The Matter of Vision. Peter Wyeth

      Philosophy & science

      Kant declares Philosophy has an equal truth to science

      Philosophy turns its back on nature

      If every idea is testable in principal

      Philosophy returns to nature

      The superiority of science to (an autonomous) Philosophy

      Testing is no panacea

      No Testing is ‘a tumbling ground for whimsies’

      x (b)

      Instinct & knowledge

      Unwritten knowledge exceeds written knowledge

      Informal knowledge exceeds formal knowledge

      Tacit knowledge is concrete

      Infinitely more wisdom

      in tacit knowledge

      than in the Academy

       II Extensions

      i.

       The history of all hitherto existing societies has been the prisoner of three stern gaolers Language, Consciousness and Reason

      These pillars of being human

      evolved ideologies

      reducing their opposites

      Language demotes Vision

      Consciousness masks the Automatic

      Reason condescends to Emotion

      Verbal and ‘Non-Verbal’

      Conscious and ‘Un-conscious’

      Reason and ‘Un-reason’

      We are aware of the ‘non-verbal’

      even as we deny it a name

      We are aware of the un-conscious

      even as we deny it a word of its own

      We are most aware of Emotion

      but demote it opposite Reason

      Man can have Emotion without Reason

      But not Reason without Emotion.

      Reason is in fact contingent upon Emotion

      The opposite of the ideology of Reason

      Emotion is the primary fact

      of our existence

      It surrounds Reason and Consciousness

      and suffuses Language

      Emotion is the heart of the brain

      ii

      Language, Consciousness and Reason

      The trinity think themselves the foundations of civilisation

      but hold back man’s development.

      It is not LCR themselves that is the problem

      But how man sees them.

      Each has developed its own Ideology

      to protect it from the threat

      perceived in its opposite.

      Each has become a

      thing in itself

      an artefact

      (of ideology)

      with a boundary to protect

      Each one reacts like an animal

      feeling a threat

      to its territory.

      iii

      Language

      Language is a chimaera.

      Language is blind.

      Vision is so much older than Language

      The upstart attempts to usurp the veteran

      waging ceaseless war against its superior

      claiming hegemony against the odds.

      To grasp the full depth of Vision

      can encourage Language to place itself in its service

      Verbal and ‘Non-Verbal’ intelligence.

      Visual intelligence is not on the agenda

      not recognised as a thing in itself

      Only a negative form.

      With Consciousness

      There is the Conscious

      Opposed to the Un-conscious

      Merely the negative form

      As though the Conscious

      Was the dominant mode

      And the rest of minor significance.

      iv

      Consciousness & The Automatic

Consciousness is perhaps one millionth of the senses*. The Automatic is the million – minus the one of consciousness.

(*Trincker 1965 “only one millionth of what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our other senses inform us about appears in our consciousness”⁷³).

      Until we grasp the scope of the Automatic

      we will remain imprisoned within Consciousness.

      Consciousness

      processes around 10 bits per second of information

      The area beyond Consciousness

      Here called the Automatic

      Has perhaps

      three-hundred million billion connections in the brain

      Consciousness

      the tip of the tip of the iceberg

      v

      Reason

      Reason is a noble ambition.

      Mankind is unreasonable.

      Man is inevitably imprisoned in his own subjectivity

      Not reason but rationalisation.

      Reason can be opposed to unreason

      Or to Emotion.

      Emotion can exist without Reason

      Reason cannot exist without Emotion

      Yet the Ideology of Reason

      Deems it superior to Emotion.

      vi

      LCR ideologies

      In each case

      ideology

      sets out to conceal

      reality

      Each of the trinity

      has a lesser role

      in the mind of man

      than they would have you believe.

      Language believes itself the medium of thought

      Consciousness believes it runs the brain

      Reason believes it is objective.

      None are true.

      Language is not the medium of thought, but Vision

      Consciousness is a millionth of brain activity, the rest is Automatic

      Reason is (and should always be) at the behest of Emotion

(David Hume⁷⁴)

      Language