GRGR(3) talking dog 44.20

[Spencer Thiel]

At 1:45 PM -0700 6/2/99, keith woodward wrote:


>kw:
>>> What
>>> troubles me about that reading is only the apparently behaviorist tinges
>>> that color the dog's consciousness.  I'm not saying that the dog couldn't
>>> have a "memory, or reflex" of something
>cfa:
>>don't know if you are picking a fight with dog people, but I would
>>point you to Argus as a prime example of a pooch exhibiting a
>>capacity for memory, not to mention it being a near literary cliche.
>
>Naw, I'm not going to fight that fight.  Rather, I'm suggesting that it is
>for some reason indefinite whether this dog has a memory or a reflex.  They
>are quite different and propose different states of conscious for the dog.

I seem to remember having a couple of psychbiology profs. who suggested
that the split between what is a memory and a reflex isn't such a wide
chasm.  As more research is done into the molecular biological hard-wiring
of memory, I suspect that this may in fact be the case--that the
distinguishing features between what is considered reflexive and what is
considered memory-dependent reflexive will become fuzzier and fuzzier.  At
the time that GR was written though, I believe that, as Keith suggests,
there was a much greater divergence between these definitions.






>Reflex leans much more toward the ward-wired, behaviorist model.  Memory
>attributes much more depth to the mind of the dog.  That's why I think it
>might be the case that the narrative somehow corrects itself/its
>terminology, which makes me suspect that Pointsman is the indirect narrator
>of the passage.  As for Odysseus' beloved bowzer, yeah, it's a literary
>example.  But you quoted me above saying that I wasn't denying a dog a
>memory (although, outside of the context of this discussion/passage, I
>thinik it's quite limited, relatively speaking).
>
>cfa:
>>For even implying a doubt, you should have a pork loin stapled to
>>your forehead, and be invited to dance with the great Zuuuul.
>
>Funny you'd mention that...
>
>Keith W


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-Spencer T.