Author Topic: Science of Subjectivity  (Read 7387 times)

Sealchan

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Science of Subjectivity
« on: August 31, 2009, 05:14:47 PM »
I have an outline for what might be called a science of subjectivity...it is a list of topics in psychology and, perhaps, neurobiology and/or phenomenological things I have noticed and tracked over the years (philosophy?):

1.   Favoritism: first of a kind: that phenomenon I have often noticed that suggests that all things being roughly equal to an individual, the first item in a categorically new experience that is pleasant often becomes the favorite if that individual develops a relationship with other members of the same category of experience

2.  Mapping: the organization of the cerebral cortex and other brain structures with respect to different qualities of sensory experience of the individual and how that might underly how we think (the basis for metaphors?): the relationship between differentiated classes of experience and how meaningful "mappings" can be made between them (a mapping is a systematic relating of the points of one "field" to all or some significant part of the points on another "field" of experience)

3.  Spectral whole: the brain's way of taking a practically infinite continuum of sensory distinctions and filtering that into a finite array of representative basic units: the tendency to simplify the world or some aspect of it into a short list of important types

4.  Favoritism: biasing: from personality to racism: learning to favor one of many or one side of a pair of opposites (or to cast a situation into a morally differentiated pair of opposites): may be a developmental necessity as well as a developmental impediment: biasing allows the canalization of libido to be simplified for the sake of ego-strengthening (although this also creates an inherent ego-weakness)

5.  Favoritism: solving the problem of the arbitrary: in a field of value-ambiguity the adoption of "one way" or "a favorite" when there is no clear context that the individual can construct to evaluate the choices: a mechanism of efficiency for the gratification of instinctual need where there is no clear advantage: allows one to avoid wasting resources on a choice where the differences would generate a great deal of libidic expense without any foreseeable payoff

6.  Libido: canalization: the idea that one's personal history is reflected, to some extent, in one's brain in the form of preferential neural pathways or other psycho-physical typical ways of behaving or performing

7.  Archetypes of the collective unconscious: the idea that there are mental forms common to the human species/brain/instincts that guide or determine mental contents in a significant yet open-ended way to allow for a determined yet creative organization of consciousness with respect to the particular biological needs of the individual and the species

8.  Significant ambivalence: for me a central quality of the psyche that is becoming self-conscious: a kind of ultimate sense of the meaning and meaninglessness of the world, its qualities and how we choose to define them: the fleeting value in the transcendence of opposites and its inherently subjective/personal dimension: that annoying quality about mystics and intuitives that makes you love them or hate them...or both

9.  Personal story: the valued perspectives, experiences, choices and beliefs that an individual claims for themselves or another claims for an individual

These are some elements of what I think could be a "soft science" of a study of subjectivity, the psychology of what makes on person the way they are.  I should add the obvious:

10.  Psychological typology: the various systems of differentiating personality types and the individual's response to those systems acceptance/rejection, singular or plural identification, etc...

For me this would be the next step toward a science that tackles the mind/body problem.  To the extent that we can see the "objectivity" behind our different personal characteristics and perceptions, I think then we can put the simple mystery of the mind/body problem into richer clothing that allows the mystery to be less of a logical problem and more of a dynamic quality of our experience.


Sealchan

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Re: Science of Subjectivity
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2009, 02:41:56 PM »
Thought of another one...

11.  Amplification of small differences: given all else is equal, small differences become major value differences.  This is how one can emote into petty conversations as if they were the most important thing in the world, or how being seized by the unconscious, one makes a mountain out of a mole hill and experiences a sincere load of affect behind something that in most ways doesn't seem to impact anything like a life or death situation.