Re: Faye Fransella's comments on biological determinism

Devi Jankowicz (anima@devi.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:30:39 +0000

Several times I wanted to respond to Jim Mancuso's postings on this
topic, after my first followup to his original item; but desisted because
I couldn't add anything to my earlier comments without being wordy and
boring.

Then Tim Connor almost expressed my position perfectly by saying:

>Sexual pleasure is
>hard-wired; the meaning of sexual pleasure is not.

I'd put it
"Sexual sensations are hard-wired; the meaning of sexual sensations is
not."

If Jim finds that acceptable, then his position and mine are
reconcilable...? (Or is there some important subtlety that this brief
formulation elides?)

******

Jim's posting this evening
<snip>
> And, you see, I cannot object to some kind of associationism - though
>I would not use a Pavlovian model. I would try to develop notions of
>associationism that involve the hierarchical arrangements of constructs
>-- two-poled judgment scales.
>I need a theory that allows for fantasy and metaphor. I find ideas which
>suggest a stimulus response bonding to be relatively useless inexplaining
fantasy and
>metaphor -- but, that is another whole story...
raises another interesting aspect. I likewise don't feel comfortable with
S-R bonds; but isn't a revisiting of Tolman and S-S bonds just what we
need? "A knowledge of what leads to what", in fact!

Cheers,

Devi Jankowicz

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