Re: fort - da: an appropriation
Steven Gabriel (sgabriel@willamette.edu)
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 14:35:46 -0700 (PDT)
> Can anyone show me this "unconscious" ? How do we know it even exists?
>
> Jim
>
There's an interesting movement in philosophy of mind to the effect that
folk psychology and concepts such as the "unconscious" are utterly
inadequate and ultimately problematic for explaining the mind. Such
people would go so far as to say that no, there is no unconscious, nor
minds for that matter. =)
Perhaps you're an eliminativist then. There are worse things to be. =)
I tend to take this stance a tad drastic. But, like most intellectual
movements fostered by otherwise very intelligent thinkers there probably
is a bit of truth or at least a bit of profoundness behind elimativism. I
think "unconscious" and other such terms are useful as long as we realize
that they are not pre-existent, neccessary things but merely concepts that
we create and then name.
In that lieu, afore-mentioned experimentation does reveal the unconscious
in the trivial but valid manner of finding something interesting and then
labeling it "unconscious."
S.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
: Steven Gabriel -- sgabriel@willamette.edu :
'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'