Todd, I've had to think about your last two posts for a while. Written words are the most difficult medium with which to bridge belief catagories. Trying to imagine what the other person sees from their belief system is required - but it takes some time to acquaint one's mind with the new terrain. Even then I'm sure I will make some wrong assumptions.

Of course, cog-sci seems unabashedly cognicentic which makes it doubly difficult for me as I have immersed myself in the possibilities of my alternative emotive-centric view for the last few months. I think that's the only way to explore a new area fruitfully. You have to be actively looking for connections. That makes one a partisan, of course. But, knowing myself for almost 64 years now, I'm comfortable that I can dissuade myself if negative evidence starts to appear. For now, it's an exciting unexplored region for me and I've always enjoyed the exploration of plausible ideas that violated the CW, especially when they were my own.

I also have a liberal mindset about ideas - in that I accept that ideas can be partially true and even that opposite ideas can apply to the same reality. I see ideas (cognition) as an evolved mental process designed for purposes other than exploring the operation of our own brains - and that requires a certain modestly when dealing with brain science. So, while I may champion (the possibilities of) my emotive-centric view I certainly don't claim that they represent some objective reality - just an interesting possibility that might offer some value.

Your description of the cog-sci notion that emotions can modulate cognition by causing choice in cognitive strategy is interesting. It seems to me such an obvious question and such a short leap - to wondering if emotion does not cause cognition to start with - along with directing the strategy. Perhaps, it's my physics background that makes me look for a force for any reaction - but what else could possibly be the force that causes us to think - or to think about one thing in a particular context? What else but the emotions of our body state, refined in mammals over 65 million years to direct our behavior choices, long before intellect had appeared? Is not cognition itself a behavior?

Thanks for the high quality cognition.

Margaret

PS - I'm sure my less-than-precise use of some scientfic terms is probably maddening to you and other trained scientist types (like Carey and JB). I appreciate your patience and efforts to understand and respond to my actual meaning - and I welcome any corrections.