The Straight Dope is an old forum dominated by rationalists and humanists. The topic of Julian Jaynes came up.
Feel free to participate if you wish. John Mace, as usual, is the stubborn establishment type.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/sho ... p?t=764916
Straightdope on Julian Jaynes
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Re: Straightdope on Julian Jaynes
Interesting thread. A pity that I did not check earlier. I would have loved to contribute.
The lesson to be learned from the thread, of course, is that many intelligent people, with only a vague idea of what Jaynes is all about, feel confident in claiming that the theory is "not even nonsense". What is particularly troubling is the claim that it is pseudo science because there is no way to falsify, whereas in fact, at least the strong version of the theory, consciousness arising only 3000 years ago, is easily falsified. Well...
The lesson to be learned from the thread, of course, is that many intelligent people, with only a vague idea of what Jaynes is all about, feel confident in claiming that the theory is "not even nonsense". What is particularly troubling is the claim that it is pseudo science because there is no way to falsify, whereas in fact, at least the strong version of the theory, consciousness arising only 3000 years ago, is easily falsified. Well...