Difference between revisions of "Tem"

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==FEB 25==
+
==APR 1 ==
  
===Siderits, Chapter 2 ===
+
===Haidt Chapter 9: Divinity with or without God===
  
* Background on Buddha
+
Elevation as a vertical axis in relationship.
:*note heterodoxy, intro/dev karmic theory, moral teaching ind. of focus on ritual and deities.
 
:*consensus on "moksa" as goal of enlightenment.  Buddha's teaching one of many.
 
:*Siderits presents sramanas as critical and questioning of heterodoxy.
 
  
* The Four Noble Truths
+
:*Flatland
 +
:*Major speculative hypothesis:  183: In addition to relationship and status, we perceive/experience "divinity" as a kind of "moral purity".
  
:1 There is suffering.
+
:*But this is puzzling, given that we are also ANIMALS
 +
:*Research on disgust.  Why do we experience disgust?  186.  Purity opposite impulse from disgust. Disgust brings us "down".
  
::1. Normal pain. Decay, disease, death.
+
:*Psychological anthropologist Richard Shweder, U Chicago:  Haidt worked with him on research in morality in India: "Shweder's research on morality in Bhubaneswar and elsewhere shows that when people think about morality, their moral concepts cluster into three groups, which he calls the ethic of autonomy, the ethic of community, and the ethic of divinity." 188  -- evidence on diff. distribution of these ethics by class. Note observations on research in IndiaLink bt. purity/divine.
::2. Suffering from ignorance of impermanence. Including ignorance of no-self. Suffering from getting what your want or don't want.
 
::3. Suffering from conditionsRebirth 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.
+
:*Cites approvingly: Eliade, The Sacred and Profane -- perceiving sacredness universal among humans.  189: Interesting examples: handedness, space in houses.
  
:: Note the chain of causal connection advanced on p. 22 of Siderits:  ignorance ultimate causes suffering, but the intermediate steps are important.  Let's give a psychological reading of this metaphysical chain of causation.
+
Elevation and Agape
  
: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)
+
:*Looking for a name for the emotions that we experience when we observe morally outstanding deeds. "Elevation"  
 +
:*Jefferson: Experience of aesthetic value triggers physical changes in the body and recognizable feeling of elevated sentiments.
  
:4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
+
:*196: wants to see if elevation is a kind of happiness. research with student Sara Algoe, (three conditions: doing something good for someone, saw someone tell a joke, saw extraordinary non-moral performance) results seem to separate out different responses:  moral elevation vs. response to non-moral excellence like basketball player.
  
::8 fold pathimportance of meditation (p. 24)
+
:*initial research documents elevation as responseUnclear how moral/non-moral triggers  work.
  
 +
:*Vagus Nerve theory -- operation of vagus nerve, relationship to oxytocin.  Since oxcytocin causes bonding rather than action, this theory might explain the lack of evidence in an earlier study that elevation leads to action.
  
*Cessation of suffering:  meditation, (non)self-discovery.
+
:*Puzzle about moral elevation and lack of action -- in two studies no sig increase in "signing up" to volunteer after elevation.
  
*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])
+
:*Lactating moms study  198 -- (answers puzzle: oxcytocin is about bonding, not acting. we've managed to make moral conduct a trigger for oxcytocin.)
  
*Note discussion of meditation, p. 25Basic theory for mindfulness meditation exercise.
+
:*Letter from religious person distinguishing two kinds of tears in churchcompassion/celebration
  
*Liberation
+
:*Latter like agape objectless love
:*rejection of presentism and annihilationism as models for liberation.
 
:*paradox of liberationhow 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."
+
Awe and Transcendence
  
 +
:*cites Darwin / Emerson, idea of elevation from exp of nature.
  
===Introduction to Buddhism===
+
:*Drugs - -entheogens.  reports old experiment with mushrooms and religion.
  
:*from wikipedia
+
:*Emerson's "transparent eyeball" experience.  Awe and transcendence of the ego.  (also in flow)
  
* The Four Noble Truths
+
:*Awe:  "As we traced the word "awe" back in history, we discovered that it has always had a link to fear and submission in the presence of something much greater than the self." 202
  
:1 There is suffering.
+
:*Emotion of awe: "Keltner and I concluded that the emotion of awe happens when two conditions are met: a person perceives something vast (usually physically vast, but sometimes conceptually vast, such as a grand theory, or socially vast, such as great fame or power); and the vast thing cannot be accommodated by the person's existing mental structures."  203
  
:2 There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.
+
:*Story of Arjuna Pandava from Gita.  Gets a cosmic eye. Extreme case, but Haidt implies this is a model for how we describe spiritual transformation.
  
: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.
+
:*Maslow's work on peak experiences. Side note on clash about the nature of science in psychology.  Maslow is considered a founder of humanistic psych.
  
:4 There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
+
:*Mark Leary, Curse of the Self: Self as obstacle to -- mental chatter -- self as obstacle to vertical development .  Read p. 207.
  
::8 fold path.  (see above and in Feuerstein.)
+
===Hall, Ch 9, Altruism, Social Justice, Fairness, and the Wisdom of Punishment===
  
 +
:*Hall's point about the wisdom of Solomon (from beginning and end of chapter) -- implication for theory.
  
 +
:*Problem of altruism
 +
::*from Darwin, then from Hamilton and Trivers "reciprocal altruism" and "kin selection"
 +
::*Research by Ernst Fehr -- behavioral studies of subjects in Prisoner's Dilemma situations (digress on Prisoner's Dilemma), bias toward cooperation.
 +
::*2002 finding by Rilling -- mutual cooperation stimulates learning and pleasure responses.  (Later, on p. 161, same is true for punishment.)
  
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="font-size:100%;">
+
:*Ultimatum Game
<tr>
+
::*Interpretation of Ultimatum Game regularity (25% or less gets rejection). Example of NFL revenue sharing.  
<td style="background:#bbbbbb; text-align:center">''Division''</td>
+
::*Alan Sanfey's work on neural response in ultimatum game -- areas for emotion and disgust "light up" on low offers.
<td style="background:#bbbbbb; text-align:center">''Eightfold Path factors''</td>
+
::*Fehr research using TMS --- respondents accepted unfair offers. p. 161
<td style="background:#bbbbbb; text-align:center">''Acquired factors''</td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" rowspan=2>Wisdom (Sanskrit: ''[[prajñā]]'', Pāli: ''paññā'')</td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >1. Right view </td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >9. Superior right knowledge </td>
 
<tr>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >2. Right intention </td>
 
<td style="background:#CCFFFF" >10. Superior right liberation </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===
+
:*Public Goods games and punishment / Wisdom and punishment
  
: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.
+
===Prisoner's Dilemma Intro===
  
:*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.
+
:*for more depth, see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on game theory.
  
:*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.  Moreover, consciousness is reckoned by it conditions.  Follow analogy to fire on top of 63.
+
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
! !! Prisoner B: Smith stays silent(''cooperates'') !! Prisoner B: Smith betrays (''defects'')
 +
|-
 +
! Prisoner A (you) stays silent (''cooperates'')
 +
| Each serves 1 year|| Prisoner A (you): 3 years<br/>Prisoner B: Smith: goes free
 +
|-
 +
! Prisoner A (you) betrays (''defects'')
 +
| Prisoner A (you): goes free<br/>Prisoner B: Smith: 3 years || Each serves 2 years
 +
|}
  
:*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.)
+
:*Pay off matrix for any outcome:
 +
::*Smith stays silent (cooperate), you betray (defects): 3, 0 (Smith's a sucker)
 +
::*Smith betrays (defects), you stay silent (cooperate): 0,3 (You're a sucker)
 +
::*Both betray (defect): 2 years each (Game theoretic outcome)
 +
::*Both (cooperate): 1 year each (Optimal outcome for combined interests/utility - allegedly only achievable with an enforceable social contract - even one enforced by bad guys!)
  
:*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 reality.  Sections 17 and 18 describe the pleasures of this enlightenment.
+
:*Why should you defect in the the face of uncertainty about Smith's cooperation?
 +
::*Analyze both possibilities for Smith
 +
::*He stays silent (cooperates)  
 +
::*He betrays you (defects)
  
 +
:*Note on iterated prisoner's dilemma
  
===Matthieu Ricard, Chs. 6&7: Alchemy of Suffering and Veils of the Ego===
+
===Edgarton, Sick Societies, Chapters 1 and 2===
  
Chapter Six: Alchemy of Suffering
+
:*Ch 1
 +
::*myth of primitive harmony in 20th c anthr and pop culture.
 +
::*Rousseau and history of European exp. of non-Euro cultures.
 +
::*leads us to believe too much in the adaptiveness of cultural beliefs. 
  
:*Shortest history of the kingdom: "They Suffer"
+
:*Ch 2
 
+
::*recognition of adaptive/maladaptive in our own culture.
:*Pervasive suffering -- from growth and development
+
::*Oneida Community 1848-1879 John Noyes
:*Suffering of Change -- from illusion of permanence.
+
::*sexual practices
:*Multiplicity of Suffering -- suffering from awareness of the many ways things can go wrong.
+
::*changing the rules
:*Hidden Suffering -- suffering that we don't see (animal suffering for a cheap egg).
+
::*Duddie's Branch, 1960, Eastern Kentucky 238 ind.
 
+
::*gov't support, deterioration of hygiene, basic values
:*Sources of Suffering -- self-centeredness, our unhappiness is caused, 4 Noble Truths (65).
+
::*non standard tracking of patrimony.
 
+
::*fierce loyalty to community, showed "pride, dignity, courage, and generosity"
:*Progress toward enlightenment can be noted in our response to loss:  story at 67-68.  how we approach death.  
+
::*23-45: Review of the issue of relativism in anthropology, especially in mid-late 20th century.
 
 
:*Treatment of attachment theory is a bit rough: his point: this is contemporary theory that focuses on the relationship between attachment and suffering. 
 
 
 
:*Methods for responding to suffering -- meditation, use of mental imagery.
 
 
 
Chapter Seven: Veils of the Ego
 
 
 
:*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. 
 
:*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)?
 
::*great to appreciate our talents and capacities
 
::*also important to appreciate our dependencies and interrelationships (Even highly contingent things.)
 
::*catch the defensive reactions of the ego: story about the boats bot of 83) -- (fundamental attribution error)
 
::*learn from assymetries of response: example of the vase, the asymmetry of our response is a clue. (also in stoicism)
 
 
 
:*Problem:  How can I live without an ego? 
 
:*R's main response:  true 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 people.  egoless and joyful
 
 
 
:*90-end: Gives brief philosophical reflection on the way a Buddhist thinks about the self in contrast to a western dualist model.  Self is "nexus" point of flow of causal processes.  Illusion 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 23:52, 1 April 2015

APR 1

Haidt Chapter 9: Divinity with or without God

Elevation as a vertical axis in relationship.

  • Flatland
  • Major speculative hypothesis: 183: In addition to relationship and status, we perceive/experience "divinity" as a kind of "moral purity".
  • But this is puzzling, given that we are also ANIMALS
  • Research on disgust. Why do we experience disgust? 186. Purity opposite impulse from disgust. Disgust brings us "down".
  • Psychological anthropologist Richard Shweder, U Chicago: Haidt worked with him on research in morality in India: "Shweder's research on morality in Bhubaneswar and elsewhere shows that when people think about morality, their moral concepts cluster into three groups, which he calls the ethic of autonomy, the ethic of community, and the ethic of divinity." 188 -- evidence on diff. distribution of these ethics by class. Note observations on research in India. Link bt. purity/divine.
  • Cites approvingly: Eliade, The Sacred and Profane -- perceiving sacredness universal among humans. 189: Interesting examples: handedness, space in houses.

Elevation and Agape

  • Looking for a name for the emotions that we experience when we observe morally outstanding deeds. "Elevation"
  • Jefferson: Experience of aesthetic value triggers physical changes in the body and recognizable feeling of elevated sentiments.
  • 196: wants to see if elevation is a kind of happiness. research with student Sara Algoe, (three conditions: doing something good for someone, saw someone tell a joke, saw extraordinary non-moral performance) results seem to separate out different responses: moral elevation vs. response to non-moral excellence like basketball player.
  • initial research documents elevation as response. Unclear how moral/non-moral triggers work.
  • Vagus Nerve theory -- operation of vagus nerve, relationship to oxytocin. Since oxcytocin causes bonding rather than action, this theory might explain the lack of evidence in an earlier study that elevation leads to action.
  • Puzzle about moral elevation and lack of action -- in two studies no sig increase in "signing up" to volunteer after elevation.
  • Lactating moms study 198 -- (answers puzzle: oxcytocin is about bonding, not acting. we've managed to make moral conduct a trigger for oxcytocin.)
  • Letter from religious person distinguishing two kinds of tears in church. compassion/celebration
  • Latter like agape : objectless love

Awe and Transcendence

  • cites Darwin / Emerson, idea of elevation from exp of nature.
  • Drugs - -entheogens. reports old experiment with mushrooms and religion.
  • Emerson's "transparent eyeball" experience. Awe and transcendence of the ego. (also in flow)
  • Awe: "As we traced the word "awe" back in history, we discovered that it has always had a link to fear and submission in the presence of something much greater than the self." 202
  • Emotion of awe: "Keltner and I concluded that the emotion of awe happens when two conditions are met: a person perceives something vast (usually physically vast, but sometimes conceptually vast, such as a grand theory, or socially vast, such as great fame or power); and the vast thing cannot be accommodated by the person's existing mental structures." 203
  • Story of Arjuna Pandava from Gita. Gets a cosmic eye. Extreme case, but Haidt implies this is a model for how we describe spiritual transformation.
  • Maslow's work on peak experiences. Side note on clash about the nature of science in psychology. Maslow is considered a founder of humanistic psych.
  • Mark Leary, Curse of the Self: Self as obstacle to -- mental chatter -- self as obstacle to vertical development . Read p. 207.

Hall, Ch 9, Altruism, Social Justice, Fairness, and the Wisdom of Punishment

  • Hall's point about the wisdom of Solomon (from beginning and end of chapter) -- implication for theory.
  • Problem of altruism
  • from Darwin, then from Hamilton and Trivers "reciprocal altruism" and "kin selection"
  • Research by Ernst Fehr -- behavioral studies of subjects in Prisoner's Dilemma situations (digress on Prisoner's Dilemma), bias toward cooperation.
  • 2002 finding by Rilling -- mutual cooperation stimulates learning and pleasure responses. (Later, on p. 161, same is true for punishment.)
  • Ultimatum Game
  • Interpretation of Ultimatum Game regularity (25% or less gets rejection). Example of NFL revenue sharing.
  • Alan Sanfey's work on neural response in ultimatum game -- areas for emotion and disgust "light up" on low offers.
  • Fehr research using TMS --- respondents accepted unfair offers. p. 161
  • Public Goods games and punishment / Wisdom and punishment

Prisoner's Dilemma Intro

  • for more depth, see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on game theory.
Prisoner B: Smith stays silent(cooperates) Prisoner B: Smith betrays (defects)
Prisoner A (you) stays silent (cooperates) Each serves 1 year Prisoner A (you): 3 years
Prisoner B: Smith: goes free
Prisoner A (you) betrays (defects) Prisoner A (you): goes free
Prisoner B: Smith: 3 years
Each serves 2 years
  • Pay off matrix for any outcome:
  • Smith stays silent (cooperate), you betray (defects): 3, 0 (Smith's a sucker)
  • Smith betrays (defects), you stay silent (cooperate): 0,3 (You're a sucker)
  • Both betray (defect): 2 years each (Game theoretic outcome)
  • Both (cooperate): 1 year each (Optimal outcome for combined interests/utility - allegedly only achievable with an enforceable social contract - even one enforced by bad guys!)
  • Why should you defect in the the face of uncertainty about Smith's cooperation?
  • Analyze both possibilities for Smith
  • He stays silent (cooperates)
  • He betrays you (defects)
  • Note on iterated prisoner's dilemma

Edgarton, Sick Societies, Chapters 1 and 2

  • Ch 1
  • myth of primitive harmony in 20th c anthr and pop culture.
  • Rousseau and history of European exp. of non-Euro cultures.
  • leads us to believe too much in the adaptiveness of cultural beliefs.
  • Ch 2
  • recognition of adaptive/maladaptive in our own culture.
  • Oneida Community 1848-1879 John Noyes
  • sexual practices
  • changing the rules
  • Duddie's Branch, 1960, Eastern Kentucky 238 ind.
  • gov't support, deterioration of hygiene, basic values
  • non standard tracking of patrimony.
  • fierce loyalty to community, showed "pride, dignity, courage, and generosity"
  • 23-45: Review of the issue of relativism in anthropology, especially in mid-late 20th century.