[From Bill Powers (960311.1000 MST)]
Scott Graham (960309) --
Your "paradoxical" approach is paradoxical only if the object of the
therapy is assumed to be to make the unwanted experience go away. It
ceases to be paradoxical if you think of the point as being to give the
person higher-level control over the experience. The problem is not the
desire to solve problems (worrying) or the desire to escape from small
spaces (claustrophobia), but the fact that the reference signal calling
for the related actions is stuck. What is needed is to establish a
higher-level connection that can _vary_ such reference signals, making
them nonzero when appropriate (a problem really does have to be solved,
or you are really locked in a closet without enough air), and otherwise
allowing them to be set to zero. Simply opposing the actions only
creates a conflict; what is necessary is to regain the ability to alter
the goal.
In order to _increase_ the reference signal, the person must somehow
gain access to the reference signal. How this is accomplished, I don't
know. If the person can increase the reference signal just by being
asked, the problem is essentially solved, because if the reference
signal can be raised, it can also be lowered. It may be that simply
through trying to alter the reference signal, the person "goes up a
level" and reorganization focusses on the place in the hierarchy that
has access to the relevent reference signals and can change them. After
all, the problem is not in worrying or in trying to escape from small
places. The person already does those things very competently, thank
you. What is wrong is in the higher systems that are choosing those
goals unnecessarily.
···
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Lars Christian Smith (960310 16:30 CET) --
Dennett is refering to John Locke's "proof" that in the beginning
was the Mind. Dennett is not saying anything original here, he is
quite conventional, and he is arguing that what looks like design
is the outcome of an algorithmic process. That process is natural
selection or filtering or differential reproduction or descent with
modification. You don't need the concept of God to explain the
number and distribution of species.
It's interesting how many people think that an "algorithmic process" can
have existence outside the human mind. That's just a God-substitute,
isn't it?
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Best to all,
Bill P.