Jennifer McBride
EN 721-Dr. Williamson
Once again I have read a text that brings about more
questions than answers, but such is the world of academia. By reading this book, Kagan, “hope[s]
readers will gain a richer understanding of the unstable relation between the
meanings of propositions in the literature on human behavior and the invisible
events each imagines to be their true source”
(31). This book is based on the
premise that facts are not as stable, dependable, and as useful as we once
thought them to be. There are numerous
issues in which fact alone cannot assist us.
It is then that we must call upon the consciousness for assistance. Kagan argues that, “data, presuppositions, and
logic mix in a mysterious way to influence the values of a person or a
community” (31). I particularly liked his inclusion of a
statement by Morton White: “‘Sentiment is not enough, logic is not enough, and
experience is not enough, if we wish to know and to know what to do. Each should be given its due by the
intelligent man as he tests his stock of beliefs and actions’ (1972, p.310)” (31). My question
then…Are we really talking about conscience rather than consciousness?
The book itself is a compilation of Kagan’s essays
divided into four parts and then consequently subdivided into nine
chapters. I focus on some chapters more
than others for reasons of interest as well as my level of understanding. I include numerous direct quotes to more
clearly convey his ideas as well as page numbers to point readers to specific
areas of interest.
Chapter
One—Meaning and Procedure: Words have both a sense
meaning and a referent meaning. Word
sense “is the thought is expresses” (Frege) and “the referential meaning is
contained in the events to which the word points” (36). Since this is not
always the same given different circumstances, the meaning of the word
changes. Because of this Kagan declares
the importance of considering broader implications for the meanings of words
when doing any type of experimenting or testing.
Chapter
Two—Twentieth-Century Trends in Developmental Psychology: According to Kagan, in the late nineteenth century
Darwinism and an increasing concern with a child’s character/talent were the
driving forces behind “developmental inquiry”
(69). As a result Behaviorism
became more popular. Later the study of
cognitive development replaced interests in the social science field. Currently, social scientists are
concentrating on four major issues: “(1) perception and attachment processes in
the infant and the older child, (2) cognitive functions, (3) peer-group
relations, [and] (4) morality” (95).
Chapter
Three—The Idea of Temperamental Types: Kagan calls for a
multi-faceted view of the idea of temperament where we take into consideration
not only the biological factors but also all “of the experiences to which the
changing temperamental surfaces have accommodated” (12). He compares the
understanding of temperament from the 17th and 18th
centuries to the current idea mentioned above.
He says that society needs to “invent a new set of constructs for
temperamental categories in which biological, psychological, and contextual
features are combined” (142).
Chapter
Four—Inhibited and Uninhibited Children: Kagan
supplies the following reasons for studying whether or not a child has
inhibitions: that social class has no bearing on this temperament, situations
where this temperament is displayed occur frequently, and “almost every
commentator on human nature, from Hippocrates to modern personologists, has
noted these two contrasting characteristics.”
Furthermore, this temperament appears to be “among the most stable and
heritable in contemporary psychology (Conley, 1985; Floderus-Myrhed, Pedersen,
and Rasmusen 1980; Loehlin, 1982; Plomin, 1986)” (143). Therefore, the
implication is that the question of the possession of inhibitions is easier to
study than other less stable ones.
Chapter
Five—On Cognitive Development: Kagan insists that social
scientists need become more specific and better contextualize the terms that
they use in relation to studying cognitive processes. He gives the example that “Terms like memory and perception
should be replaced with phrases like recognition memory for the shapes of
objects or the perception of motion”
(14).
Chapter
Six—Creativity in Science: In this short chapter, Kagan
defines several meanings of creativity but specifies that “products that
generate a specific cognitive and emotional response in an audience…” is the
definition that he will be working from in this case (206). This does not seem
to follow his line of thinking that words are “unstable” however clarifying the
specific definition that he is working from is understandable in this case as
he lays out the following stipulations that must occur to constitute “a
creative product”: “special talent in a domain, the motivation to be creative,
which is influenced by childhood experiences, and finally, chance events that
permit the talent and the desire to be actualized” (207). If I understand
Kagan correctly, the connection here is that creativity is not a stable idea
(like the others mentioned in the title) either and many pieces must fall into
place before one is recognized as creative.
Part
Four: Self
Chapter
Seven—The Emergence of Self-Awareness: Kagan
presents research from a project where he studied the idea of self-awareness in
a total of 30 children. Around the age
of 2, the children began to show signs such as, “the ability to appreciate the
psychological state of another” and “the occurrence of a smile after the child
has attained a goal through effort”—Kagan specifies that this smile is
“private” rather than “social”
(230). He attempts to redefine
self-awareness as “‘the capacity to hold cognitive representations on the stage
of active memory’” (237).
Chapter
Eight—Measuring the Concept of Self: Kagan
describes three different research efforts to understand the concept of
Self. He laments of the plausibility of
studies of self-concept claiming that at best, “each datum adds a little
knowledge to the family of processes implied by this term” (260).
He wants scientists to take a more qualitative approach to the research
rather than focusing solely on quantitative results.
Chapter
Nine—Self-Consciousness: A Dialogue Without Answers: Presents Kagan’s questions pertaining to self and consciousness
in a conversation between an older female tutor and her student, who is a
philosopher. The Dialogue is long and
convoluted much like Plato’s The Phaedrus.
Two
Quotes that seem to summarize his ideas:
“Facts
prune the tree of morality; they cannot be the seedbed” (29).
“Consciousness can be likened to the staff of a fire department. Most of the time, it is quietly playing pinochle in the back room; it performs when the alarm sounds” (18-19).