According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge and 'realized' they were naked. God asked:"Who told you were naked?" indicating that he immediately realized that man too could now REALIZE. This is to say, man could now 'make real' that which was 'actual'. This meant that man could now 'conceive'. This revealed that man now was capable of 'intellectual mentation'. He could now interpret and translate actual experience into conceptual experience or conceptual models which corresponded to or represented that experience. God realized that man had eaten from the Tree of False Knowledge, as he so put it, which means he had imbibed or inculcated "false knowledge" or "intellectual-type knowledge. This we now call 'understanding'.
According to the biblical myth, God 'knows' that this type of knowledge is not 'true knowledge'. True knowledge is actual and generated from direct experience. It is initially comprised of 'sensational phenomena'. Intellectual-type knowledge is conceptual and not sensational. It is a secondary form born of experience or learned from another. In that sense, it is not true knowledge and is therefore called 'false knowledge'.
A better term for intellectual knowledge (note qualifier "intellectual") is 'understanding'. Logos or intellect 'understands'. Logos performs the function of understanding. Only Analogos 'knows'. Only Analogos performs the function of cognition or 'knowing'. The knowing and subsequent 'knowledge' of Analogos might be called 'true knowledge' in contrast to the understanding or "intellectual knowledge" of Logos. The understandings of Logos are necessarily beliefs and opinions, no matter how strongly or weakly held.
These distinctions are of fundamental importance in our understanding of brain-mind. For they represent the phenomena of our two judgmental systems which together produce ALL of the phenomena of 'mind'. Furthermore, the phenomena from these two separate but related 'judgmental systems' produce what is in essence two separate worlds, two domains of experience. Thus I like to say that man is a creature of dual psychic nature, having two simultaneously operating judgmental systems using separate languages. Each presents its judgments in its own language.
A distinction can be made between these languages that is extremely useful in understanding the nature of Brain-Mind phenomena. The languages can be conceived of as immiscible. That is, they cannot meld into one another. They cannot dissolve or blend into one another because of their modal characteristics. This is because the language of ANALOGOS is 'sensation' which is an oscillatory dynamic phenomenon with duration and amplitude. Sensations represent instantaneously summated judgments or language statements. These are continually upgraded, ongoing, in real-time some would say. On the other hand, the language of LOGOS is 'conception' or 'symbolic' which is more static and rigid, especially when 'pictorial concepts' are created. Verbal concepts, called explanations, are more obviously linear, sequential and ratiocinative.
Initially, primarily and fundamentally, there are only sensational phenomena. When one desires to understand these phenomena, one must utilize the Logos system of mentation to analyze the sensational phenomena. This requires an interpretation and translation from the language of Analogos to the language of Logos.
One begins to analyze by making distinctions regarding these phenomena. The most primary distinction, which we above called 'knowledge', spontaneously produces the inescapable phenomena called BEING. BEING AND KNOWLEDGE are born simultaneously. They are but two sides of the same coin. To know requires 'somebeing to know'. To BE requires the judgment of Analogos and the experience or 'knowledge' of that be-ing. 'Knowledge' and 'being' are two faces of the same phenomena. They are born together like Siamese Twins. Their separation would result in their extinguishment.
On the other hand, being and knowledge, when interpreted and translated into the language of Logos, are then called 'existence and understanding'. They too are conceived and born together. They too attain ontological status in the universe simultaneously. They too are two faces of the same phenomenon. Beings in the world of Actuality are interpreted and translated as 'theings' in the Real world. Theings, I suggest, evolved into the term 'things', the modern term which we all recognize. (Theism is an old holdover)
Thus our two judgmental systems yield two different worlds. These worlds are 'ontoic-epistemoic' systems. (Analogos is the 'ontic-epistemic' system and Logos is the'ontological-epistemological system) . They create the 'actual and real worlds'. Analogos creates 'being & knowledge' in contrast to the existence & understanding of Logos.
It is the correlation and correspondence of the judgments of these two systems that determines whether our final judgments are sound, accurate and useful. If our concepts are accurate models of the actual phenomenon, then the model can be said to be 'correct' and to 'correspond' to the actual. If the concept is a poor representation (re-presentation) of the actual, the subsequent understanding created by that model is poor, is not accurate or correct, is not correspondent. It would therefore be less useful in general, especially if applied to the material world.
Language is a living and dynamic thing. As time passes, language changes. Words lose their meanings and become associated with new or even different senses and meanings. The term 'sin' and the concept of 'sin' are a good examples. The term 'sin' can be used as a label or name, a noun referring to some entity in the world, or a verb, more correctly called 'to sin' or 'sinning'.
It is my opinion that the ancient term 'sin' (a letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, among other things) is a 'name' or 'label' which also referred to intellect. Man was born with 'sin' means man is born with intellect. Intellect is simply the more modern term for what was once referred to as sin. A child born with 'sin' does not mean born with the stain of some wrongdoing. That is silly. It means being born with something which inherently predisposes to bad, wrong or evil action. And what else can 'conceive' or 'preconceive' or 'premeditate' other than intellect? The absence of a functional or developed intellect is what makes children, dogs and animals so innocent. They simply lack the ability to scheme and lie! What makes them closer to 'God' is that they are overwhelmingly or purely Analogos.
Sin, I believe, derives from sinestra or the Latin and Spanish term for left. Moses was the only one of the Jews to be educated by the Egyptians. Furthermore, I believe the Egyptians had developed a concept of man's dual psychic nature. They believed that a man could see the world with one of two different visions or eyes, one above the other. I propose that they understood something of our mental duality and its implications. Moses was thus in a position to realize this and understand its implications. He realized that, by virtue of being born with intellect or sin, that man had certain attributes and characteristics which were not found in the other animals and which stood us apart from them. He also realized that this instrument of conceptual thought gave man the ability to manipulate the world and to have dominion over it and the animals. But, at the same time, he realized that it was intellect, cephalization and intellectualization which resulted in civilization. And it was civilization by means of which we lose our human freedom and become enslaved. He realized that the Jews where enslaved by the Egyptian civilization, not slaves in the modern sense of the word wherein one is subjugated against his will by brute force and driven to labor for another. No! It is the laws, rules and regulations that cause one to give up his freedom in order to enjoy the benefits of civilization that are the forces behind slavery. We become enslaved by cephalization (intellectualization) and its subsequent civilization. This is why all governments become increasingly suppressive and restrictive. They are conceptual entities born of intellect mandated to provide safety and to maintain order and control. And how they grow in size and power with time, ultimately enslaving and boggling the even the invisible hand of God!
The answer to the problem was implicit in the realization; the promised land was the wilderness! This is where Moses led them directly. And this is where is kept them until the very day of his death. Immediately upon his death, the Jewish people ran across the river Jordan and to the first city they saw. They are a "stiff-necked" people, subject to idolatry and the expedient worshipping false gods. The false god of the Jews was and is INTELLECT. Although this is now true of all civilized people of the modern world, Jews especially have worshipped intellect through millenia and still do. Being intellectually bright and being intellectually educated are the two most important things to any Jewish mother regarding her children! Because they have learned that, however false the pseudoknowledge or the understanding, it is very useful for survival! And the primary law is survival. Intellect is a survival instrument, man's tiger's tooth.
Why is intellectual knowledge or false knowledge, although very useful, dangerous? It is because intellectual judgments are inherently clever, expedient, and amoral and offer only short-term solutions to long term problems. The long-term effects of intellectual judgments and any subsequent actions based on them seem to inevitably come back upon us with results which are highly undesirable. They return as 'unforseen consequences'. The knowledge of virology which led to the creation of the Salk Vaccine to prevent Polio, also leads to the development of viral warfare! And there you have it. Pesticides which yield fat juicy red tomatoes evidentually end up toxins in our streams and lakes and in our bones. For every reaction, there as a counteraction. Often the short term benefits of intellectual action results in a very long-term damaging backlash. It is simply the nature of intellect and its inability to make long-term judgments. Its capacity to understand and handle all the forces at play in even the most simple act is exceedingly limited. It may preconceive, but poorly. "The best laid plans of mice and men...."
We best be at least wary of intellect. Intellect is an inherent part of human nature and none would be willing to extirpate it. Intellect, as an additional judgmental system, gives man advantages which no other creature in the world has. It is a superb servant, but a woeful master. We must be aware of the growing dominance of intellect and intellectual judgments in our individual and collective lives. We are at the brink of being enslaved on a very wide, if not world-wide scale, by the intellectual machinations of fools who seek world peace throught world government. This translates very clearly into world slavery! It will be accomplished for the seemingly good and desirable purpose of peace, peace, peace! Man will then learn that the long-term ravages of peace may be a poor substitute for the short-term ravages of war! Only through war will men remain free.
A. Iosue
table of contents