OD BIKAMERALIZMU DO ŚWIADOMOŚCI: PRÓBA ARCHEOLOGII WOLNOŚCI


Abstrakt:

In this paper I shall present the problem of freedom as a phenomenon that emerged alongside the appearance of consciousness. According to Julian Jaynes (an American psychologist, author of the book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind), it took place about 1200 B.C. as a consequence of the breakdown of the so called the bicameral mind. The bicameral men (who built all the Ancient states before 1200 B. C.) did not form consciousness (although they thought and used notions) and in order to resolve problems they turned to the “voices” of idols (gods) that were in fact evolutionary products of their own minds. Contacts with people of alien cultures, who appeared strange and incomprehensible, generated in the bicameral mind the belief that inside an “odd man” there was a hidden cause of his (or her) strange behavior and customs. The bicameral mind attributed this supposed interior to his (or her) nature. The bicameral mind was replaced by the “conscious man”. Consciousness is comprehended by Jaynes as a metaphor of what is called the “real world”. It is a kind of mind space with an “analog myself” which is produced by an analogy with the physical space and the physical I. I argue that freedom becomes possible when the “analog myself” comes into contact with several relations. These are relations between the “analog myself” and some mind objects in the mind space, between “analog myself” and another “analog myself”, and also between “analog myself” and the Transcendence. The Transcendence is the most important: it is a point of reference in the chaotic space of freedom. In conclusion, I refer to the diagnoses given by several thinkers (among others: Foucault, Gehlen) and I shall ask questions about present and future conditions of freedom in our culture, with its breaking ties with Transcendence and with the consequences of more and more chaotic horizontal relations. The question is: are we aiming now for a new era of bicameralism, an era beyond freedom and slavery?