Grandpa, how can I remember all the things I ought to do?

Both my grandfathers died before I was born.


One died 2 days before I was born, and my mother was convinced that's what brought on her labor.

My other grandfather died when he was hit by a car while he was trying to direct traffic around a dead mule (it had been alive until he hit it with his truck)

I can still remember being a little girl and asking how my grandfathers had died....

"He got hit by a car while directing traffic around a dead mule."

What a way to go.

Re: Grandpa, how can I remember all the things I ought to do


The answer is the same for both. The answer is, no. Additionally, your so called moral container also includes the moral balance sheet. The sheet should be kept outside the box since you have to make notations as you toss things into the box...perhaps that's what I find to be wrong with this container of yours.





I envy you Chai... my grandfathers died in more traditional ways. One was dead before I was born-and never discussed (gee what a surprise), the other died when I was 11 after massive weight loss and a heart attack. He died in France, and somewhere around here I still have the sympathy letter sent by Abel Green to the family. We never had a morals or sins chat.

Life needs a boundary.

A single cell creature, such as the amoeba, is not merely alive but has the urge to stay alive. This creature knows nothing of intentionality; nevertheless such a form exists and expresses itself in the manner by which it maintains the chemical balance within its enclosing membrane.

The urge to stay alive exists in most living organisms. This urge is not a modern phenomenon but exists in degrees throughout living creatures. Life is carried out within a boundary. Life needs a container with an interior, a boundary, and an exterior.

The internal milieu, as named by French biologist Claude Bernard, is largely characterized by stability and sameness. Internally there exists an ability to maintain the stability required by life. This internal stability necessitates some form of sensing, some form of memory, and some form of controlling activity within the container. One might compare this internal system as having, to some very small degree, the same ingredients as does a neural network like a brain.

Container schema (a structured framework or plan)perceptual and conceptual in nature. As such, they provide a bridge between language and reasoning on the one hand and vision on the other."

Categories are containersContainer as fundamental to logicContainer as an essential element of our world view

Is there a demarcation boundary between instinct and reason? Is there a demarcation boundary between anything between here and the Big Bang? Is demarcation boundary a part of nature or is it a necessity of human comprehension? Is category a fact of nature or is category a necessity of human comprehension? Is anything different in kind from anything else? Is everything different only in degree from everything else?

I conclude that demarcation boundary is not an essential characteristic of nature but is an essential characteristic of human comprehension. Everything is a seamless flow from the Big Bang to now. Only in our mind do we have a difference in kind.

Reality is a rainbow but we humans perceive reality as a myriad of containers! We perceive reality as containers because our "gut" tells us so and because classical metaphysics tells us so. Reality without demarcation boundaries means that everything is a seamless reality from everything else. It means that everything is not a kind of thing with its own necessary and sufficient nature but that all reality runs together and it is only in our minds that these containers exist.

This is kind of a synthesis of ideas contained in "The Feeling of What Happens" by Antonio Damasio and "Where Mathematics Comes From" by Lakoff and Nunez.

That did even less to sell the container idea to me.

I wonder if you are paying attention.

Yes, I was. Fact remains, I don't particularly care for the container idea. The day I have to place my morals into a container of any sort and make a spread sheet of my good and bad deeds is the day that they might as well call in the undertaker. These are things which I should be able to handle on a regular (daily) basis without having to stop and think about them. Your idea might be good as a training tool for a small child; but, for me as an adult, it seems more an annoyance than a help.

Well, Sturgis, he did say...

"... you will remember many of these things that you ought to do automatically without even trying. Our brains are always organizing our experiences into what we might think of as containers. Just as you keep your marbles in one container and your socks in another container your brain automatically, without your conscious effort, organizes things into containers. "

I think it does become automatic based on experiences. What I find interesting is when the brains of children from the same family still have such different "experiences" as to organize their morality in wildly different ways. My own family of nine children is a good example, and we all grew up with several sets of grandparents / great-grandparents teaching us.

I think that it is because of the varied experiences we all have is the reason that issues like morality have so very many concepts interwoven.

Cognitive science examines our linguistic metaphors as a means to examine what our unconscious has put together in these containers.

Examine these metaphors for morality:
I owe him for what he did.
I am in your debt.
You have paid your debt to society.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
You must turn the other cheek.
The situation is rotten.
Something rotten in Denmark.
He got his just deserts.
He got what he deserves
The more you work the more you get.
We share the burden equally.
Don't go wobbly.
He is an upstanding citizen.
She's on the up and up.
That was a low thing to do.
You must keep your balance.
He has moral fiber.
I felt floods of emotion.
You must stand up to evil.
You must have courage.
Children have a right.
You have a duty.
There is a right way and a wrong way.
There are limits
He has a heart of gold.

All of these just give you an idea of our ever day activity and how those activities build up our sense of morality. This build up happens unconsciously. We do not know what is in that container until we make an effort to examine it.