[MD] Individual v Collective

[ian glendinning]

Great minds ... near identical mails :-)

On 8/16/06, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
> [Mike]
> I still think it's no coincidence that this self-awareness emerged at around the
> same time as science really took off.
>
> [Arlo]
> Are you suggesting that people did not have a sense of themselves as
> "self-aware" before Descartes? Do you not think, for example, that (the
> original Greek) Phaedrus saw himself as soley an ant in a colony?
>
> I think what's happened here is that the time you point out (Descartes, science)
> is exactly when the MALADY of the "individual v. collective" perspective
> emerged. I would submit that prior to that, and in most non-Western traditions,
> there is no conflict, and this is not because the "individual" disappears in
> the "collective", but because these other perspectives see "man" as
> dialogically interwoven, and this is a GOOD interweaving.
>
> Our "consciousness" is not distinct, nor is it indistinguishable. Rather, it
> emerges dialogically as what IS distinct "interacts" with what is NOT.
>
>
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