Man’s first attempts at making his own decisions are called divination. Examples are the studying of omens, watching the stars, throwing and studying sticks and bones (sortilege), ‘reading’ animals’ intestines, etcetera. These are all methods that project the will of the gods, who were still thought to exist, into the external world. So decision making was in this phase a process that took place in the world, not in the mind.
Artikelen van Erik Weijers — Summary
I love this. Decision making in the world, not in the mind. And although as it is described here, this transitional phase in man’s cognition is behind us, in many other ways it of course isn’t.
The origin of consciousness described here also jibes in many ways with what I’ve been reading in Metaphors We Live By.
