PDF-(BOOK)-The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature

Do newborns think Do they know that three is greater than two Do they prefer right to wrong What about emotionscan newborns recognize happiness or anger If the answer to these questions is yes then how are our inborn thoughts and feelings encoded in our bodies Could theypersist after we dieGoing all the way back to ancient Greece human nature and the mindbody problem have been the topics of fierce scholarly debates But laypeople also have strong opinions about such matters Most people believe for example that newborn babies dont know the difference between right andwrongsuch knowledge they insist can only be learned For emotions they presume the oppositethat our capacity to feel fear for example is both inborn and embodiedThese beliefs are stories we tell ourselves about what we know and who we are They reflect and influence our understanding of ourselves and others and they guide every aspect of our lives In The Blind Storyteller the cognitive psychologist Iris Berent exposes a chasm between our intuitiveunderstanding of human nature and the conclusions emerging from science Her conclusions show that many of our stories are misguided Just like Homer we the storyteller are blindHow could we get it so wrong In a twist that could have come out of a Greek tragedy Berent proposes that our errors are our fate These mistakes emanate from the very principles that make our minds tick Our blindness to human nature is rooted in human nature itselfAn intellectual journey that draws on philosophy anthropology linguistics cognitive science and Berents own cuttingedge research The Blind Storyteller grapples with a host of provocative questions from why we are so afraid of zombies to whether dyslexia is just in our heads from whathappens to us when we die to why we are so infatuated with our brains The end result is a startling new perspective on the ageold naturenurture debateand on what it means to be human. License . and Terms of . Use. Anyone may use this PowerPoint file to support presentations under the following terms. :. No . editorial or content changes may be made to any of the . component slides. Both an Address (1942) and a Book (1947). Our Focus: The Book. The Circumstances. On Sept. 27, 1942, Lewis gave a talk on miracles at the Church of St Jude on the Hill, London. He later used some of that talk for the book, and the talk is now incorporated into . 1800-1855. Romanticism. The term derives from “romance,” . which from the Medieval Period (1200-1500) and on simply meant a story (e.g. all the chivalric, King Arthur legends) that was . adventuristic. What is it to be a Person?. What Am I?. What Makes A Human?. . Key Questions. How are . we. different from other species?. What are humans like? . What . does it mean to be human? . What . are the characteristics in order to be human? . ‘Two extravagances: to exclude reason, to admit only reason.’. Blaise. Pascal, 1623-62. Thanks to Richard van de . Lagemaat. , Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma, . Cambridge University Press. The Enlightenment… and beyond!. (Or: “How I learned to stop being reasonable and love the guillotine”) . Ahhhh, France!. Truly the land of reason! Why, in France, . … the rats can cook…. … gentle clowns are free to explore invisible boxes…. Challenge - Matthew . 6:25-34. Life is more. …. Than my worry. Life is more. …. 1. Look. 1. Look. Look at Nature. “. There is something about nature that is much more striking and inexplicable than its design. All scientific, inductive reasoning is based on the assumption of the regularity (the “laws”) of nature, that water will boil tomorrow under the identical conditions of . When you see this,. you may want to take note. o. f the material on the page.. Definition. Contrary to what you may think, the term . Romanticism. is not just about romantic love (although love is sometimes the subject of romantic art).. How do you know that the Bible isn’t like the Book of Mormon or Koran – just another religious text written by uninspired men?. How do you know the Bible hasn’t been corrupted over time? . 2 Timothy 3:16-17. BIRTH:. Thomas Stearns Eliot . September 26, 1888 in Missouri. . CHILDHOOD:. father, Henry Ware Eliot, . mother, Charlotte Champe Stearns, . was a teacher. . At the time of Eliot’s birth, his parents were in their mid-forties . A Comparison of Seneca and St. Paul. Lucius . Annaeus. Seneca (4BCE-65CE). St. Paul the Apostle (5CE-67CE). Getting Launched. According to Goleman and Davidson, unfocussed human brains switch to a default mode that puts the self at the center of the world and mulls endlessly over how that self is faring. We could call this the “It’s all about me” setting. Contemplation, focusing the brain on something other than the self, activates other parts of the brain, thus stilling the default mode and effectively de-centering the self.. 4 From Renaissance to Enlightenment 1 Larger h istorical c ontext “Renaissance” = “rebirth” Return to Greek and Roman philosophy and culture a fter the “Middle Ages” or “medieval” period Introduction. 1770-1830 in literature, 1880’s in music. History of ideas as a perpetual oscillation between extremes.. One mode of thought inevitably provokes its opposite.. Reaction against Enlightenment. Anticlassical.. Gifford Lecture 5. May 9, 2023. John Dupré, Egenis, University of Exeter. Human Nature is written in our genes?. Human Nature as a “Blank Slate”: social context is the Key. Evolutionary Psychology: the key to human nature is in our evolutionary past..