|
|
|
|
Site Map. Click [+] to expand.
|
|
Click 'More' for more detail,
'Next Page' (right arrow), or
'Quick Tour' (control right arrow).
If in a drill down:
you can use Shift-Down or Shift-Up,
or Ctrl-Shift up or down to exit.
If looping over a theme:
you can use Shift-Right or Shift-Left, or
Ctrl-Shift-Left or Right to exit.
When the option is available,
using Alt key toggles the option:
Alt-a - audio,
Alt-i - iconic menu,
Alt-m - music,
Alt-v - video.
View notes for page: Ctrl-Up.
Return to main page: Ctrl-Down
What do you think?
Click Feedback to email us or have your say at the end of most pages.
|
Acknowledge coding help from:
W3Schools: Best free web coding tutorials.
StackOverflow
Flaticon
ExtendsClass - PHP syntax checker
Tree Menu
Copyright (c) 2006 Mackley F. Pexton
User ID:
LFD= EN/EN/ SRC=Opt4Cur
LNM= EN TX#= '' SW#= ''
DVC= 'Dtop' BRS= 'Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)' SWF= 'AllWebSoftware'
SIT= 'GlobalBeliefs.org'
A= 'www.globalbeliefs.org'
RET= '' or ''
SLF= '/EN/2_7.php/All/Menu_Icons/3_1.php' CUR= '2_7'
NXT= '3_0'
MVM= ','
'1,1'
'1,1'
|
|
Version 1.3 August 2015Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (Previous
Version)
These are the questions we ask in the introduction (Section 0.1.6 – paragraph 13):
If there is nothing divine in us, how can we be conscious?
What is consciousness? How can we be self-aware? Why are people sometimes so
mean, so selfish, so stupid? Why are people sometimes so kind, generous, and
clever? How can we be so rational sometimes and so emotional other times? Why
do men and women think so differently? Why are we all a bit racist and all a
bit sexist? How come humans like music and singing? How did the apes learn to
speak?
We may refine these as we develop this Chapter.
This chapter covers the areas of science concerned with how
our brains developed and how they work now, such as evolutionary psychology, psychology,
sociology, neuroscience and cognitive science. We cover this in just enough
detail so that we can work out what to believe and why, so that we can decide
what to do, in our day to day life, and in the big decisions of life. Unfortunately
that means there is a lot to cover.
For now, we have indicated the questions and the main
topics we intend to address. We MAY look at how we know what we know under the
following INDICATIVE DRAFT topic headings.
Here we review briefly the development of nervous systems
and brains in animals, from primitive worms and insects, through fish, amphibians,
reptiles, birds and mammals, to primates and humans. Â We need to address several
key developments related to our current behaviour:
a) the
physical development of our senses, nervous system and brain structure and capacity;
b) how
our intellectual, emotional, moral and consciousness development was
integrated;
a. self-awareness
and consciousness,
b. the
intellectual development, of our ability to understand;
c. the
emotional changes in our bodily responses and the feelings generated in our
minds;
d. the moral
changes, as we became human and humans formed into large societies; and
c) the
development of our senses of mystery, awe, longing, connection, including
a. Mystical
experiences; and
b. Near death
experiences.
The following mooted topics will be
rationalised and structured as we develop the chapter contents.
|
1. My Brain and Me:
|
Parallel (associative) and Sequential (active) circular
reactions?
|
|
2. Brains as Processes:
|
How do collections of neurons implement mental processes?
|
|
3. Techniques:
|
How we know what we know about brains?
|
|
4. World Views:
|
All species see the world so differently.
|
Is it reasonable to break down this area into
these topics at this level?
Click on feedback, or add a comment below, to
tell us if you agree or disagree, or suggest improvements.
|
|
5. Lizard Brains:
|
Attention and Emotions: sex, fear, etc.
|
|
6. Mammalian Brains:
|
Perception and Action.
|
|
7. Mammalian Brains:
|
Feelings and Thoughts
|
|
8. Fast and Slow Systems
|
Survival benefits of fast brains.
|
|
9. Seeing Other Minds:
|
Animals co-operate and compete.
|
|
10. Group Cooperation:
|
Altruism, self-interest and moral calculus.
|
|
11. Group Competition:
|
Primate aggression to ‘outsiders’.
|
|
12. Early Communication:
|
Use of other signals, smell, body, cries,
|
|
13. Tools and Culture:
|
Tool use and culture in other animals.
|
|
|
14. Rituals and Songs:
|
Dance and song as language precursors.
|
|
|
15. Self-Awareness:
|
How could non-humans be self-aware?
|
|
|
16. Awareness of Death:
|
Occurs in animals, seen in archaeology.
|
|
|
17. Human Brains:
|
Cerebral cortex and longer chains, etc.
|
|
18. Brain Regions:
|
Centres for language and self-control, etc.
|
|
|
19. Language and Stories:
|
Imperatives and Narratives.
|
|
|
20. Concepts/Abstraction:
|
Social constructs and illusion (maya).
|
|
|
21. Reason:
|
Induction and deduction.
|
|
|
22. Primitive Physics:
|
3D, steady time, colours, causal, agents etc
|
|
|
23. Human Altruism:
|
How do humans behave altruistically?
|
|
|
24. Intelligence:
|
Does it matter? What influences it?
|
|
|
25. Emotional Growth:
|
Effects of early years?
|
|
|
26. Mental Development:
|
Imitation, Concrete, Abstract phases
|
|
|
27. Emotional Maturity:
|
Beyond simple rules and fixed structures?
|
|
|
28. Human Violence:
|
Is violence intrinsic, or is it cultural?
|
|
|
29. Racism:
|
Our expanding circle of concern.
|
|
|
30. Psycho/Sociopaths
|
How do we treat unfeeling people?
|
|
|
31. Gender Realities:
|
Different benefits and costs in reproduction.
|
|
|
32. Heterosexuality:
|
Including reproductive strategies?
|
|
|
33. Homosexuality:
|
How natural is homosexuality?
|
|
|
34. Gender Illusions:
|
Real differences between men and women?
|
|
|
35. Mental Errors:
|
The many ways we deceive ourselves?
|
|
|
36. Mental Illness:
|
Can we honestly identify treat it?
|
|
|
37. Social Norms
|
How we construct and change our realities?
|
|
|
38. Eccentrics and Others:
|
How do we cope as outsiders in society?
|
|
|
39. Mind Affecting Drugs:
|
Do psychedelics and so on give us insights?
|
|
|
40. Addictions:
|
Are these genetic, environmental or moral?
|
|
|
41. Mystical Experiences:
|
How do we explain mystical experiences?
|
|
|
42. Death Experiences:
|
How we explain near death experiences?
|
|
|
43. Connection and Hope:
|
Do we have real objective needs for these?
|
|
|
44. Mental Education:
|
How we rise above the limitations we see?
|
|
|
45. Enhancing our Brains:
|
Can drugs or embedded chips, enhance us?
|
|
|
46. Artificial Intelligence:
|
Can computers ever think and be conscious?
|
|
|
47. Extra-terrestrial Life:
|
Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is the current summary of our conclusions in this
area:
Science is developing explanations of
how humans evolved into emotional, thinking, conscious, tool making, singing,
talking hunter gatherers, with moral and spiritual feelings, an innate
calculus of right and wrong; how xenophobia, racism, sexuality and sexism
evolved, and how we can control our ‘primitive’ nature.
 more (later)                                                             Statement
13
The detailed sections explain how we
justify these conclusions.
Members can tell us (publicly) what they think of this page. How can we improve it? Enter your comments.
Anyone can tell us (privately) what they think directly by email: click on 'Feedback' below.
Be the first to add a comment on this page.
* * * * * * *
|
We
need help (obviously).
1. We need constructive feedback from
readers, whether positive or negative. Use the comments section on each
web page.
2. We need help with writing,
especially Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5, especially from non-Anglos, on
● the
science of our origins and human nature,
● long
term global history,
● identifying
the good and bad of indigenous religions, the major traditional world
religions, and modern responses to religion, and
● a
world-wide perspective on art and culture and the media.
3. We need help to translate into other
languages. We can do a first draft translation using eg Google Translate,
but that needs to be checked and refined.
4. We need administrative help to
establish and run local branches of a Reasonable Global Way: eg Reasonable Way Melbourne, or Reasonable
Way New York!
5. We need technical help, to maintain and
enhance the web site, for marketing and promotion, for legal matters, and to
develop educational resources.
6. We need funding, to provide an
ongoing revenue stream to maintain the organisation and its assets, and support
the activities noted above.
If you can help, click on Help Us
for more info, or click on Feedback (in main
menu) to send email.
|
|
English (English)
Español (Spanish)
Français (French)
