Kyle Pulley
12/10/2023
Section #11
In Sick souls healthy minds Chapter 4 John Kaag discusses William James book: The principles of psychology, why James was so interested in the quest to find the transcendent thought and the human consciousness. When James lost both his father and son within close proximity of each other he was determined to fine that "eureka" transcendent moment. After losing both of these people he wasn't able to just will himself out of the situation and feelings. He had to linger with his thoughts and how he was grieving. James would go through his father's writing and books he had in his home, and those writings would have a huge impact on James philosophy. Later in life while James was writing the principles of psychology he realized that the full description of the consciousness was unfathomable, and that there was something much more than just the simplethought of human experience. He would go against the idea of empirical psychologist of that time, since compared to them he doesn't solely look at the brain itself. He goes above and beyond and thinks about thehuman conscious which isn't something you just cut open to find the answer too.
Coolin Mc Ginn wrote a paper after James research stating we cant really solve the mind body problem because the human conscious is very complex and something we might never be able to really understand and figure out. James arrived at the conclusion years earlier in the snares of psychology. He basically stated that the mind is objective and you cant really go into someone’s mind they have their own thoughts that you cant dissect out. He would come up with the stream of concussions which was people always have thoughts going on its one after another and they are unique to each and every person. These thoughts were very radical but it started a trend within psychology that the mind is more than just the brain itself and that peoples thoughts are always at their disposal's waiting for them to be used.
One quote Kaags grandmother would recall, "You can't step in the same river twice." (From Heraclitus) Would tie in with the idea “no state once gone can recur and be identical with what was before.” Which bascialy means you can never live the same moment twice there is always something changing even if you might not notice, it's forever gone.
Here is a video of Willams James conclusion and writings with Nitrous oxide gas its a fun listen:
Many might say that teaching the stream of consciousness is hard but Kaag states that he will struggle until he gets his point across because so many will not even attempt to. Which is much better then just giving up, going through tough times together makes people grow stronger together.
Discussion Questions:
Do you think large life moments can cloud someone’s views on life?
Has the loss of someone important made you change?
Have you ever ingested some sort of drug to get to a Transcendence moment, and if so how did it change your out look on life.
Do you think some Transcendence moments can change your life for the worst?
Has the loss of someone important made you change?
Have you ever ingested some sort of drug to get to a Transcendence moment, and if so how did it change your out look on life.
Do you think some Transcendence moments can change your life for the worst?
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