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==23/24 FEB==
 
  
===Siderits, Chapter 2 ===
+
===Hall, Chapter 5: Neuroscience and Decision Making===
  
* Background on Buddha
+
:*Quick small group exercise on "how decision making feels"
:*note heterodoxy, intro/dev karmic theory, moral teaching ind. of focus on ritual and deities.
+
::Choose several kinds of decisions that you make (both those on a regular basis (whether to work out, buy something, what to eat, whether to go to a party) and those less frequent decisions, like choosing a college) and try to describe some of the phenomenal characteristics of the decisionWhat does it feel like as you make different kinds of decisions?  Compare this to things that you have become habitual, but which maybe you used to have to make decisions about (taking out the trash, brushing your teeth, etc.)
:*consensus on "moksa" as goal of enlightenmentBuddha's teaching one of many.
 
:*Siderits presents sramanas as critical and questioning of heterodoxy.
 
  
* The Four Noble Truths
+
:*Problem of Free Will comes up throughout the chapter -- a short digression on compatabilism.
 +
::*Compatibilists on free will believe that free will and determinism are compatible.
 +
::*Several sources of evidence: research on the timing of neural and muscular events in relation to conscious awareness (Wegner).  Also, conceptual arguments about how we talk about free will.  [[Stacefreewill]] 
 +
::*You could think of free will as the power of our "agency" to operate within a deterministic, but self-modifying system. 
  
:1 There is suffering.
+
:*Expected value problems -- Getting $20 now or more in the future. Glimcher: what's happening in the brain when people decide evps?
 +
:*81-3: Problem of Valuation -- Decision making works on pre-existing value that we access in the event.
 +
::*Factors: time, impulse control, prudence. (note that these are independently trainable to some extent, but recall Mischel's marshmallows -- absent training, longitudinal results were significant.) (Maybe digress on Gilbert TED talk)
  
::1. Normal pain. Decay, disease, death.
+
:*Reinforcement Learning -- dopamine cycle (read about the design of slot machines.) (Digression on food science. Moss, ''Salt, Sugar, Fat'', ''Neurogastronomy'')
::2. Suffering from ignorance of impermanence. Including ignorance of no-self. Suffering from getting what your want or don't want.
 
::3. Suffering from conditions.  Rebirth itself is a form of suffering. (So belief in rebirth doesn't solve the problem of suffering in one life.)
 
  
:2  There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.
+
:*Rutledge's "fishing for crabs" research:
 +
::*dopamine responses shift from reward to prediction, then diminishes.
 +
::*neural activity from failure seem to stimulate learning in some way.  "Success breeds habit, failure breeds learning." (a heuristic for our times.)
  
:: Note the chain of causal connection advanced on p. 22 of Siderits:  ignorance ultimate causes suffering, but the intermediate steps are importantLet's give a psychological reading of this metaphysical chain of causation.
+
:*Pause on the issue of predictive power of the model behind the "fishing for crabs" gameShould good decision making be predictable? (Spring '16: What a weird question.)
  
:3 There is the cessation of suffering: all future suffering can be prevented by becoming aware of our ignorance and undoing the effects of it. "It is the utter cessation and extinction of that craving, its renunciation,its forsaking, release from it, and non-attachment to it." (from pali canon reading)
+
:*Problems comparing this research to wisdom problems:  speed of decision, narrowness of the problem 89 (but note that the simplified problem can still tell us something about the more complex one.
 +
:*Is deliberation really so separate from intuition (ethics students recall Haidt)
  
:4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
+
:*"attentional blink" - def 92, might show limits of focused attention.
 +
:*Ap Dijksterhuis - on "deliberation without attention" - connects with discussion of training subjective states of mind for better decision making.  Meditation again.
 +
:*"Attentional blink" and "decisional paralysis" - Davidson research on meditation effect on these phen.  2007 Vispassana meditation research.
 +
:*Decision paralysis -- Iyengar and Lepper gourment jelly studies 93-94 -- connection with Parkinson's
  
::8 fold path.  importance of meditation (p. 24)
+
===Daniel Gilbert, TED talk, "Why We Make Such Bad Decisions"===
  
 +
:*Bernouli's formula for expected value: expected value = odds of gain x value of gain.
  
*Cessation of suffering: meditation, (non)self-discovery. 
+
:*two kinds of mistakes: estimating odds and value
  
*Need to assess this recommended "training program" more in light of Discourse on Mindfulness and the Eight Fold path (See wiki page [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Noble_Eightfold_Path&printable=yes Noble Eight Fold Path])
+
:*Errors estimating odds:
  
*Note discussion of meditation, p. 25Basic theory for mindfulness meditation exercise.
+
::*''Availability heuristic'': works when estimating likelihood of seeing dogs vs. pigs on a leash, not when estimating odds of good or bad things happening (4:30). (example of words with R is diff places, things that get on the news.) (Already implications for wisdom if you think living well requires a rational approach to threats and gains. Do mostly fools play the lottery?
  
*Liberation
+
::*Example of not buying a 10th lottery ticket because Leroy has the other nine.  
:*rejection of presentism and annihilationism as models for liberation.
 
:*paradox of liberation:  how can you desire liberation if liberation requires relinguishment of desire.  Possible solution: to desire the end of suffering.
 
  
*Problem following the consequences of "non-self":  Buddhist maxim: "Act always as if the future of hte Universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference."
+
:*Mistakes estimating value
  
===Introduction to Buddhism===
+
::*Big Mac example - we compare to the past, instead of the possible; vacation package with price change; salaries that increase over salaries that decrease (but note happiness research on this). 
  
:*from wikipedia
+
::*comparisons to the past - price cuts vs. price increases; theatre tickets (mental accounting)  (11:00), liberals relative affection for Bush1, retailing (comparison of wine by price), potato chip / chocolate / spam study (14:30) (Note possible application to wisdom for wealthy culture), speaker comparison. 
  
* The Four Noble Truths
+
::*People have trouble with future value calculations(discounting): "now" is better and "more" is better, but we don't do well when those rules conflict. 18min. Example also from Hall.  When both expected value calculations are in the future we do better (pay offs in 12 vs. 13 months)
  
:1  There is suffering.
+
:*Explanatory hypothesis: brain evolution not geared toward abstract calculation of rational alternatives.
  
:2 There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.
+
:*Implications for wisdom: 22 min: interesting comment about Bernouli in relation to evolutionary history 22:30 (and biases such as those underlying these expected value problems).
  
:3  There is the cessation of suffering: all future suffering can be prevented by becoming aware of our ignorance and undoing the effects of it.
+
:*What part of living well is comprised of expected value problems?
  
:4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
+
===Small group questionWhat would some good "decision making heuristics" be in light of the research on the expected value problem, dopamine cycle, and attentional focus?===
  
::8 fold path.  (see above and in Feuerstein.)
 
  
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="font-size:100%;">
+
===Hall, Chapter 12: Youth, Adversity, and Wisdom (Hall 12)===
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#bbbbbb; text-align:center">''Division''</td>
 
<td style="background:#bbbbbb; text-align:center">''Eightfold Path factors''</td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" rowspan=2>Wisdom (Sanskrit: ''[[prajñā]]'', Pāli: ''paññā'')</td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >1. Right view </td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >2. Right intention </td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" rowspan=3>Ethical conduct (Sanskrit: ''[[sila|śīla]]'', Pāli: ''sīla'')</td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" >3. Right speech </td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" ><BR></td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" >4. Right action </td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" ><BR></td> <tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" >5. Right livelihood </td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFCC" ><BR></td> <tr>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" rowspan=3>Concentration (Sanskrit and Pāli: ''[[samādhi]]'') </td>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" >6. Right effort</td>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" ><BR></td> <tr>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" >7. Right mindfulness </td>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" ><BR></td> <tr>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" >8. Right concentration </td>
 
<td style="background:#FFCC99" ><BR></td> <tr>
 
</table>
 
  
===Holder, The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving===
+
:*Story of the scientist, Capechhi.  Long list of "adversity achievers" (watch out for confirmation bias).
  
:The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving starts with the "bad" monk, Sati, who thinks that reincarnation might involve the same consciousness (and so the survival of the self after death).  The other bhikkhus rat him out to the Buddha, who calls him out over the issue (in a gentle Buddha way, but still by referring to him as "you misguided person") and goes on to describe both the process of "devolution" by which ignorance leads us to craving (65) and the process of purification that brings about a reversal (66) of the process.  Prior to following the eightfold path, our experience (seeing, hearing, etc.) entails an unhealthy attachment.  After, we presumably have the same kinds of experiences, but without unhealthy attachment.
+
:*215: note how an adversity -- wisdom connection would fit with "early onset" hypothesis.
  
:*This text also has a great representation of the theory of dependent origination: "So, bhikkhus, dependent on ignorance, there are dispositions to action; dependent on dispositions to action, there is consciousness; dependent on consciousness, there is psycho-physicality; dependent on psycho-physicality, there are the six bases of sense; dependent on the six bases of sense, there is contact; dependent on contact, there is feeling; dependent on feeling, there is craving; dependent on craving, there is attachment; dependent on attachment, there is becoming; dependent on becoming, there is birth; dependent on birth, there is aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, and distress. Thus there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering."  65  note corresponding paragraph on p. 66.
+
:*Parker (Stanford) research on squirrel monkeys. stress inoculated monkeys less clingy, anxious, more curious and exploratory.219
  
:*Note story of "natural" growth and attachment, p. 67, folllowed by realization and pursuit of enlightenment.  Consciousness is dependently arisen in the world (relying on the 4 nutriments, for example), and conditioned by its connections with the world (bot 62), from perception to bodily and mental processes.  Moreover, consciousness is reckoned by it conditions.  Follow analogy to fire on top of 63.
+
:*Davidson's left side prefrontal correlation: infants who coped with separation best also showed greater left side prefrontal activity in previous test.
  
:*After the destruction of craving, the question: "Did we exist in the past? Did we not exist in the past?" doesn't make sense.  (As in Ricard, we get to the point of seeing our self as a conditioned and conventional reality.)
+
:*In theorizing about this, we need to acknowledge, as Hall does, that abnormal stress can also cause psychopathologies.
  
:*Sections 15 and 16: description of what it would have been like to take up the challenge of pursuing enlightenment.  Destruction of craving (and, in Ricard, of the ego) is a challenging project.  (Requires undermining the natural processes that lead to our suffering.) Wisdom involves transcending material nature, but not finding refuge in a spiritual realitySections 17 and 18 describe the pleasures of this enlightenment.
+
:*Note competing theoryMaternal support causes resilienceMcGill researcher Michael Meaney.
  
===Matthieu Ricard, Chs. 6&7: Alchemy of Suffering and Veils of the Ego===
+
===Hall, Chapter 13: Older and Wiser===
  
Chapter Six: Alchemy of Suffering
+
:*Fredda Blancard-Fields -- on how people of different ages respond to stressful situations.  shows that older adults have measureable gains in social knowledge and emotional judgement, increasing problem solving skills.  Both she and Carstensen have found evidence of comparatively better performance among older people when it comes to devising strategies for solving problems, precisely because older people tend to process emotion differently. (232)
  
:*Shortest history of the kingdom: "They Suffer"
+
:*Decay of the brain (230): read it.  At 232: use it or lose it.
  
:*Pervasive suffering -- from growth and development
+
:*Background: reminder that Baltes didn't find older were wiser.
:*Suffering of Change -- from illusion of permanence.
 
:*Multiplicity of Suffering -- suffering from awareness of the many ways things can go wrong.
 
:*Hidden Suffering -- suffering that we don't see (animal suffering for a cheap egg).
 
  
:*Sources of Suffering -- self-centeredness, our unhappiness is caused, 4 Noble Truths (65).
+
:*Need for longitudinal study to see connection bt wisdom and age.  Vaillant's secondary research on the Harvard longitudinal study, The Grant Study of Adult Development.  
  
:*Progress toward enlightenment can be noted in our response to lossstory at 67-68. how we approach death.
+
:*Hall tries to push past the Freudian rhetoric of Vaillant's "Adaptation to Life"  -- finds older people use "productive tricks" (234) and strategies"1? Vaillant, echoing Anna Freud, came around to the view that successfully mature adults displayed such emotional strategies as "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation.and sublimation." (Glosses "sublimation" as "emotional regulation")
  
:*Treatment of attachment theory is a bit rough: his point: this is contemporary theory that focuses on the relationship between attachment and suffering.
+
:*Ardelt worked with Vaillant on followup studies with this data:  "Her preliminary analysis has turned up a strong correlation between those same mature defense mechanisms identified by Vaillant and a more charitable, compassionate pattern of behavior. This other-centeredness was independent of wealth, she found; some well-to-do Harvard men were especially effective in their charitable donations and activities, while others came from more modest backgrounds." 237
  
:*Methods for responding to suffering -- meditation, use of mental imagery.
+
:*point from Anna Freud: Maybe older people get better at social strategies like "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation, and sublimation." 235  (Note on "detachment from criticism" in some olders).
  
Chapter Seven: Veils of the Ego
+
:*238:  research on older adults. note that if this hypothesis is correct, then research on college aged students is of limited value in filling in the whole picture.
  
:*In this chapter, Ricard makes the case for the destruction of the ego (parallel to the Pali Canon text on destruction of craving) as a wisdom/enlightenment goal.
 
  
:*Starts by calling attention to the variability of affections and preferences. 
+
===Sternberg, "Wisdom and Its Relations to Intelligence and Creativity"===
:*One Buddhist theory: Ego as a fear reaction to the world -- dread of failure, rejection, suffering. 
 
  
:*What is the right way to think about the ego (acc to Ricard/Buddhism)?
+
:*Interested in both implicit and explicit theories that bring out the relationship of wisdom, intelligence, and creativityFollow his own studies and rubric.  More based on implicit research.  
::*great to appreciate our talents and capacities
+
:*Objectivity of wisdomAt p. 147, research finds external validation in correlation between wisdom prototype-resemblance and external measures of social intelligence and social judgement.
::*also important to appreciate our dependencies and interrelationships (Even highly contingent things.)
+
:*Behavioral ratings experiment (similar to MDS study in Clayton and Birren)  [Interesting details on Philosophy and Business Professors!]
::*catch the defensive reactions of the ego: story about the boats bot of 83) -- (fundamental attribution error)
+
:* 2nd and 3rd experiments confirm closer association of wisdon and intelligence vs. wisdom and creativity.
::*learn from assymetries of response: example of the vase, the asymmetry of our response is a clue. (also in stoicism)
+
:* Follow Sternberg's explicit model and conclusionRead p. 152.
 
+
:*Explicit research: discuss matrix at 152.  note on automatizationmixing of characteristics of intelligence and creativity in wisdom.
:*Problem: How can I live without an ego?  
+
:*Conclusion: read p. 157.
:*R's main responsetrue self-confidence is egoless. top 87 - less vulnerability, more secure, resilience.
 
:*Also: openness to spontaneity and freedom;
 
:*psycopaths have big egos.
 
:*Cites Paul Ekman's studies of emotionally exceptional peopleegoless and joyful
 
 
 
:*90-end: Gives brief philosophical reflection on the way a Buddhist thinks about the self in contrast to a western dualist modelSelf is "nexus" point of flow of causal processesIllusion is to reify. (Note, not arguing that the reification is not useful for various purposes, but that it can be a cause of suffering.)
 

Revision as of 20:17, 1 March 2016

Hall, Chapter 5: Neuroscience and Decision Making

  • Quick small group exercise on "how decision making feels"
Choose several kinds of decisions that you make (both those on a regular basis (whether to work out, buy something, what to eat, whether to go to a party) and those less frequent decisions, like choosing a college) and try to describe some of the phenomenal characteristics of the decision. What does it feel like as you make different kinds of decisions? Compare this to things that you have become habitual, but which maybe you used to have to make decisions about (taking out the trash, brushing your teeth, etc.)
  • Problem of Free Will comes up throughout the chapter -- a short digression on compatabilism.
  • Compatibilists on free will believe that free will and determinism are compatible.
  • Several sources of evidence: research on the timing of neural and muscular events in relation to conscious awareness (Wegner). Also, conceptual arguments about how we talk about free will. Stacefreewill
  • You could think of free will as the power of our "agency" to operate within a deterministic, but self-modifying system.
  • Expected value problems -- Getting $20 now or more in the future. Glimcher: what's happening in the brain when people decide evps?
  • 81-3: Problem of Valuation -- Decision making works on pre-existing value that we access in the event.
  • Factors: time, impulse control, prudence. (note that these are independently trainable to some extent, but recall Mischel's marshmallows -- absent training, longitudinal results were significant.) (Maybe digress on Gilbert TED talk)
  • Reinforcement Learning -- dopamine cycle (read about the design of slot machines.) (Digression on food science. Moss, Salt, Sugar, Fat, Neurogastronomy)
  • Rutledge's "fishing for crabs" research:
  • dopamine responses shift from reward to prediction, then diminishes.
  • neural activity from failure seem to stimulate learning in some way. "Success breeds habit, failure breeds learning." (a heuristic for our times.)
  • Pause on the issue of predictive power of the model behind the "fishing for crabs" game. Should good decision making be predictable? (Spring '16: What a weird question.)
  • Problems comparing this research to wisdom problems: speed of decision, narrowness of the problem 89 (but note that the simplified problem can still tell us something about the more complex one.)
  • Is deliberation really so separate from intuition (ethics students recall Haidt).
  • "attentional blink" - def 92, might show limits of focused attention.
  • Ap Dijksterhuis - on "deliberation without attention" - connects with discussion of training subjective states of mind for better decision making. Meditation again.
  • "Attentional blink" and "decisional paralysis" - Davidson research on meditation effect on these phen. 2007 Vispassana meditation research.
  • Decision paralysis -- Iyengar and Lepper gourment jelly studies 93-94 -- connection with Parkinson's

Daniel Gilbert, TED talk, "Why We Make Such Bad Decisions"

  • Bernouli's formula for expected value: expected value = odds of gain x value of gain.
  • two kinds of mistakes: estimating odds and value
  • Errors estimating odds:
  • Availability heuristic: works when estimating likelihood of seeing dogs vs. pigs on a leash, not when estimating odds of good or bad things happening (4:30). (example of words with R is diff places, things that get on the news.) (Already implications for wisdom if you think living well requires a rational approach to threats and gains. Do mostly fools play the lottery?
  • Example of not buying a 10th lottery ticket because Leroy has the other nine.
  • Mistakes estimating value
  • Big Mac example - we compare to the past, instead of the possible; vacation package with price change; salaries that increase over salaries that decrease (but note happiness research on this).
  • comparisons to the past - price cuts vs. price increases; theatre tickets (mental accounting) (11:00), liberals relative affection for Bush1, retailing (comparison of wine by price), potato chip / chocolate / spam study (14:30) (Note possible application to wisdom for wealthy culture), speaker comparison.
  • People have trouble with future value calculations(discounting): "now" is better and "more" is better, but we don't do well when those rules conflict. 18min. Example also from Hall. When both expected value calculations are in the future we do better (pay offs in 12 vs. 13 months)
  • Explanatory hypothesis: brain evolution not geared toward abstract calculation of rational alternatives.
  • Implications for wisdom: 22 min: interesting comment about Bernouli in relation to evolutionary history 22:30 (and biases such as those underlying these expected value problems).
  • What part of living well is comprised of expected value problems?

Small group question: What would some good "decision making heuristics" be in light of the research on the expected value problem, dopamine cycle, and attentional focus?

Hall, Chapter 12: Youth, Adversity, and Wisdom (Hall 12)

  • Story of the scientist, Capechhi. Long list of "adversity achievers" (watch out for confirmation bias).
  • 215: note how an adversity -- wisdom connection would fit with "early onset" hypothesis.
  • Parker (Stanford) research on squirrel monkeys. stress inoculated monkeys less clingy, anxious, more curious and exploratory.219
  • Davidson's left side prefrontal correlation: infants who coped with separation best also showed greater left side prefrontal activity in previous test.
  • In theorizing about this, we need to acknowledge, as Hall does, that abnormal stress can also cause psychopathologies.
  • Note competing theory: Maternal support causes resilience. McGill researcher Michael Meaney.

Hall, Chapter 13: Older and Wiser

  • Fredda Blancard-Fields -- on how people of different ages respond to stressful situations. shows that older adults have measureable gains in social knowledge and emotional judgement, increasing problem solving skills. Both she and Carstensen have found evidence of comparatively better performance among older people when it comes to devising strategies for solving problems, precisely because older people tend to process emotion differently. (232)
  • Decay of the brain (230): read it. At 232: use it or lose it.
  • Background: reminder that Baltes didn't find older were wiser.
  • Need for longitudinal study to see connection bt wisdom and age. Vaillant's secondary research on the Harvard longitudinal study, The Grant Study of Adult Development.
  • Hall tries to push past the Freudian rhetoric of Vaillant's "Adaptation to Life" -- finds older people use "productive tricks" (234) and strategies: "1? Vaillant, echoing Anna Freud, came around to the view that successfully mature adults displayed such emotional strategies as "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation.and sublimation." (Glosses "sublimation" as "emotional regulation")
  • Ardelt worked with Vaillant on followup studies with this data: "Her preliminary analysis has turned up a strong correlation between those same mature defense mechanisms identified by Vaillant and a more charitable, compassionate pattern of behavior. This other-centeredness was independent of wealth, she found; some well-to-do Harvard men were especially effective in their charitable donations and activities, while others came from more modest backgrounds." 237
  • point from Anna Freud: Maybe older people get better at social strategies like "altruism, humor, suppression, anticipation, and sublimation." 235 (Note on "detachment from criticism" in some olders).
  • 238: research on older adults. note that if this hypothesis is correct, then research on college aged students is of limited value in filling in the whole picture.


Sternberg, "Wisdom and Its Relations to Intelligence and Creativity"

  • Interested in both implicit and explicit theories that bring out the relationship of wisdom, intelligence, and creativity. Follow his own studies and rubric. More based on implicit research.
  • Objectivity of wisdom: At p. 147, research finds external validation in correlation between wisdom prototype-resemblance and external measures of social intelligence and social judgement.
  • Behavioral ratings experiment (similar to MDS study in Clayton and Birren) [Interesting details on Philosophy and Business Professors!]
  • 2nd and 3rd experiments confirm closer association of wisdon and intelligence vs. wisdom and creativity.
  • Follow Sternberg's explicit model and conclusion. Read p. 152.
  • Explicit research: discuss matrix at 152. note on automatization. mixing of characteristics of intelligence and creativity in wisdom.
  • Conclusion: read p. 157.