BillK wrote:
On 12/5/06, Charles D Hixson wrote:
BillK wrote:
> ...
>
No time inversion intended. What I intended to say was that most
(all?) decisions are made subconsciously before the conscious mind
starts its reason / excuse generation process. The conscious mind
pretending to weigh various reasons is just a human conceit. This
feature was necessary in early evolution for survival. When danger
threatened, immediate action was required. Flee or fight! No time to
consider options with the new-fangled consciousness brain mechanism
that evolution was developing.
With the luxury of having plenty of time to reason about decisions,
our consciousness can now play its reasoning games to justify what
subconsciously has already been decided.
NOTE: This is probably an exaggeration / simplification. ;)
BillK
I would say that all decisions are made subconsciously, but that the
conscious mind can focus attention onto various parts of the problem and
possibly affect the weighings of the factors.
I would also make a distinction between the conscious mind and the
verbalized elements, which are merely the story that the conscious mind
is telling. (And assert that ALL of the stories that we tell ourselves
are "human conceits", i.e., abstractions of parts deemed significant out
of a much more complex underlying process.)
I've started reading "What is Thought" by Eric Baum. So far I'm only
into the second chapter, but it seems quite promising.
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