Jerry Katz on Nonduality

2 Responses to “Nonduality: A Scientific Perspective”

1. Ted Biringer Says:

   
   December 12, 2009 at 6:30 am

   Thank you Jerry!

   For this as well as your continuous active practice-realization. Two books may be of interest if you have not yet seen them (I find no references to them on your site). The first is a recent publication by Alva Noe, called, “Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness.”

   Here are a couple of blurbs on the book:

   “This book blows a breath of fresh air into the debates about consciousness and the brain. You are not your brain; you are your body, brain, and world dynamically intertwined. Consciousness is not a solo performance by the brain; it’s a partner dance our living bodies enact in concert with the world. If you think the brain is the beginning and end of the story about consciousness, you need to get out of your head and read this book!” —Evan Thompson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto

   “As colorful and hard-hitting as its title suggests, Out of Our Heads is an important and provocative work that challenges some of the deepest assumptions guiding the contemporary scientific study of conscious experience.” —Andy Clark, Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, Edinburgh University

   “Alva Noë makes a powerful and persuasive case for the view that a several-centuries-old picture of the mind as an entity ‘inside the head’ has misled both lay and scientific thought about the nature of consciousness and, more broadly, the nature of the mind-world relation. Ranging over topics in philosophy, psychology, and neurology, the chapters of this book combine sophistication and availability to a general reader. His alternative to the misleading picture is nontrivial, and while his views are sure to be controversial, most of what he says is true, and all of it is original and important to think about.” —Hilary Putnam, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

   The second book was published in 1986, it is called, “Picturing the World (SUNY Series in Philosophy) by John C. Gilmour

   Here is some info on that book:

   Summary

   Scientists are portrayed as champions of objectivity and truth, and artists as champions of subjectivity and creative expression. Through analysis of modern art, John C. Gilmour shows how misleading is this separation of the world into objective and subjective spheres. This false dichotomy depends upon a dated philosophy of mind. The issues posed are developed from the ideas of Nietzche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Wittgenstein, Rorty, Dewey, and Whitehead. Picturing the World requires us to reconceive the role of the artist in the creative process and the role of the arts in general.

   “It is a remarkably thorough philosophic analysis of aesthetic problems that arise from a dualism of mind and body, and it is a reconstruction of an alternative theory. The argument is tight and cogent.” — Robert C. Neville

   John C. Gilmour is professor of philosophy and director of the B.A. in Fine Arts major at Alfred University.

   Contents

   Preface

   Introduction

   1. Representation and Truth

   2. Expression and Feeling

   3. Vision and Language

   4. The Artisit and the Visible World

   5. Meaning and Cultural Regularities

   6. Imagination and Cultural Change

   7. Creativity and Truth

   8. Art and Self-Understanding

   Hope you find this of interest.

   Thanks again.

   Peace,
   Ted
2. Jerry Says:

   
   December 12, 2009 at 8:15 am

   Hi Ted, thanks very much for this blog entry within a blog entry. I wasn’t aware of these books. I’m working on next year’s science and nonduality conference and I’ll pass these names along.

   Jerry