Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes Paperback – May 5, 2019

Julian Jaynes's hypotheses about the origin of consciousness are as broad and deep in scope as culture itself, making his ideas so difficult to categorize. It is only too easy from a scientific view to say that these types of theories are not scientific or from a physicalist philosophical position to dismiss them as not being Philosophical, leaving such theories in a limbo from which Kuijsten attempts to rescue it.The broad sweep of the evidence marshaled for the thesis, that the structure and function of our brains at a particular point in time, was responsible for the experience of man blindly following the voices of Gods is indeed impressive. Many phenomena for which we no longer seek explanations, such as the power of hypnotism, schizophrena, the tradition of oracles, the hierarchical structure of theocracies, the influence of writing on the function of the brain loom into view like an armada appearing on the horizon. Kuijsten is not afraid of the accumulated prejudices of generations of scholars and bravely follows in the footsteps of Jaynes in reviewing new evidence for the theory presented ca 40 years ago.We are taken back in time over three thousand years and a picture of our life perfectly consonant with the theory of evolution and the ancient writings of the Bible emerges. The picture also provides explanation for many philosophical phenomena such as the importance of the emergence of Philosophy in the classical Greece of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The inner "voice" or daimon which Socrates listened to when in difficult situations also falls neatly into tapestry of evidence.The implications of Kant's philosophy that God was an idea in mans mind and not some external force guiding and directing the process of mans cultural evolution is given further support from the presentation of external evidence. The process of secularization started with the Philosophical argument of Kant is given further support and justification. The voices of the Gods are no longer "merely hallucinations" but placed in a cultural context which gives them a role and substance in our cultural development. The old Aristotelian idea that the divine in us is the thinking process has always metaphysically suggested that God was an important idea and should be correctly understood. This ancient spirit is resurrected with Jaynes's theories and Kuijsten's defense of them.This work also attempts to continue the work of Jaynes in broadening the horizon of Psychology into social and cultural dimensions which in turn links up with the heritage of humanism we acquired via the Classical Greek Philosophers, the Enlightenment Philosophy of Kant and the Philosophy of the later Wittgenstein..

There isn't much new here, but anything that perpetuates Jaynes's compelling theory is worth reading. Some of the essay authors stretched a bit to find proof the Bicameral Mind theory, especially the one from China. That essay is all but unreadable. Although there are bits and pieces that support the original book, there's nothing like the original. Read Jaynes's book before trying this one.

Terrific review of the history and current status of a once-famous, still fascinating hypothesis about the nature and origin of hallucinations.

Spoken from the perspective of many diligent researchers and thinkers, Julian Jaynes’ theory of the bicameral mind is elucidated and somewhat refined and provided with more evidence.

As advertised. Not much new here that you don't likely already have in your collection, but a good literary companion nonetheless.

Not exactly the latest developments related to Jaynes' theories. Some of the articles are from the 1980s. But considering how little Jaynesian literature there is, Kuijsten's collection of various writers' takes on child development, modern poetry, other philosophers, and historical eras, among other subjects, is much appreciated.Would have preferred a properly formatted Kindle version.

Really interesting and well organized and well written

Great