sensation, impression and decoding2a<\/sub> into relation with the potential of ‘something happening’1a<\/sub>.  The actuality2a<\/sub> is dyadic.  That is not apparent here.  Instead, I present a gradation, where sensation<\/em> is close to consciousness,<\/em> impression<\/em> is liminal,<\/em> and decoding<\/em> is automatic and unconscious<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the situation level, the normal context of what it means to me3b<\/sub><\/em> brings the actuality of perception and phantasm2b<\/sub>into relation with the possibility of ‘situating content’1b<\/sub>.  Again, the actuality2b<\/sub> is dyadic.  That is not apparent here.  Instead, perception2a<\/sub> goes with consciousness and phantasm2b<\/sub> associates to unconsciousness… or should I say?… the bicameral mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the perspective level, the normal context of does it make sense3c<\/sub><\/em> brings the actuality of judgment and commitment2c<\/sub>into relation with the possibility of ‘contextualizing the situation’1c<\/sub>.  Here, the actuality2c<\/sub> is a triadic relation.  For judgment2c<\/sub>, the conditions for its actuality2c <\/sub>associate to consciousness.  For commitment2c<\/sub>, the conditions for its actuality2c<\/sub> go with the bicameral mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0249 Does the above figure have anything to do with language?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Comments on Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky’s Book (2016) Why Only Us?, <\/em>Razie Mah suggests that the above interscope corresponds to langue<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0250 Langue?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferdinand de Saussure (1859-1913) revolutionizes the discipline of linguistics by defining “language” as two arbitrarily related systems of differences, parole<\/em> (speech) and langue<\/em> (mental speech processing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn’t that sound scientific?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0251 Yes and no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the phenomena of parole<\/em> are easily observed and measured because speech serves as the medium for communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the phenomena of langue<\/em> cannot be directly observed and measured.  Indeed, the phenomena of langue<\/em> depend on what the scientist thinks that the noumenon of language must be<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0252 For example, the modern cognitive psychologist says that the thing itself<\/em> (langue<\/em>) consists of patterns of neuronal excitation and inhibition in the human brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, modern cognitive psychologists<\/em> insist that all government research funds devoted to language processing<\/em> pass through the articulated agenda<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0253 I offer this morsel of bureaucratic reality<\/em> as an excuse for why Mithen cannot accept the gestural origins of language in hominin evolution.  Research programs in cognitive and evolutionary psychology<\/em> exclude gestural origins because it does not fit what they imagine langue must be<\/em>.  How can a subject conduct a conversation in hand talk<\/em> while belted down in a functional MRI scanner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0254 Indeed, today, the current metaphor of information transmission<\/em> applies to speech-alone talk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0255 The visualization of language as information transmission<\/em> is so powerful that cognitive scientists<\/em> simulate the origins of grammar<\/em> as a spontaneous second-order effect of a sequence of transmissions<\/em>.  The langue aspect<\/em> does not have much to do with it, except as a constraint<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is discussed in chapter eight of Mithen’s The Language Puzzle<\/em>.  The chapter title is “Lessons from an Artificial Language”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0256 Is there another way to look at this transmission metaphor?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If (the noumenon of) langue<\/em> is depicted as the scholastic interscope for how people think,<\/em> then grammar arises within parole<\/em> as symbolic operations that assist in filling the blanks for each element in the interscope<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0257 For Saussure, parole<\/em> is a system of differences.  Each spoken word is distinctly different from any other spoken word (with a few exceptions).  The difference is on the basis of habit, convention, law, tradition and so on.  That makes each spoken word a symbol<\/em>.  In Peirce’s terminology, a symbol<\/em> is a sign-relation whose sign-object is determined on the basis of habit, convention, law, tradition and so forth<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Peirce, a symbolic order<\/em> is a finite collection of symbols<\/em>.  Symbolic orders<\/em> allow symbolic operations<\/em>.  For spoken words, those symbolic operations<\/em> are called, “grammar”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0258 Consequently, I may depict Saussure’s semiological paradigm<\/em> and the metaphor of information transmission<\/em> in terms of Peirce’s categorical framework<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Parole<\/em> manifests as speech-alone talk.  Speech-alone contains a finite number of symbols.  Each symbol is (for the most part) distinct from any other symbol.  A symbolic order<\/em> is composed of a finite number of symbols.<\/em>  A symbolic order<\/em> supports symbolic operations<\/em>.  For language, those symbolic operations<\/em> go under the label, “grammar”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0259 So, what are symbolic operations supposed to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They assist in attaching symbols (spoken words) to empty slots in a purely relational interscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0260 What about the word, “decode”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each symbol<\/em> carries meaning, presence and message<\/em>.  The symbol<\/em> is automatically decoded into these three potentials.  Then, these potentials<\/em> should appear in an empty slot or refine an occupied slot in the scholastic interscope for how humans think<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0261 At first, decoding operations<\/em> fill in the slot2a<\/sub> on the content-level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the next slot to be filled in<\/em> is the actuality2b<\/sub> on the situation level<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, if necessary, the perspective-level actuality2c<\/sub><\/em> comes into play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a picture that highlights the virtual nested form in the category of secondness<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0246 Right at the start, a model… or some sort of picture… of how humans think should help. For the uninitiated, A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction(by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues) should assist. 0247 Why do I say that? 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