१ फेब्रुवारी, २०१३

"Confusion over sources or indifference to them can be a paradoxical strength..."

"... if we could tag the sources of all our knowledge, we would be overwhelmed with often irrelevant information," writes Oliver Sacks in an essay about memory.
Indifference to source allows us to assimilate what we read, what we are told, what others say and think and write and paint, as intensely and richly as if they were primary experiences. It allows us to see and hear with other eyes and ears, to enter into other minds, to assimilate the art and science and religion of the whole culture, to enter into and contribute to the common mind, the general commonwealth of knowledge. This sort of sharing and participation, this communion, would not be possible if all our knowledge, our memories, were tagged and identified, seen as private, exclusively ours. Memory is dialogic and arises not only from direct experience but from the intercourse of many minds.

१८ टिप्पण्या:

Levi Starks म्हणाले...

Is he really the first person to have said that?

Scott म्हणाले...

I don't remember.

Eric the Fruit Bat म्हणाले...

So progress is real?

Bryan Townsend म्हणाले...

Ah, this would be so true if only half of the sources weren't following malicious agendas!

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Intercourse of many minds may be the theme today.

Does caffeine count as mind viagra? That may be Red Bull's marketing meme.

Poetry is the thing. It is the climax of mental intercourse.

Nonapod म्हणाले...

He's basically stating if we had a index reference key about every data element in our heads we'd be overwhelmed, if our brains worked like a hash table or associative array that is.

kentuckyliz म्हणाले...

We filter and trash a lot of what we perceive, or we'd be mentally overwhelmed. Priorities. I try to remember what I need to.

chickelit म्हणाले...

Consilience

Don't all jump at once to click that link -- you'll overwhelm the server.

ricpic म्हणाले...

In intercourse there is strength.

ricpic म्हणाले...

And fun.

Valentine Smith म्हणाले...

"Speak Memory" was the title of Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography back in the 60's. Thereby perfectly illustrating many of Sacks' points. Very interesting, wide-ranging article.

Strelnikov म्हणाले...

Sorry, I forgot to read this article.

great Unknown म्हणाले...

Basically explaining mob mentality and why it is easy to manipulate the public.

edutcher म्हणाले...

I thought I was just aphasic.

"Memory is dialogic and arises not only from direct experience but from the intercourse of many minds."

Is she talking about sex again?

heyboom म्हणाले...

They say your memory is the second thing to go,,,I can't remember the first.

heyboom म्हणाले...

They say your memory is the second thing to go,,,I can't remember the first.

Kevin म्हणाले...

Intercourse. That's a good woody sort of word, isn't it? Inter-course.

TMink म्हणाले...

Kind of an attributional collective unconscious.

Trey