Re: A Million Parrots (OH MY GLEN)

From: Eray Ozkural exa (erayo_at_bilkent.edu.tr)
Date: 05/31/04 

Date: 31 May 2004 14:53:08 -0700

feedbackdroids@yahoo.com (dan michaels) wrote in message news:<8d8494cf.0405241119.3df017cf@posting.google.com>...
> "Glen M. Sizemore" <gmsizemore2@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<58184467b23640ecf27ffde5475072d5@news.teranews.com>...
>
> > GS: It is radical behaviorism that champions the existence of "mental
> > imagery," you savagely stupid bumpkin.
> >
>
>
> Now now Glen, be nice. Every now and then, I accidentally read one of
> your posts ....

That's a mistake.

> I know you guys have "terms" for everything [eg private behavior, or
> whatever you want to call it],

They don't.

> but the question is ... can YOU
> personally perform mental imagery? And can you describe it to the rest
> of us?

It does not matter whether they can. It matters whether they can
explain.

It's easy to see that they cannot. A behaviorist explanation does not
suffice for it is restricted to description of I/O and not the
cognitive function or algorithms (specific mechanisms to implement
these functions), see my previous comments about "protocol stack
theory of mind" or "Strata Theory-Theory of Mind" (which is the new
name).

"Visualizing a blue cube", on the other hand, requires us to
distinguish clearly what the "hallucinatory" aspects of vision are as
constrasted to perceptive.

I can, for instance, visualize a solid color, say of blue, in a
meditation state, and actually see this color as if a blue light was
projected on my closed eyelids. I suspect many others can. It does not
matter what you can, it matters what you can explain with a scientific
theory. Buddhist priests can visualize much better than either of us
can, alas they don't have a reasonable explanation. Neither do the
behaviorists.

Best Regards, 

--
Eray Ozkural

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A Million Parrots (OH MY GLEN)
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