home about photos phd v1.0

The Daily Kos has put together a list of the top 25 quotes in human history. My top 4 from that list are 11 (favourite), 7, 14 and 1. It must have been a tough job for the author as there many thousands of quotes out there; an enjoyable read.

All of us, everyday, we talk to ourselves. Interestingly though, the social stigma associated with talking to ourselves makes us pretend like it doesn't happen, kind of like going to the bathroom during the Victorian era.

Of course it's really just a protective form of embarrassment; we just don't want other people to think that we actually believe we're talking with another person. You know, that we're just a little bit crazy.

But, why do we do it? I believe reflective dialogue provides a very useful means of conversation and cognitive role playing; a learning tool. Lets draw back from that for the moment and consider a more mundane activity; basketball. More to the point, how do we learn to play basketball? We practice; over and over again. We practice shooting the ball, bouncing it up and down, learning the feel of its weight, understanding its movement, and learning how to combine these actions while in motion.

But, in the context of conversation how do we practice for expected dialogues with other individuals? How can we plan for the possible conversational outcomes without first practicing the scenario? Let’s look at an example. Meet Bob, he's our fictional character for this little story. Bob has a secret little habit. Apparently Bob likes taking his our own toilet paper to work; it seems Bob's not too fussed on the cheap office 1-ply stuff. Every lunch break, Bob likes to slip off to the toilet with a roll of plush paper hidden in his laptop bag. Now the chances of Bob being caught are pretty slim, he's careful fellow.

One day however, after Bob is finished doing his business, he forgets to put the roll back in his bag before opening the stall door. As luck would have it, a co-worker happens to walk by and notice Bob stuffing a distinctly non-office, soft looking colour-patterned roll into his bag. It is of course a rather funny moment for Bob's colleague, and one that could leave Bob feeling somewhat embarrassed around the office. Luckily for Bob he's role-played this situation in his head, over and over, preparing for any conversational outcome. Bob promptly informs his colleague that yes, he does bring his own toilet paper, but it's because he's allergic to the cellulose in most of the common brands of paper. His colleague proceeds to ask him a number of clarifying statements, such as, what does he do when he's out in public without his personal roll, or what happens when he runs out? Luckily for Bob he's planned for all these conversational eventualities in his practised reflective dialogue, and is able to provide answers in a prompt and believable fashion.

This is a rather unimportant little example, but it highlights the power of being prepared for conversational dialogue, some of which may be confrontational and socially important. The capacity for reflective thought is intertwined with a Theory of Mind, a proposed model of human consciousness that's been examined with rigorous empirical study of children and adults. It's a theory I've mentioned before and one I’ve been writing a lot about lately, especially Tomasello's variant.

The other day I read a short weblog entry on traffic accidents, specifically how motorists often slow down to observe the crash site. In this particular incident there was no wanton safety requirement for the motorists to slow down. Indeed we sometimes even see this behaviour in traffic flowing in the opposite direction, when the roads are completely separate.

The debate inspired me to write a short response, and it involves an argument I recently published with Prof. Thompson in the Journal of Music Perception regarding the evolutionary origins of music. It's talkback time, so let me know what you think.

 I believe this behaviour has a lot less to do with voyeurism, and more with our curious and empathic nature. Undeniably there is a degree of perverted interest at play here (taking a looser definition)¹, like watching the race track or skateboard competitions and hoping for a smash. I posit however, that what we are seeing here is in part our desire to understand, to learn, and to gain experience. I take this argument from Aristotle's treatise on Metaphysics; that we look because "all men naturally desire knowledge." [2] 

You could argue that is why we hope for "carnage", be it on a road or in a Big Brother house; by experiencing these things we are better equipped to handle these situations if we ever find ourselves in them. Naturally, the inner turmoil one faces of hoping to see a smash (knowledge), yet not wanting anyone to actually get seriously hurt (empathy/survival of species) alludes to this.

1.  Voyeur, n. A person whose sexual desires are stimulated or satisfied by covert observation of the sex organs or sexual activities of others. Courtesy of Oxford English Dictionary.

Time for another talkback, please feel free to debate.  For the past few weeks I have been writing a paper on evolutionary music psychology.  In my reading travels I happened across a very interesting theory of consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey (1992, A History of the mind).  He argues that social life is essentially about building and testing hypotheses.  That we explore our own mind and use it as the best model we have for the mind of another individual. 

This notion is in step with another popular theory, known as a Theory of Mind (ToM).  This model has been well tested during early childhood development.  A ToM argues that at around age four we develop the ability to see other people as individual mental beings; that they have beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions, and whose actions and interactions can be interpreted and explained by taking account of these mental states.

The other day I attended a workshop on the philosophy of emotions. I was privileged to hear Robert Solomon, Paul Griffiths and Stefan Linquist speak. One of the more interesting topics we touched on was 'guilt'.  I missed the opportunity to voice my hypothesis, so I'm putting it up here. Feel free to give your opinions in this, the first talkback entry.

Guilt, noun.  A failure of duty, delinquency; offence, crime, sin.  Responsibility for an action or event; the 'fault' of (some person).

This page will hold my philosophy writings.  

Links to philosophy pages

• Marx
• Engels
• Squashed