2014.03.16 13:00 - I feel therefore I am--I think...

The Guardian for this meeting was Aphrodite Macbain. The comments are by Aphrodite Macbain.

Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Aph!
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi Bruce. Glad you could come!
Aphrodite Macbain: we missed you this morning
Bruce Mowbray: Well, it's this busy-Sunday thing my typist has going on.
Bruce Mowbray: Was it a good guardians meeting?
Aphrodite Macbain: I guess so
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Aphrodite Macbain: we reviewed the call for actors:-)
Bruce Mowbray: Please say more.
Bruce Mowbray listens intently.
Aphrodite Macbain: and talked about the workings of the working group
Bruce Mowbray: Oh yes, I saw those agenda items in Liz's note.
Aphrodite Macbain: and the fact that I will be changing my time slot with Aggers
Bruce Mowbray: kk, so Aggers will take this spot, then?
Aphrodite Macbain: as I can't stay on Sunday- I have to leave at 1:30
Bruce Mowbray: Understood.
Aphrodite Macbain: yes she will -then she can go straight on to Berti's session
Bruce Mowbray: And you'll have the 1 p.m. Thursday slot?
Aphrodite Macbain: Yes
Bruce Mowbray: Yayyyy!
Aphrodite Macbain: RL has a way of messing up my schedule
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed, my typist's too.
Bruce Mowbray: also messes up my typing.
Bruce Mowbray: I am a perfect typist, actually.
Aphrodite Macbain: perfect?
Aphrodite Macbain: like all of us I guess
Bruce Mowbray: NEVER make mystakies -- except when the RL interferes with the keyboard, you understand.
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Bruce Mowbray: DERn that RL!
Aphrodite Macbain: I think so'
Aphrodite Macbain: How are you doing in RL?
Bruce Mowbray: I am joyous.
Aphrodite Macbain: there's spring in your spring
Bruce Mowbray: I've had an excellent week and an excellent day.
Bruce Mowbray: Just returned home from Quaker Meeting.
Aphrodite Macbain: excellent
Bruce Mowbray: yes!
Bruce Mowbray:
Aphrodite Macbain: what did u discuss?
Bruce Mowbray: And how about you?
Bruce Mowbray: at Meeting?
Aphrodite Macbain: I've been writing about Rene Descartes
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Bruce Mowbray: Yayy!
Bruce Mowbray: I took a grad course in Descartes.
Aphrodite Macbain: oh?
Bruce Mowbray: Many years ago, yes.
Aphrodite Macbain: He was quite amazing
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, very Platonic, actually.
Aphrodite Macbain: wrote about Meteors, Geometry, Light
Aphrodite Macbain: and self
Bruce Mowbray: You're reading the MEDITATIONS, then?
Bruce Mowbray: Or the DISCOURSE ON METHOD?
Aphrodite Macbain: tell me how he was Platonic
Bruce Mowbray: or both?
Aphrodite Macbain: Discourse mainly- also his one on souls
Bruce Mowbray: He was Platonic in the sense that the "truth" he arrives at is a hierarchy of "ideal forms," in a sense.
Aphrodite Macbain: How is he like Plato apart from the fact that he believed we had a soul  that survived after death?
Bruce Mowbray: Like Kant.
Aphrodite Macbain: soul
Aphrodite Macbain: oh? what kind of hierarchy did Descartes have?
Bruce Mowbray: Through doubting we can arrive at absolute truth. . . and should not trust our senses to give us the truth.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah - whittle away that which is uncertain...?
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, San-ji!
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi San
Santoshima Resident: hello
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, doubt everything...
Santoshima Resident: ?
Aphrodite Macbain: I thought that was the role of a skeptic
Aphrodite Macbain: we are talking about René Descartes...
Bruce Mowbray: (like the people who are tied in the cave - Plato's allegory - must doubt all of the appearances.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, good ol' Rene.
Aphrodite Macbain: I see. thanks!
Aphrodite Macbain: What are you working on today San? or reading?
Bruce Mowbray: We come at "Truth" through reasoning, not through experience (both Rene and whatever-Plato's-first-name-was.
Aphrodite Macbain: Signor
Bruce Mowbray listens for more from San...
Bruce Mowbray: Ahh yes, signor....
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Santoshima Resident: more?
Aphrodite Macbain: More?
Bruce Mowbray: Are you reading anything interesting these days, San?
Santoshima Resident: hmm,
Santoshima Resident: just finished The Orenda
Santoshima Resident: Joseph Boyden
Aphrodite Macbain: How is it?
Santoshima Resident: at the prompting of Canada Reads
Aphrodite Macbain: I loved his [Through] Black Spruce
Bruce Mowbray: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...831-the-orenda
Santoshima Resident: before that: louise erdrich / the roundhouse
Santoshima Resident: excellent
Aphrodite Macbain: who is she?
Santoshima Resident: !
Santoshima Resident: she is one of the finest fiction writers from the US
Aphrodite Macbain: Then once I finish this course I'll look for her
Santoshima Resident: the humanities course?
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Aphrodite Macbain: am now on the 12th page of my essay and have many miles to go
Santoshima Resident: such is the nature of essays
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Santoshima Resident: or rather the writing of
Aphrodite Macbain: one philosopher at a time ...
Santoshima Resident: and you two?
Santoshima Resident: what are you reading?
Aphrodite Macbain: finished with Rene, on to Hume
Aphrodite Macbain: focusing on the definition of self
Santoshima Resident: is there such a thing? and so forth?
Aphrodite Macbain: much ink has been spilled on this subject!
Aphrodite Macbain: yes especially the so forth
Bruce Mowbray: Rene: If I doubt, I am. Hume: If I touch and can feel something touching me, I am.
Bruce Mowbray: (and so is it.)
Aphrodite Macbain: according to neuroscientists today, there is no absolute self
Santoshima Resident: probably a good thing
Bruce Mowbray: How about a cluster of demi-selves"?
Aphrodite Macbain: nods Hume also believed that passion is the motivator for reason
Aphrodite Macbain: sort of but each changing constantly in zillionths of seconds
Santoshima Resident: like demi-gods?
Bruce Mowbray: Good! So, "feeling" includes the capacity for passion... (and also, reason).
Aphrodite Macbain: yes Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: DERN this RL typist of mine!
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Santoshima Resident: flawed, but we love him
Bruce Mowbray: Why doesn't he just let ME DO THE TYPING???
Aphrodite Macbain: feeling/passion are essential in decision making Hume said
Aphrodite Macbain: without it, we're sunk
Aphrodite Macbain: it is what we call z'gut instinct"
Bruce Mowbray: feeling/passion are also essential to self-making.
Aphrodite Macbain: say more Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: huh?
Aphrodite Macbain: how do feeling/passion make us?
Bruce Mowbray: Sometimes I think/feel that each of my feelings comes from a different "self."
Bruce Mowbray: How's that?
Aphrodite Macbain: ah OK
Aphrodite Macbain: so the self creates the feelings rather than the other way round
Bruce Mowbray: This morning before Quaker Meeting, I finished writing a computer program that solves mazes... by finding all the dead-ends.
Bruce Mowbray: (WHICH self did that?)
Aphrodite Macbain: wow
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe that was my artificially intelligent self.
Aphrodite Macbain: what will u do with it?
Bruce Mowbray: Watch it find the way out of the maze, and then laugh at it to make it self-conscious.
Aphrodite Macbain: grins
Aphrodite Macbain: silly Bruce. The maze has addled you!
Bruce Mowbray: five more minutes, Aph.
Aphrodite Macbain: yes, thanks Bruce.
Aphrodite Macbain: Off to my yoga class
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, the maze has also amazed me, alas.
Bruce Mowbray: Be thee well, Aph.
Bruce Mowbray: Go get ASANAed!
Aphrodite Macbain: smiles
Santoshima Resident: bye
Aphrodite Macbain: bye
Bruce Mowbray: bye for now, good person!
Bruce Mowbray: It's good to see Aph take such interest in her humanities course.
Santoshima Resident: yep
Bruce Mowbray: Although it's been decades since I studied that stuff, much of it still comes back to me when she mentions it.

Santoshima Resident: is bertie's group today?
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, Berti's group will be at the top of the hour.
Santoshima Resident: oh sure ... it's in the back files
Santoshima Resident: ok
Bruce Mowbray: I have an LM for it, if you need one.
Santoshima Resident: i think i have one, tx
Bruce Mowbray: You do NOW!
Santoshima Resident: how long is it?
Santoshima Resident: tx
Bruce Mowbray: It takes about 20 minutes...
Bruce Mowbray: but the meditation itself is only ten.
Santoshima Resident: ah, short
Bruce Mowbray: yes, pretty short.
Bruce Mowbray: If there is anything you'd like to talk about, I'm here for that.
Bruce Mowbray: Otherwise, I should be doing a few things before Berti's session.
Santoshima Resident: ok
Santoshima Resident: see you soon
Bruce Mowbray: But I don't want to leave you alone - especially if there's something you'd care to discuss.
Santoshima Resident: good to get tasks done
Santoshima Resident: nah, i can go for a walk
Santoshima Resident: ty though
Bruce Mowbray: kk, Bye for now!
Santoshima Resident: enjoy the afternoon, bruce