Episode #57: Gist, Art, and Personal Interactions: Resident Philosopher Shottenkirk speaks with student Jacob Sabu

Jacob, a pre-med student, talks about how visual gist (in the first 300 ms) is something similar to an interpersonal immediate impression - how we like something or want something or we are repelled by it.  The brain has to filter out information, Jacob notes, and so evolution has allowed us to do that. He also wants to tie this to moral revulsion and brings in Jonathan Haidt's writings on the problems of people with damage to the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, who seem to have no sense of revulsion to the most basic things, like "bashing in your mother's head". There is no barrier around right or wrong. Shottenkirk points out that yes, our brain has to edit, and in those brain damage cases it points to what parts are not there. Jacob then refers to a book by Shottenkirk's (Perception, Cognition, and Aesthetics), and her writings on gist. He notes an additional point: the fragmentation of the mind is seen in the basic biology of cone (color) cells and rod cells (black and white) - where the periphery of our vision is black and white, and the color is the centralized and foveated part of the retina.  We are not conscious that the periphery is black and white. The conversation then builds on the distinction between knowing something consciously and unconsciously, and shifts to the process of naming - we name things we are concerned about owning, or things we fear and want to avoid. But there are things that are not named; we edit out reality and many things we don't name. Jacob agrees that much of that editing is socially constructed, and further argues that we need to see things as others see the world, and to perceive things in different ways.  important thing is talking to one another. Support the showWebsite: talkpopc.orgInstagram: @talkpopcEmail: [email protected]