I shall state my thesis plain. The first poets were gods. Poetry began with the bicameral mind. Julian Jaynes More Quotes by Julian Jaynes More Quotes From Julian Jaynes Poetry begins as the divine speech of the bicameral mind. Then, as the bicameral mind breaks down, there remain prophets. Julian Jaynes breaking-down speech mind Reading in the third millennium B.C. may therefore have been a matter of hearing the cuneiform, that is, hallucinating the speech from looking at its picture symbols, rather than visual reading of syllables in our sense. Julian Jaynes hearing reading matter We have said that consciousness is an operation rather than a thing, a repository, or a function. It operates by way of analogy, by way of constructing an analog space with an analog 'I' that can observe that space, and move metaphorically in it. It operates on any reactivity, excerpts relevant aspects, narratizes and conciliates them together in a metaphorical space where such meanings can be manipulated like things in space. Julian Jaynes space together moving The importance of writing in the breakdown of the bicameral voices is tremendously important. What had to be spoken is now silent and carved upon a stone to be taken in visually. Julian Jaynes voice taken writing Indeed, it is sometimes almost as if the problem had to be forgotten to be solved. Julian Jaynes problem forgotten sometimes The mind is still haunted with its old unconscious ways; it broods on lost authorities; and the yearning, the deep and hollowing yearning for divine volition and service is with us still. Julian Jaynes divine mind way We can only know in the nervous system what we have known in behavior first. Julian Jaynes nervous behavior firsts Alfred Russel Wallace, the codiscoverer of the theory of natural selection. Following their twin announcements of the theory in 1858, both Darwin and Wallace struggled like Laocoöns with the serpentine problem of human evolution and its encoiling difficulty of consciousness. But where Darwin clouded the problem with his own naivete, seeing only continuity in evolution, Wallace could not do so. Julian Jaynes twins evolution problem "What is the meaning of life?" This question has no answer except in the history of how it came to be asked. There is no answer because words have meaning, not life or persons or the universe itself. Our search for certainty rests in our attempts at understanding the history of all individual selves and all civilizations. Beyond that, there is only awe. Julian Jaynes understanding self civilization Consciousness is always open to many possibilities because it involves play. It is always an adventure. Julian Jaynes consciousness play adventure We invent mind-space inside our own heads as well as the heads of others ... we assume these 'spaces' without question. They are a part of what it is to be conscious. Moreover, things that in the physical-behavioural world that do not have a spatial quality are made to have such in consciousness. Otherwise we cannot be conscious of them. Julian Jaynes quality space mind The very reason we need logic at all is because most reasoning is not conscious at all. Julian Jaynes logic reason needs Subjective conscious mind is an analog of what is called the real world. It is built up with a vocabulary or lexical field whose terms are all metaphors or analogs of behavior in the physical world. Julian Jaynes vocabulary real mind The king dead is a living god. Julian Jaynes kings Idolatry is still a socially cohesive force - its original function. Julian Jaynes idolatry function force There is no such thing as a complete consciousness. Julian Jaynes consciousness No one is moral among the god-controlled puppets of the _Iliad_. Good and evil do not exist. Julian Jaynes puppets moral evil If we would understand the Scientific Revolution correctly, we should always remember that its most powerful impetus was the unremitting search for hidden divinity. As such, it is a direct descendant of the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Julian Jaynes revolution powerful mind Conscious mind is a spatial analog of the world and mental acts are analogs of bodily acts. Consciousness operates only on objectively observable things. Or, to say it another way with echoes of John Locke, there is nothing in consciousness that is not an analog of something that was in behavior first. Julian Jaynes echoes mind world History does not move by leaps into unrelated novelty, but rather by the selective emphasis of aspects of its own immediate past. Julian Jaynes learning knowledge moving
