Leaders and followers

Month, Day: Words, Speech (Beauty)

As the Bard wrote, don't be a lender or a borrower (expressed more flowery than this, of course). We can alter that slightly to neither a leader nor a follower be. That is, I may not want to cast a shadow yet don't appreciate that your need to do so (think of this in terms of those who interpose themselves between people and God). This usage is partly motivated by the comment in the Aqdas that no one, when the human race matures, would want to step up to be king. Of course, we all would be king, yet we would not subject others; rather we would serve others willingly.

Now, in terms of audacity and the autodidact, we can think of our cognitive states as a place to start looking at this dilemma. Why? Explaining the mind is puzzling to any but the most strident views. The SAQ #56 offers a model that has some power when considered via reflection in this context. That is, we have a common faculty that maps from the senses to our spiritual powers.

These spiritual powers are, in a sequence from the SAQ #56 example: imagination, thought, comprehension, memory. An interesting thing to ponder is that light is handled by the eye, but there maybe more involved. For instance, does light have attributes that are handled via the imagination? See below for further discussion on how to handle.

The SAQ #56 example pertained to our perception of an external situation or object. Now, the sequence could be any permutation, such as some cognitive state arising from memory. This SAQ-based model ought to (and can) be looked at from the context of modern cognitive science. We're in the mode where our physical entities are being probed by science continually, yet, no place within the framework allows that any motive, or will, arises via our spirit. It is asked: how can science do that?

As with any modern view, the stress of reductionism and materialism keeps any attempt at a new integrative view from seeing light. That the Writings can offer a basis for such attempts has been said many times here.

Now, that statement brings in the Attribute classes, namely Transcendent, Teleological, Operational, Motivation, Ascendant. We are now in the second, dealing with Words. Up next is Perfection.

The power of this grouping, though it is only one of many, is that subsequent timeframes build on the others. In fact, the idea of cycle is central to the theme (small analog of Progressive Revelation). As an aside, it's interesting that just as we might think that we're getting some handle on this, along comes the Ascendant group which leads to Loftiness and, of course, to the new iteration.

Can the Operational group (Names, Might, Will, Knowledge) provide some hint at both descriptive and explanatory means which would be supported by experimentation? That the experiments are limited to thought types, in the beginning, is no argument against the attempt, as quasi-empiricism in mathematics suggests just that sort of thing (see Lakatos).

As a final thought, we need to bring the 4 Valleys into the discussion, too, as they can map to the message of SAQ #56.

Remarks:

10/11/2009 -- Will, an operational imperative for science.

09/06/2009 -- Essentially, more is undecidable than we like to admit, basically due to our talent for success (ergodicity, essentially) keeps the hubris refreshed (generation by generation).

08/16/2009 -- The Operational group is approaching, and ontology is primal. One area of focus, as suggested by this post, will be mind-body studies. Somehow, insights from the Writings ought to have importance, teleological and operational.

Modified: 10/11/2009