smoliar@VAXA.ISI.EDU (Stephen Smoliar) (08/30/88)
Posted-Date: Mon, 29 Aug 88 16:44:28 PST To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu Subject: Pseudo-science strikes again! Date: Mon, 29 Aug 88 20:44 EDT From: Stephen Smoliar <smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu> Thomson Kuhn cited Julian Jaynes' THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND for "an incredibly tight linking of cognitive science and religion." I don't want to sound harsh; but I take a dim view of any use of the word "science" when the only empirical evidence an author can offer comes from introspection while under the influence of hallucinatory drugs. Jaynes certainly provided some imaginative literary criticism with regard to Homer (although he remains vastly inferior to Albert B. Lord); but to assume that anything he has done can be related to cognitive science without first seeking out more substantive evidence is a sign of the sort of naivete which science has always tried to transcend.