Thursday, January 6, 2011

Anaximander of Miletus (ca. 560 B.C.)

Whence things have their origin,
Thence also their destruction happens,
As is the order of things;
For they execute the sentence upon one another
- The condemnation for the crime -
In conformity with the ordinance of Time.
Dance me to the end...

24 comments:

  1. The condemnation for the crime -
    ---------
    That line is interesting.

    A crime can be, and is, forgiven. But when it's a perpetual offense, how can the "victim" stay in that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's just the point. The "inevitability" of subsequent events renders moot any labelling of cost/benefit good/bad victim/offender. Everything is "determined", there is no "free will" (only in human relations is this treated as a "conditioned response" - hence the separation of the "sciences" from "humanities").

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see the fatalism DID get to you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Basically, another reason to lash out like an angry toddler.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that this is yet another way to allow for bad behavior. ie, if it is predetermined that two shall eventually part ways, it must be VERY FREEING for the expression of all negative, overly-critical, resentful feelings. Why bother with self-control when things are fated to fall apart?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I say go to your room and think about the consequences of your words before you strike out AGAIN.

    ReplyDelete
  7. But then, here I am addressing someone who takes pride in his ability to inflict mental anguish.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Prometheus can deceive Zeus (Necessity). But each deception is merely temporary, and each requires the application of at least some "miniscule" diversion of Prometheus' immediately available powers to stave Necessity off... for without that application of force (however miniscule it might be, ie. - a mental cathexis), the pre-deception conditions Necessity originally imposed will return, for in fact they never went away.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The "covering of the face" in the video and Magritte paintings show that although the "differntiated" instinct to prefer one lover over "another" may end, the underlying "undifferentiated" instinct to love remains. It's merely a matter of "transferrence". The amygdalic connections, in this case (undifferentiated love), are temporarily dominating... given the absence of a countervailing septal nucleic (differentiating) connection.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The oxytocin-vassopressin neuronal conditioning associated with visual facial pattern recognition establishes the "differentiating" septal nucleic connection... love/hate & subsequent good/bad moral distinction.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ....so how can you exercise any "free will" unless you also understand the many forces "opposed" to it?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was trying to make a point, not just aggrevate you. I see a pattern of scientific explanations used to justify resentment and lashing out. It's what my little eye spies.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The oxytocin-vassopressin neuronal conditioning associated with visual facial pattern recognition establishes the "differentiating" septal nucleic connection... love/hate & subsequent good/bad moral distinction.
    -----

    Ah. LOL!
    As long as there's no visual, there can be no differentiated "love".

    Perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The "covering of the face" in the video and Magritte paintings show that although the "differntiated" instinct to prefer one lover over "another" may end, the underlying "undifferentiated" instinct to love remains. It's merely a matter of "transferrence". The amygdalic connections, in this case (undifferentiated love), are temporarily dominating... given the absence of a countervailing septal nucleic (differentiating) connection.
    -------

    Actually, I can appreciate this approach to matters of the heart. It takes the mystery out of it. Nice and clean. Just wait for a new, stronger neural pathway to form and let this current pathway wither?

    I wish I could be so detached from things. Truly I do.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I feel like you are trying to push my buttons sometimes. Either I project FAR TOO MUCH (which is entirely possible), or....

    I just long for direct communication. But I also tend to repeat myself.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry, but I seek explanations for human behaviour. Yes, most seem a bit "far out" and ridiculous, but then, human behaviour can be both "far out" and at times, ridiculous.

    How does one account for the behaviour of the Sabine Women? How does one account for one who divorces and re-marries? How does "science" explain "love" and feminine "attachment" and the "masculine" impulse for "detachment"?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I know how the Greeks explained it. And I also know that Greek thought reflected the operations of human emotions in the human mind as reflected through their (and Hesiod's) Theogeny.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Neurolgy explains the difference between differentiated and undifferentiated love... as an emotional "evolution" established by Oxytocin/Vasopressin levels.

    ReplyDelete
  19. IMO - Vasopressin influences testosterone levels (oxytocin represses it). And "dopamine" is merely a mind "muddier" that induces undifferentiated axonal mylineation in the neocortex. It's the mylineation of several "specific" connections and pathways under periods of neocortical concentration that establish the differentiated pathways found in monogamous mammals.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ...a little on vasopressin and it's relationship to oxytocin, estrogen and testosterone.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Scientists think SSR149415 acts on vasopressin receptors in the neurons in the amygdala, septum, hippocampus, or hypothalamus, regions that are associated with the integration and processing of stressful stimuli.

    amygdala - source of undiffentiated attraction

    septum - source of differentiated attraction (repulsion)

    hypothalmus - source of mental overide of autonomic instinctual responses (connected to and receiving input from both amygdalic and septal neuronal bundles)

    hippocampus - source of long-term co-ordinated muscle response memory pattern (muscle memory needed to "ride a bike")

    ReplyDelete