21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview
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T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S
5. Mind is split
‘My one regret in life is not being born as somebody else’
Woody Allen
Philosophers and psychologists alike seem to have a fondness for suggesting that we don’t really know our own minds. Half of our brain has been pushed into the sub-conscious. Then further parts are designated as our reptilian and mammalian brains, which we cannot really control. And then even our higher, human thoughts might just be pure illusion, or the suggestions of culture, or inherited from our parents. Even our sincerity and authenticity is robbed from us! If we think we’re having an emotion — either good or bad — then look out, it may be ‘false consciousness’! The denial of all common-sense impressions of mental states is called ‘eliminativism’ (presumably by enlightened people who are so brilliant themselves that they know their own thoughts!).
The split between phenomena and the noumenon is not just for the world ‘out there’. It is not simply a boundary imposed on us in
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