[lbo-talk] Left-neoliberalism: a bold strategy for the year 1999

[Carrol Cox]

Keep biology out of it. The human brain is probably a spandrel -- it 
piggy-backed on some other trait or traits rather than 'evolved' itself. 
It would have been useless to almost all primates,  up to and including 
the 'first' homo sapiens. Hence nothing about human behavior can be 
usefully described in terms of biology.

The  utter flexibility of the human brain frustrates any attempt to 
attach a particular behavior to a particular evolved trait.

For example. It seems as though the limitations of peripheral vision are 
"hard wired" as they say. Macular degeneration just affects the macula 
(forwrd vision) not peripheral vision. That remains unaffected. So I see 
'reality' through my peripheral vision -- but can't do a thing with what 
I see in that way. I can stand 12+ inches from a mirror, and what I see 
is a goblin of some sort; I shift my head and 'reality' appears: only I 
can't recognize it!

That certainly seems "hard-wired": The peripheral vision doesn't 
'connect' with the conscious; it merely signals that one should look 
there. BUT, there exist a few training centers (unfortunately none in 
central Illinois) that train people to 'think' with what they see 
peripherally! Not hard wired at all. We have no way of judging just how 
flexible the brain is.

Carrol