Another stage in development is cognitive thinking. The cerebral cortex develops last, and continues to develop for years after birth. That is why we can do calculus as teenagers but usually not as toddlers.
The cerebral cortex is the repository of reason and intellect. It is the last area to develop in the growing child, with many higher cortical functions only beginning to appear late in childhood. Comprising the outer portion of the brain, it is also the last area of the brain to have developed throughout the evolution of species. In this sense, human intellectual functions reflect a “higher” state of development. Rational processes include executive function, planning, mental flexibility, working memory, response inhibition, recognition of memory and sustained attention, as well as the more specific thought processes of honesty, curiosity, imagination, skepticism, inquisitiveness, introspection, counterfactual thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, abstract thinking, and symbolic thinking.
Many people say that the human capacity for thought is what most distinguishes us from other species. The rational mind allowed us to develop a complex symbolic language and as humans acquired the skills of science, radio, television and computer technology emerged. Our marvelous cerebral cortex helped us create the machinery to produce a plethora of manufactured products and a complex system to transport them all over the planet. It is the foundation for our various systems of government, by which people seek to gain purposeful and rational control over vast networks of business, industry and finance, whose complexity challenges our ability to govern them. It allows us to see order amid complexity, while creatures of other species cannot begin to appreciate either the order or the complexity. Our architecture, our science, our arts and our histories are products of our human intellect.
Still, the intellect alone cannot give meaning to our lives. It can tell us how to achieve our goals — how to move from one state of affairs to another — by assessing the probable consequences of various courses of action, but alone it cannot tell us what those goals should be. It can tell us the direction we can, may or must travel to realize our ends, but without the emotional mind to value those ends, and process experience, it is lost, and without our activity the rational mind has no empirical basis for evaluating its beliefs, which would only remain hypotheses; not to mention that without the ability to act, mere knowledge would be a comparatively sterile tool. The intellectual mind can rationally assess competing values based on a more-or-less fixed scheme of value comparisons. Yet no matter how many layers of rational analysis we fold back, the question of meaning — the province of the limbic system and midbrain, mainly — will always raise a more fundamental question, a question nearer to the core of our Being and the divine.
Real
True Narratives
We can find a particularly fascinating part of the story of human cognition in art work that is still visible in ancient caves. Without a word, primitive peoples told us how they thought and expressed their ideas.
- David Lewis-Williams, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (Thames & Hudson, 2002).
- Randall White, Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind (Henry N. Abrams, 2003).
- Paul G. Bahn, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
- David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods (Thames & Hudson, 2005).
- Jean Clottes, Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times (University of Utah Press, 2003).
- Jean Clottes, Return to Chauvet Cave (Thames & Hudson, 2003).
- Ian Hodder, The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Catalhoyuk (Thames & Hudson, 2006).
- Pedro A. Saura Ramos, The Cave of Altamira (Henry N. Abrams, 1999).
- Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin, Cave Beneath the Sea (Henry N. Abrams, 1996).
- Bruno David, Cave Art (Thames & Hudson, 2017).
- Jean Clottes, What is Paleolithic Art: Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity (University of Chicago Press, 2016).
- David S. Whitley, Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief (Prometheus, 2009).
- Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire, Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave (Henry N. Abrams, 1996
- Paul G. Bahn, Journey Through the Ice Age (University of California Press, 1997).
- Paul Bahn, Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe (Frances Lincoln, 2007).
- Kirkpatrick Sale, After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination (Duke University Press, 2006).
Reviewing White's book, Ian Tattersall, curator of physical anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York city, concludes: "Deep down, human beings haven't changed one whit since prehistoric times." We have always been thinkers. What has changed most in the past several millennia is that we now have the resources to think in more sophisticated ways.
Technical and Analytical Readings
In the "modern" world, people have been inclined to pit the intellect against the emotions. This way of looking at ourselves will never produce a fully realized way of looking at ourselves or a fully integrated spirituality, but on the contrary will interfere with them both. Only by seeing the intellect, like the emotions, as an indispensable role player in human development can we see it in its proper light. A comparative reading of the following works also tells the story of the ongoing debate over the nature of human cognition.
- Merlin Donald, A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness (W. W. Norton & Co., 2001).
- Merlin Donald, Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition (Harvard University Press, 1991).
- Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Viking Adult, 2002).
- Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1998).
- Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 1994).
- Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (Random House, 1977).
- John Skoyles and Dorian Sagan, Up from Dragons: The Evolution of Human Intelligence (McGraw-Hill, 2002).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams, documenting Chauvet Cave, where a primitive people gave the world some of its earliest known art
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
The subject matter here is not the quality of thought but thought itself.
Josquin des Préz (ca. 1450-1455 - 1521) “wedded the logic of math to the magic of melody, and his compositions feel like they unfold with both perfect clarity and atmospheric strangeness.” In so doing, he revolutionized music, and whether intentionally or not, reflected the functions of the brain itself in music. “Josquin made extensive use of ‘motivic cells’ in his compositions, short, easily-recognizable melodic fragments which passed from voice to voice in a contrapuntal texture, giving it an inner unity.” “He employed interlocking sections of imitation, creating a flexible ground plane capable of great variety. Each new phrase of text often began with a fresh round of imitative entries, allowing him to shape phrases into larger units. Josquin's style wasn't limited to a single texture. He skillfully alternated between imitative polyphony and more homophonic, chordal textures.” Taken together, these contributions to music mimic the brain’s operations as they are performed throughout the brain, one discrete operation in tandem with many others. There is a caveat: “During the Renaissance, his crystalline choral works led him to be celebrated as the Michelangelo of music. But many works attributed to him may be those of gifted contemporaries.” Still, the music speaks for itself. In addition to 18 masses, others of his works are represented on disc:
- Musica Reservata, “Josquin des Prés” (1976) (43’)
- Orlando Consort, “Motets” (1999) (71’)
- Hilliard Ensemble, “Motets & Chansons” (51’)
- Dulces Exuviae, et. al., “Adieu Mes Amours” (2019) (63’)
- Ensemble Clément Janequin, “Septiesme livre de chansons” (2021) (61’)
- The Nonesuch Consort, “Chansons Frottole & Instrumental Pieces” (35’)
Stepping ahead a century or so, we encounter the music of William Byrd, (1540-1623), who advanced the processes reflected in the music of des Prez and many other composers. “He lived long enough to incorporate a wide range of styles in his music -- and he knew how to stay alive, while sticking discreetly to his Catholic faith, during the reign of the Tudors, who brought in the Protestant Reformation.” “His genius (was) to transfer . . . his ideas from the brain to the page, and to the keyboard, without spoiling their freshness in the process.” “Perhaps his most impressive achievement as a composer was his ability to transform so many of the main musical forms of his day and stamp them with his own identity.” In so doing, he transformed music into more complex structures, mimicking the brain’s activities in bringing together functions that occur throughout the brain. In addition to being a composer: “There is something powerfully direct in his economical word-painting, and it is always restrained by its context . . .” Chelys Consort of Viols (Charlston) recorded a gorgeous album of his vocal works [“The Honour of William Byrd” (2023) (75’)]. His vocal works include:
- Psalmes, Sonnets & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie (1588) (157’)
- Psalmes, Sonnets & Songs (1588) (selections) (65’)
- Songs of sundrie natures (1589) (123’)
- Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets (1611) (90’)
- Infelix Ego (1591) (approx. 14’)
Several compositions mimic the neurological functions of the brain in a Spock-like way that evokes the process of thinking:
- Morton Feldman, Palais de Mari (1986) (approx. 22-30’). Feldman compared this work to a Mark Rothko painting: “One of the most interesting things about a beautiful old rug in natural vegetable dyes is that it has abrash. Abrash means that you dye in small quantities. You cannot dye in big bulks of wool. So it’s the same, but yet it’s not the same. It has a kind of microtonal hue. So when you look at it, it has a kind of marvellous shimmer which [results from] that slight gradation.” “. . . slowly broken chords spell out the core harmony; though other pitches are gradually added, the opening tones are never completely displaced.”
- Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories (1981) (approx. 60-95’) (recordings): can be heard as a quiet brain, in that this “26-page piano piece takes an hour and a half, while never rising above pianissimo . . .” Cage wrote: “As a composer I am involved with the contradiction in not having the sum of parts equal to the whole. The scale of what is actually being represented, whether it be of the whole or of the part, is a phenomenon unto itself.”
- Hans Otte, Das Buch der Klänge (The Book of Sounds), (1979–1982) (approx. 70-93’). Otte writes that the work “rediscovers the listener as a partner of sound and silence, who in the quest for his world, wishes for once to be totally at one with sound. It rediscovers the piano as an instrument of timbre and tuneful sound with all its possibilities of dynamics, colour and resonance. (It) rediscovers playing as the possibility of experiencing oneself in sound, of becoming at one in time and space with all the sounds around one. It rediscovers a world of consonant experience which could only now be written because of a totally changed consciousness of sounds on earth.” He dedicated the work “to all those who want to draw close to sound, so that, in the search for the sound of sound, for the secret of life, one’s own resonance is discovered.”
- Simeon ten Holt, “Canto Ostinato” (1979) (scroll down for a list of recordings), linked here in a 249-minute performance, a 204-minute performance, a 180-minute performance, a 165-minute performance, and a 99-minute performance. “The first work of his final compositional period, it advocates indeterminacy in performance, leaving performers to decide on dynamics, articulation, pedalling, instrumentation, and the number of repetitions of most of its 106 sections.” “. . . repetition as a musical tool becomes a way to turn time into space. . . a repetition of a certain frequency, can evoke a certain psychological state . . . A state that leaves no room for thoughts or one that brings along new thoughts. One could say that a special element concerning this composition is that the performer can be seen as an extra musical parameter.” The work “has been called immersive, tranquillizing, melancholic, vivaciously, romantic and minimalistic.”
Several artists have produced albums that do essentially the same thing:
- Ben Prunty, “Into the Breach” (2018) (62’)
- Ben Prunty, “FTL: Faster Than Light” (2013) (93’)
- Kraftwerk, “The Man-Machine” (1977) (36’)
- Philip Glass, “Glassworks” (2003) (63’)
- Conlon Nancarrow, “Studies for Player Piano”, Vols. 1-4, (2008) (178’); Vol. 5 (2008) (51’)
- Ryoji Ikeda, “Dataplex” (2005) (56’)
- Ryoji Ikeda, “Matrix” (2001) (91’) “is a series of sound installations employing pure sine waves and white noises as a sculptural material.”
- Bernhard Günter, “Un Peu De Neige Salie” (A Little Soiled Snow) (1993) (73’): “Guenter's assiduous compositions favor extremely subtle variances in electro-acoustic crackle, subsonic rumble, and subliminal frequencies exploring the limits of the audible spectrum through invisible digital edits.”
- Charlemagne Palestine, “Strumming Music” (1974) (52’): “The rapid alternation between single notes and chords and different registers became a technique that he seemed to own, and it really only worked with this magic piano. 'Strumming' was the physical technique; the melodies and harmonies that resulted made the music breathe and feel alive.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Aretha Franklin, “Think” (lyrics)
- Muse, “Thought Contagion” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Rembrandt van Rijn, The Philosopher (1600s)
