Jaynes] has one of the clearest and most perspicuous defenses of the top-down approach [to consciousness] that I have ever come across." — Daniel Dennett, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, in Brainchildren Kuijsten, Marcel (2016). "Introduction". In Kuijsten, Marcel (ed.). Gods, Voices and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes (Firsted.). Henderson NV: Julian Jaynes Society. ISBN 978-0-9790744-3-1. There have been a number of conferences and symposiums dedicated to Julian Jaynes's theory. These include:

Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of Review of “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of

Smith, Daniel (2007). Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the history, science, and meaning of auditory hallucination. ISBN 978-1-59420-110-3. For a bicameral human, life would be a state of autopilot – with the hallucinated voice only manifesting when something novel happened: the dropped fork, the broken glass, etc. A voice that one might interpret as a god or the spirit of an ancestor would tell us how to respond. Bicameral mentality has also been discussed in an analysis of Total War Saga: Troy's depiction of the Trojan War. [43] Jaynes, Julian (1976). The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-20729-0. Voice-hearing and the bicameral mind". Philosophy for Life. Archived from the original on 2018-01-26 . Retrieved 2018-01-25.Jaynes theorized that a shift from bicameral mentality marked the beginning of introspection and consciousness as we know it today. According to Jaynes, this bicameral mentality began malfunctioning or "breaking down" during the 2ndmillenniumBCE. He speculates that primitive ancient societies tended to collapse periodically: for example, Egypt's Intermediate Periods, as well as the periodically vanishing cities of the Mayas, as changes in the environment strained the socio-cultural equilibria sustained by this bicameral mindset. a b Jones, William Thomas (1979) Mr. Jaynes and the bicameral mind: a case study in the sociology of belief. Humanities Working Paper, 23. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090714-105138181 Sher, Leo (May 2000). "Neuroimaging, auditory hallucinations, and the bicameral mind". Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. 25 (3): 239–240. PMC 1407719. PMID 10863883. Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes's Theory (2022), which features interviews with scholars on a variety of aspects of Jaynes's theory, including interviews with Tanya Luhrmann (Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University), John Kihlstrom (Professor Emeritus of Psychology at U.C. Berkeley), Edoardo Casiglia (Professor, Cardiologist and Senior Scientist at the University of Padova), Iris Sommer (Professor of Psychiatry at University Medical Center Groningen), and many others. [49]

The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral

So we see reflected in the narrative of The Odyssey and the journey of Odysseus, the human journey towards consciousness. Interestingly, Jaynes explicitly notes that this journey involves a shift in the nature of human agency from the “will-less gigolo of a divinity” to a more fully-fledged agent. So again, Jaynes here is equating, at least to some extent, the emergence of consciousness with the emergence self-agency. Conclusion From this brief overview I hope to have drawn attention to the importance of volition for Jaynes' theory of consciousness. In my analysis two themes have emerged: the first is that the experience of self-volition appeared fairly recently in human history, and the second is that, for Jaynes, it was the appearance of self-volition that signalled the emergence of consciousness following the breakdown of the bicameral mind. The latter is perhaps the most intriguing feature of Jaynes' theory from a contemporary theoretical perspective. This is because it implies that self-volition is a defining feature of human consciousness, perhaps even the defining feature. On this view, volition may be foundational to consciousness—only once an organism has internalised the causes its behaviour (thus linking them to the “self”) can that organism be said to be conscious.

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Der Ursprung des Bewusstseins durch den Zusammenbruch der Bikameralen Psyche (German edition of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind) Jaynes, Julian (1990) [1st pub. 1976; 1982]. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-56352-6. As well as changes in the content of the narrative, the language itself also seems to change. Jaynes notes that, compared with The Iliad, in The Odyssey there are changes in the frequency of certain key words. For example, according to Jaynes there is an increase in the frequency of the word noos in The Odyssey, which Jaynes defines as the conscious mind. Just as importantly, it is the noos that now directs much more of the action in this work compared with its predecessor, reflecting a shift from god-driven to self-driven agency.

origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral

Weijers, Erik (29 September 2014). "The Origin of consciousness: Summary, selected quotes and review".

The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Emergence of Self-Agency

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is a 1976 book by the Princeton psychologist, psychohistorian [a] and consciousness theorist Julian Jaynes (1920-1997). It explores the nature of consciousness – particularly "the ability to introspect" – and its evolution in ancient human history. Jaynes proposes that consciousness is a learned behavior rooted in language and culture rather than being innate. [b] He distinguishes consciousness from sensory awareness and cognition. Jaynes introduces the concept of the " bicameral mind", a non-conscious mentality prevalent in early humans that relied on auditory hallucinations. Jaynes also suggests that The Odyssey itself can be read as a metaphor for this shift in human mentality, that the narrative is one of self-discovery and the emergence of new and changed identities. Jaynes' description of this is worth quoting here at length: At this point in human history, humans started to lose their gods. Jaynes quotes from the Ludlul Bel Nemeqi—a Mesopotamian poem written during the time of the bicameral mind's breakdown—which clearly expresses this loss: Henle, Mary; Jaynes, Julian; Sullivan, John J. Historical conceptions of psychology. Oxford, England: Springer. 1973. Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind (2016), which includes essays on a variety of aspects of Jaynes's theory, including ancient history, language, the development of consciousness in children, and the transition from bicamerality to consciousness in ancient Tibet. [24]

“They Were Noble Automatons Who Knew Not What They Did

Jaynes was born and lived in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Julian Clifford Jaynes (1854–1922), a Unitarian minister, and Clara Bullard Jaynes (1884–1980). He had an older sister, Helen, and a younger brother, Robert. The family had a summer home in Keppoch, Prince Edward Island, which was a place Jaynes loved, and which gave him a Canadian connection for his entire life. [3] Moffic [15] questioned why Jaynes' theory was left out of a discussion on auditory hallucinations by Asaad & Shapiro. [16] The authors' published response was: ...Jaynes' hypothesis makes for interesting reading and stimulates much thought in the receptive reader. It does not adequately explain one of the central mysteries of madness: hallucination.

Conflict of Interest

Cohn, James (2013). The Minds of the Bible: Speculations on the Cultural Evolution of Human Consciousness. Julian Jaynes Society. ASIN B00B5LWV82. Burmon, Andrew. "A Scholar Explains How Bicameral Mind Theory Predicts the 'Westworld' Plot". Inverse . Retrieved 2021-12-07.