The Self, Language Objects, and Psychedelic Perspectives

David Krane

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Edidin, Aron

Keywords

Self, Language, Psychedelic

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

There is a stark contrast to be made between Daniel Dennett's conception of a self as a center of narrative gravity and a conception of a self that emerges from linguistic structures more deeply embedded in immediate experience. Daniel Dennett's model stands on a foundation of thought about stances of prediction toward various kinds of systems and carries assumptions laden in that thought too far into the most complex, mysterious and personal systems for their contradictions with direct experience to remain excused. After explaining Dennett's model, I will elaborate on specific problems with identifying as a center of narrative gravity, which is the operational consequence of taking this model seriously. In the name of intellectual honesty and rigor, the anomalous psychedelic experience is brought to bear on the issues. At one point called consciousness expansion, this easily avoided experience exposes that the assumptions upon which any model of reality i based are highly dubious and rely on factors as easily subject to radical change as the neurochemical makeup of the brain of the thinker in the light of this degree of relativity, as well as from pressing suggestion from within the altered modality, the framework of thinking about models as linguistic objects gives the context for the critique of Dennett's model, as well as any other. The concressence of [quantum, physical, chemical, biological, social, mythological, astral, etc.] processes that defines the center of our experiential mandalas affords the potential for teasing out meaningful feedback relationships of representation and verification so that provisionally true, or more conservatively, resonant, linguistic objects may be extrapolated for philosophizing.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS