Theme: Agency

PSYCHOLOGY

1) perceptions, biases and limits, 2) categories provided by evolution, their biases and limits, 2) incentives (values) attached to those categories, their biases and limits.

As far as I know all psychology can be expressed as was suggested by the stoics, as furtherance of acquisition. This yields objective and descriptive psychology(market for cooperation) – and falsifies Freud’s subjective and normative psychology (authoritarianism).

As far as I know (presently), all behavior is constructed from the same five biological reward systems. Those same five reward systems correspond to phases of the prey drive. The mating drive in the sexes influences later stages of the prey drive. Personality differences are attributable to variations in the reward systems that reflect each stage of the prey drive.

As far as I know each evolutionary layer of the brain (stem(autonomic systems and movement), reptilian(predatory/reproductive), mammalian(social and moral), human(cooperative,linguistic) ) contributes to and makes use of increasingly (hierarchical) shared memory, and that on average we can detect very small changes in very short time spans but we sample every half second or so, and produce consciousness out of the two to three seconds of persistence of memory. And because of this division of effort across various systems, we are able to detect changes in state in sensation, perception, short memory, long memory, and predictive memory (modeling): providing us with enormous ability to detect differences and therefore patterns across time.

Unfortunately, while we seem to possess a conscious mind (Rider), we have little introspection into our intuitions (elephant) provided by our mammalian brains, less into our reptilian, and none at all into our autonomic. And Until recently were entirely unaware that all of these are formed by various genes that produce our particular abilities and biases.

SCIENCE

As far as I know the discipline of science is reducible to the use of physical and logical instrumentation to improve on our perceptions, so that we may reduce the imperceptible, to that which is perceptible at least to some degree to our senses, and comparable, at least to some degree, by our reason. Ergo, science assists us in removing ignorance and error, bias and wishful thinking, suggestion and obscurantism, fictionalism and deceit.

PHILOSOPHY

As far as I know, the purpose of philosophy is to increase correspondence with reality such that we have greater power over it (greater ability to make use of it). Ergo philosophy consists of a hierarchy of disciplines that assist us in determining Decidability (truth), Consent (goodness), or Choice (Preference) in any domain of inquiry.

MYSTICISM

As as I know, the purpose of mysticism is to define categories, relations and values that allow us to emotionally circumvent our inability to alter ourselves or reality.

THEOLOGY

As far as I know the purpose of theology is to institutionalize in every possible form, one set of mysticisms or another for the purpose of producing psychological relief on industrial scales.

Many People are weak. Weak physically. Weak emotionally. Weak intellectually, or Weak Circumstantially. The problem we always face is in providing solace to the weak without letting them produce harm to the strong. Unfortunately, every great advance increases the potential of the less able being left behind. And so with every great leap forward, there has been a counter-enlightenmnet by those weak of body, emoition, mind and circumstance.

Marxism, Postmodernism, Feminism are must the most recent of the three attacks on civilization. Abrahamism(rabbinical judaism) being the second (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and organized religion being the first.