How to Use Humanizing Habits of Mind to Create a Spiritual Consciousness More men become good through practice than by nature. —Democritus Background A basic principle of the quadrune mind model of spiritual consciousness is that people are not born either spiritually enlightened or spiritually fallen. Also, being spiritually conscious does not mean having a holier-than-thou attitude […]
Tag: pre-Human
Introduction If you were to ask a human being and a bat, “What is it like to have a mind?,” you would expect to get unimaginably different answers. What is less expected is that if you asked four different people the same question, you could receive four unimaginably different answers. In 1974, philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked […]
(Looking for black and white answers in a kaleidoscopic world) “All we want are the facts, ma’am,” the television police detective Joe Friday used to demand from witnesses of crimes. He just wanted the facts to get at the truth about a crime he was investigating. We’ve all seen television shows in which a lawyer is pressing […]
Introduction To define religion and spirituality is difficult to do. Yet, it is important that we have some understanding of what these words mean for the quadrune mind model of spirituality and this blog. The best definitions of “religion” and “spirituality” for the quadrune mind model come from Bowling Green State University. Spirituality is defined as “the […]
(We Make the World Better) There is an essential point that may sometimes get lost in our many examples of the harm caused by behaving from a pre-Human mind: throughout evolution and human history, we are moving toward becoming more loving and better people; i.e., more Human-minded. The quadrune mind model is a melioristic model, […]
Introduction In previous posts we have profiled each of the three pre-Human mentalities: the reptilian mind (as seen in Donald Trump’s behavior), the old mammalian mind (as seen in Temple Grandin’s understanding of animals), and the new mammalian mind (as seen in Tara Westover’s intellectual journey). These profiles are not meant to demonize anyone, but […]
Introduction In the quadrune mind model of spirituality, there is no spiritual merit in the killing of another person—ever. In this blog we will describe some moral arguments for killing other people and indicate which level of pre-Human consciousness, as described in the quadrune mind model, best corresponds. We will end with an examination of the circumstances […]
(Understanding What Is Good, Great, Evil, and Human) Introduction Most of us believe that people possess one mind. Sometimes that mind has the wisdom and courage to declare in the face of widespread civil violence: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies”—a thought that surely comes to us from “the better angels of our nature.” Other […]
Introduction The quadrune mind model of consciousness describes four levels of consciousness, or minds, which can emerge from the human brain. Each level of consciousness, when it is the dominant mind, will produce a distinct pattern of behaviors in our adulthood. These levels of consciousness are associated with different groups of our pre-human ancestors and stages of […]
The quadrune mind model of consciousness states that the human brain can support not one, but four distinctly different minds. Three of these minds are associated with parts of our brain that we share with our evolutionary ancestors: reptiles, herd mammals, and primate mammals. The fourth mind in this model, associated with the newest part […]