>>From the philosophical point of view, the idea that these mutations,
>
> which have such far-reaching implications, take place naturally is
> unproblematic, but that they are purely random strikes me as
> unsatisfying. It leaves open the question of whether this randomness
> is best understood as an objective feature of reality or better
> understood as indicating some kind of hidden causality. (P. 104)
>
I would suppose that most researchers who deal with the causes of
mutations would not claim that they were random. Instead they would
agree that the "errors" that take place when DNA changes of mutates
have particular causes, like some interference with the process by
events in the environment, which get in the way of replication of the
DNA molecules. Maybe they would go as far as to say that there is a
bit more randomness involved that the degree of randomness involved
with macromolecular duplication.
> Second, he rejects the idea that the mind is not real and that
> therefore consciousness is an illusion. Many people do not realize
> that a central axiom of materialist science is that the mind is merely
> a buzz created by the neurons, with no real power to affect anything.
> That is, the materialist is not just saying that there is no God, he
> is also saying that there is no you. But the Lama does realize that.
> Indeed, he was forced to, in a dialogue with a materialist scientist
> that he recounts in Single Atom,
>
I doubt if the researchers who believe that the self is identical with
the activities of the brain would construct the further argument based
upon it that something is an illusion. Not all scientists accept
particular aspects of materialist philosophy and hence it is a straw
man argument.
> I said to one of the scientists: "It seems very evident that due to
> changes in the chemical processes of the brain, many of our subjective
> experiences like perception and sensation occur. Can one envision to
> reversal of this causal process? Can one postulate that pure thought
> itself could effect a change in the chemical processes of the brain?"
> I was asking whether, conceptually at least, we could allow the
> possibility of both upward and downward causation.
>
> The scientist's response was quite surprising. He said that since all
> mental states arise from physical states, it is not possible for
> downward causation to occur. Although out of politeness, I did not
> respond at the time, I thought then and still think that here is as
> yet no scientific basis for such a categorical claim. The view that
> all mental processes are necessarily physical processes is a
> metaphysical assumption, not a scientific fact. I feel that, in the
> spirit of scientific inquiry, it is critical that we allow the
> question to remain open, and not conflate our assumptions with
> empirical fact. (p. 128)
>
It seems like he draws a conclusion about a vast population of
scientists based on a sample that is biased or prejudiced in some
manner, in this case, one example of a scientist who doesn't believe
in the interaction of top-down and bottom-up causation, to represent
the views of millions of researchers, worldwide, who take variouse and
graded positions upon sytems theory such as this.
A sample is biased or loaded when the method used to take the sample
is likely to result in a sample that does not adequately represent the
population from which it is drawn.
Biased samples are generally not very reliable. As a blatant case,
imagine that a person is taking a sample from a truckload of small
colored balls, some of which are metal and some of which are plastic.
If he used a magnet to select his sample, then his sample would
include a disproportionate number of metal balls (after all, the
sample will probably be made up entirely of the metal balls). In this
case, any conclusions he might draw about the whole population of
balls would be unreliable since he would have few or no plastic balls
in the sample.
The general idea is that biased samples are less likely to contain
numbers proportional to the whole population. For example, if a person
wants to find out what most Americans thought about gun control, a
poll taken at an NRA meeting would be a biased sample.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/biased-sample.html
> As a Buddhist, he places a great deal of emphasis on the idea that the
> universe is top down, not bottom up. To him, the mind is real and
> creative. It is independent of matter. On that, he is not prepared to
> budge, as his reacton to the scientist shows. He writes further,
>
Science should not be biased by any particular religious view. Science
research should be ready for any evidence that comes up, not just what
confirms some dogma.
> In order for the study of consciousness to be complete, we need a
> methodology that would account not only for what is occurring at the
> neurological and biochemical levels but also for the subjective
> experience of consciousness itself. Even when combined, neuroscience
> and behavioral psychology do not shed enough light on the subjective
> experience, as both approaches still place primary importance on the
> objective, third-person perspective. Contemplative traditions on the
> while have historically emphasized subjective, first-person
> investigation of the nature and functions of consciousness, by
> training the mind to focus in a disciplined way on its own internal
> states. (P. 141)
>
> In other words, no view of mind is accurate if it dismisses the you in
> you.
>
Do you have any evidence for how many researchers do this explicitely?
> Third, he rejects the idea that no one genuinely feels compassion
> (altruism). Strict Darwinism accounts for altruism as simply the way
> that your selfish genes compel you to spread them. Your feelings are
> useful illusions that help spread your genes. He acknowledges,
>
> Some more dogmatic Darwinians have suggested that natural selection
> and survival of the fittest are best understood at the level of
> individual genes. Here we see the reduction of the strong metaphysical
> belief in the principle of self-interest to imply that somehow
> individual genes behave in a selfish way. I do not know how many of
> today's scientists hold such radical views, As it stands the current
> biological model does not allow for the possibility of real altruism.
> (P. 113)
> Revisiting the topic and choosing his words carefully, the Lama
> writes,
>
> I am told there is in fact an entire discipline called "evolutionary
> psychology". To an extent I can see how evolutionary accounts can be
> given for the emergence of basic emotions such as attachment, anger,
> and fear. However ... I cannot envision how the evolutionary approach
> can do justice to the richness of the emotional world and the
> subjective quality of experience. (P. 181)
>
One might ask how, if something "not envisionable" is any evidence
that that is the way things work.
APPENDIX Donald E. Brown's List of Human Universals
THIS LIST, COMPILED in 1989 and published in 1991, consists primarily
of "surface" universals of behavior and overt language noted by
ethnographers. It does not list deeper universals of mental structure
that are revealed by theory and experiments. It also omits near-
universals (traits that most, but not all, cultures show) and
conditional universals ("If a culture has trait A, it always has trait
B"). A list of items added since 1989 is provided at the end. For
discussion and references, see Brown's Human Universals (1991) and his
entry for "Human Universals" in The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive
Sciences (Wilson & Keil, 1999).
abstraction in speech and thought
actions under self-control distinguished from those not under control
aesthetics
affection expressed and felt
age grades
age statuses
age terms
ambivalence
anthropomorphization
antonyms
baby talk
belief in supernatural/ religion
beliefs, false
beliefs about death
beliefs about disease
beliefs about fortune and misfortune
binary cognitive distinctions
biological mother and social mother normally the same person
black (color term)
body adornment
childbirth customs
childcare
childhood fears
childhood fear of loud noises
childhood fear of strangers
choice making (choosing alternatives)
classification
classification of age
classification of behavioral propensities
classification of body parts
classification of colors
classification of fauna
classification of flora
classification of inner states
classification of kin
classification of sex
classification of space
classification of tools
classification of weather
conditions coalitions
collective identities
conflict
conflict, consultation to deal with
conflict, means of dealing with
conflict, mediation of
conjectural reasoning
containers
continua (ordering as cognitive pattern)
contrasting marked and nonmarked sememes (meaningful elements in
language)
cooking
cooperation
cooperative labor
copulation normally conducted in privacy
corporate (perpetual) statuses
coyness display
crying
cultural variability
culture
culture/nature distinction
customary greetings
daily routines
dance
death rituals
decision making
decision making, collective
directions, giving of
discrepancies between speech, thought, and action
dispersed groups
distinguishing right and wrong
diurnality
divination
division of labor
division of labor by age
division of labor by sex
dreams
dream interpretation
economic inequalities
economic inequalities, consciousness of
emotions
empathy
entification (treating patterns and relations as things)
environment, adjustments to
envy
envy, symbolic means of coping with
ethnocentrism
etiquette
explanation
face (word for)
facial communication
facial expression of anger
facial expression of contempt
facial expression of disgust
facial expression of fear
facial expression of happiness
facial expression of sadness
facial expression of surprise
facial expressions, masking/modifying of
family (or household)
father and mother, separate kin terms for
fears
fears, ability to overcome some
feasting
females do more direct childcare
figurative speech
fire
folklore
food preferences food sharing
future, attempts to predict
generosity admired
gestures
gift giving
good and bad distinguished
gossip
government
grammar
group living
groups that are not based on family
hairstyles
hand (word for)
healing the sick (or attempting to)
hospitality
hygienic care
identity, collective
incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed
incest, prevention or avoidance
in-group distinguished from out-group(s)
in-group, biases in favor of
inheritance rules
insulting
intention
interest in bioforms (living things or things that resemble them)
interpreting behavior
intertwining (e.g., weaving)
jokes
kin, close distinguished from distant
kin groups
kin terms translatable by basic relations of procreation
kinship statuses
language
language employed to manipulate others
language employed to misinform or mislead
language is translatable
language not a simple reflection of reality
language, prestige from proficient use of
law (rights and obligations)
law (rules of membership)
leaders
lever
linguistic redundancy
logical notions
logical notion of "and"
logical notion of "equivalent"
logical notion of "general/particular"
logical notion of "not"
logical notion of "opposite"
logical notion of "part/whole"
logical notion of "same"
magic
magic to increase life
magic to sustain life
magic to win love
male and female and adult and child seen as having different natures
males dominate public/political realm
males more aggressive
males more prone to lethal violence
males more prone to theft
manipulate social relations
marking at phonemic, syntactic, and lexical levels
marriage
materialism
meal times
meaning, most units of are non-universal
measuring
medicine
melody
memory
metaphor
metonym
mood- or consciousness-altering techniques and/or substances
morphemes
mother normally has consort during child-rearing years
mourning
murder proscribed
music
music, children's
music related in part to dance
music related in part to religious activity
music seen as art (a creation)
music, vocal
music, vocal, includes speech forms
musical redundancy
musical repetition
musical variation
myths
narrative
nomenclature (perhaps the same as classification)
nonbodily decorative art
normal distinguished from abnormal states
nouns
numerals (counting)
Oedipus complex
oligarchy (de facto)
one (numeral)
onomatopoeia
overestimating objectivity of thought
pain
past/present/future
person, concept of
personal names
phonemes
phonemes defined by sets of minimally contrasting features
phonemes, merging of
phonemes, range from 10 to 70 in number
phonemic change, inevitability of
phonemic change, rules of
phonemic system
planning
planning for future
play
play to perfect skills
poetry/rhetoric
poetic line, uniform length range
poetic lines characterized by repetition and variation
poetic lines demarcated by pauses
polysemy (one word has several related meanings)
possessive, intimate
possessive, loose
practice to improve skills
preference for own children and close kin (nepotism)
prestige inequalities
private inner life
promise
pronouns
pronouns, minimum two numbers
pronouns, minimum three persons
proper names
property
psychological defense mechanisms
rape
rape proscribed
reciprocal exchanges (of labor, goods, or services)
reciprocity, negative (revenge, retaliation)
reciprocity, positive
recognition of individuals by face
redress of wrongs
rhythm
right-handedness as population norm
rites of passage
rituals
role and personality seen in dynamic interrelationship (i.e.,
departures
from role can be explained in terms of individual personality)
sanctions
sanctions for crimes against the collectivity
sanctions include removal from the social unit
self distinguished from other
self as neither wholly passive nor wholly autonomous
self as subject and object
self is responsible
semantics
semantic category of affecting things and people
semantic category of dimension
semantic category of giving
semantic category of location
semantic category of motion
semantic category of speed
semantic category of other physical properties
semantic components
semantic components, generation
semantic components, sex
sememes, commonly used ones are short, infrequently used ones are
longer
senses unified
sex (gender) terminology is fundamentally binary
sex statuses
sexual attraction
sexual attractiveness
sexual jealousy
sexual modesty
sexual regulation
sexual regulation includes incest prevention
sexuality as focus of interest
shelter
sickness and death seen as related
snakes, wariness around
social structure
socialization
socialization expected from senior kin
socialization includes toilet training
spear
special speech for special occasions
statuses and roles
statuses, ascribed and achieved
statuses distinguished from individuals
statuses on other than sex, age, or kinship bases
stop/nonstop contrasts (in speech sounds)
succession
sweets preferred
symbolism
symbolic speech
synonyms
taboos
tabooed foods
tabooed utterances
taxonomy
territoriality
time
time, cyclicity of
tools
tool dependency
tool making
tools for cutting
tools to make tools
tools patterned
culturally
tools, permanent
tools for pounding
trade
triangular awareness (assessing relationships among the self and two
other
people)
true and false distinguished
turn-taking
two (numeral)
tying material (i.e., something like string)
units of time
verbs
violence, some forms of proscribed
visiting
vocalic/nonvocalic contrasts in phonemes
vowel contrasts
weaning
weapons
weather control (attempts to)
white (color term)
world view
---------------------
Additions Since 1989
---------------------
anticipation
attachment
critical learning periods
differential valuations
dominance/submission
fairness (equity), concept of
fear of death
habituation
hope
husband older than wife on average
imagery
institutions (organized co-activities)
intention
interpolation
judging others
likes and dislikes
making comparisons
males, on average, travel greater distances over lifetime
males engage in more coalitional violence
mental maps
mentalese
moral sentiments
moral sentiments, limited effective range of
precedence, concept of (that's how the leopard got its spots)
pretend play
pride
proverbs, sayings
proverbs, sayings-in mutually contradictory forms
resistance to abuse of power, to dominance
risk taking
self-control
self-image, awareness of (concern for what others think)
self-image, manipulation of
self-image, wanted to be positive
sex differences in spatial cognition and behavior
shame
stinginess, disapproval of
sucking wounds
synesthetic metaphors
thumb sucking
tickling
toys, playthings
> His views come as no surprise because the development of compassion is
> central to the Buddhist understanding of spiritual growth. But they
> proved unacceptable to many neuroscientists.
