Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Personally, I think the very idea that people would not have known the "voices in their heads" were coming from themselves, as opposed to an outside source (Gods), seems to belittle human intelligence itself, suggesting we were at the time too stupid to properly evaluate the evidence presented to us. From what I've read about humans of 5000 years ago, that's a disproved assumption. At the very least, I would expect most people in that situation to believe they were somehow possessed by a second independent consciousness, as opposed to believing those voices were coming from an external source (just my theory).
On the other hand, it's always possible that only some people interpreted those voices as Gods, but those few were able to convince others, probably aided by some psychological aspect of the situation that made the notion sit well with those others. That does jibe with documented aspects of human civilization, modern psychology and group behavior.
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My understanding is that a (very bluntly oversimplified) view of Jaynes' theory is that everybody suffered from intense schizophrenia if you go back far enough.
In that light, I don't think a schizophrenic (or a bicameral) not knowing that a heard voice comes from what another external observer might term another aspect of his self (but what he/she himself/herself feels as "other" as anything spoken by another human being) necessarily has implications on human intelligence.
Did you read/interpret things differently?
- Ahi