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--- hypothesis-three [2024/05/07 13:10] – brian.m
+++ hypothesis-three [2024/05/08 14:47] (current) – brian.m
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 ==== HYPOTHESIS THREE: DATING THE TRANSITION FROM BICAMERAL MENTALITY TO CONSCIOUSNESS ====
-**Explanation**
+**Theoretical Claim**
 Jaynes dated the birth of consciousness to around the end of the second millennium BCE. Due to the timing of settlement patterns, the transition most likely occurred later in the Americas (North, Mesoamerica, South). To appreciate his reasons for making such a controversial claim, it is imperative to carefully examine the psychohistorical record. Only by investigating the beliefs, customs, and literary traditions of ancient civilizations in a detailed manner are we able to discern a lack of subjectivity as we define it and major changes in mentality. [[https://www.julianjaynes.org/resources/supporting-evidence/ancient-texts/|Much relevant research]] relates to this important facet of Jaynesian theorizing about dating a change in mentality.
-**Evidence**
+**Supporting Evidence**
 //The Inherent Instability of Bicameral Kingdoms and Their Collapse//
@@ Line 73: / Line 73: @@
 Preconscious hypostases are “seats of reaction and responsibility” that emerged during the transition from the bicamerality to subjective consciousness. This evolution can be roughly divided into four phases:
-//Phase 1: Objective.// In the bicameral age terms referred to simple external observations.
+Phase 1: Objective. In the bicameral age terms referred to simple external observations.
-//Phase 2: Internal.// Terms come to mean things inside the body, especially certain internal sensations. The transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 occurred at the beginning of bicameral mentality’s breakdown.
+Phase 2: Internal. Terms come to mean things inside the body, especially certain internal sensations. The transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 occurred at the beginning of bicameral mentality’s breakdown.
-//Phase 3: Subjective.// Terms refer to processes that we would call mental; they have changed from internal stimuli believed to cause behavior to interiorized spaces where metaphorized actions occur.
+Phase 3: Subjective. Terms refer to processes that we would call mental; they have changed from internal stimuli believed to cause behavior to interiorized spaces where metaphorized actions occur.
-//Phase 4: Synthetic.// The various hypostases unite into one conscious self that can introspect and self-reflect.
+Phase 4: Synthetic. The various hypostases unite into one conscious self that can introspect and self-reflect.
 In pre-Socratic times physicality and concreteness characterized what we would call psychological activity (metaphrands) which was located in bodily organs (metaphiers). As an example of hypostases, consider ancient Greek.
 Besides breath, blood, and the brain, cognition and emotion were identified with the spatial cavity of the chest: Phrenes may have originally meant “lungs” or “breathing” (localized in the midriff); thumos perhaps meant “internal sensations” (sometimes localized in the chest); etor designated heart; and kradie is from the beating “heart.” The metaphor of visibility is clear in the term nous (apparently from a verb meaning “to see”). A key term for intellectual activity was nous. It was not necessarily linked to psyche, but was a bodily entity located in the chest.