From: clyder@GN.APC.ORG
Date: Sat Nov 18 2006 - 15:50:30 EST
Quoting Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU>: > Can a non human animal distinguish between a movement which is also an > action and one which is not? If not, then how would a non human animal > know it has lost the capacity for action? I am not sure I understand what you mean, or what point you are making here. Could you give an example that would clarify it? I gave the example of caging an animal as an example of depriving the animal of its capacity for the actions of freely moving about and seeking food, mates etc. I also dont understand why you see these points as germane to Marx original distinction between architects and bees and spiders. > Are these even empirical > questions? If not, should we move them on positivist grounds? > I wish I knew more about the philosophy of action and Donald Davidson's > writings. I have also tried a couple of times to understand Husserl's and > Merleau Ponty's ideas about the special intentionality of human > consciousness but have never felt satisfied. Just marking these > ideas/questions which I just can't pursue now.But I read you, Dogan, Ian > and Howard with interest > Rakesh > > > >> > > >> > So Bees and Spiders too, have goals for their labour, which goals > >> > they must presumably store in their heads. > >> > >> Are our goals stored in our head; is that where the self is, simply > >> localized as a neural object? I thought the integrative biologists had > >> provided good reasons for skepticism. See for example Denis Noble, The > >> Music of Life: Biology beyond the Genome. > >> > > Whether the intentions are stored in the head is not vital, the issue > > is whether they are internal to the organism or can be externalised > > in the form of spoken or written instructions. Internal intentions > > are commonplace among animals, written instructions, are as far as I > > know unique to civilised humanity. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Nov 30 2006 - 00:00:06 EST