From the same place this answer comes from : school learning and logic. Hopefully, I am looking at my own psychology and neurology in the same way a(n amateur) mechanic is looking at a motor?
in other words : habit, rote - the young human brain is a sponge that does this automatically - a trace is graven physically in the brain somehow.
How is the flight of an eagle learning? If there is no trace, what does learning mean? Does it just mean the ability to see without comparison?
How does a human understand something if we cannot compare it to something else? (what is a flurgleblarghh?)
I donât know. Feeling might only arise when thought/naming engages.
In other words feeling is a part of knowing
Iâve wondered about the relationship between thinking and feeling for a long time. Can either exist without the other: pure thought, pure feeling?
The mechanic is separate from the motor. So there are dozens of tools of learning that can be tried and applied in the manufacture, operation, repair and improvement of the motor. Can oneself be improved? There may be a strong feeling when listening to this question which says, âBut of course I can improve; I can be a better human being.â But is this so, regardless of what we may feel about it?
Can any feeling exist without memory, which is thought? Obviously, physical sensation exists without memory. But what about sadness, for example? Whatâs the relationship between thought, memory and a feeling of sadness?
Feelings are usually familiar, recognizable, but when we feel what weâve never felt before, our concern is whether itâs a good or a bad feeling, i.e., hopeful or dreadful.
Can feeling exist without memory or thought?
I donât know. But feeling, memory, and thought do seem to be closely related.
Do you mean can the self carry out its functions better?
do you have any examples of this or any reason to assume this might be ?
Are you referring to bodily sensations or mental emotions? Arenât mental emotions always coupled with a thought?
Well something like abstract math or symbolic logic might flirt with pure thought and some forms of qualia with pure feeling. Emphasis on the âmight.â
How is the flight of an eagle learning? If there is no trace, what does learning mean?
That is the questionâŚI believe the quote is the last line in the book titled â The Flight of the Eagleâ.
some forms of qualia
You keep bringing up qualia - I have noticed this trend also elsewhere online, especially from the USA - as far as I can tell Qualia just means a subjective experience, ie what something feels like for me.
In my understanding subjective experiences are based on our conditioning; so are dependant on our psychological baggage
Even though we are not immediately conscious of our mental picture of the world, it is probably what is affecting our experience of it.
Also mathematicians probably also have feelings/qualia when they carry out their work - the 7 times table was particularly traumatising for me.
PS - Oups! actually it was âTulpasâ not âQualiaâ that you mentioned earlier - my bad.
Do you mean can the self carry out its functions better?
What are the functions of the self?
To be the center subject to desires and aversions.
The qualia of being a me, separate from and interacting with the non-me.
A tool for security and progress for itself - a function of the survival instinct.
I donât know. But feeling, memory, and thought do seem to be closely related.
Letâs look at what happens when we feel sad. Letâs take a simple example and follow it through.
A tool for security and progress for itself - a function of the survival instinct.
Does this make for a better human being? Thatâs really the question. Can I move from what I am now to something better?
I have 2 difficulties responding to this question.
Does this make for a better human being?
What do you mean by a better human being ? I could reply that an understanding of community may make for a better human being - ie someone that understands that their wellbeing is dependant on the wellbeing of the whole.
Can I move from what I am now to something better?
It could be said that this is the basic desire of the self - which might contradict what your question is actually pointing at.
We know how to accumulate knowledge; and we know how to discard old knowledge when it gets superseded by some new discovery.
Great questions and investigation. It seems evident we know how to accumulate knowledge since the accumulation is the knowing. What is not clear, is if we know how to discard (old) knowledge. Speaking for myself, I do not know how to discard knowledge. It might be superseded with new memory, but to get rid of it completely, not sure. It seems to me that knowledge is the accumulation and we cannot know what we have forgotten, if that makes any sense.
What was your thinking about discarding knowledge?
But apart from this manipulation of what are essentially material components, do we ever actually learn anything as we go through the course of our lives?
Do I understand correctly that by learning, you do not mean any accumulation of knowledge, time? Hence asking what is the quality of learning, when there is no thought, and if this can be achieved?