WELCOME TO A SELF-GUIDED TUTORIAL

IN BIOGENETIC STRUCTURALISM

Welcome to a new feature of this homepage. This is the introductory session to a self-guided tutorial in biogenetic structural theory, an exploration of a perspective that integrates the anthropology of human culture with the study of the human brain. If you have already read this introduction, perhaps you may wish to click your way straight on to the tutorial index .

Biogenetic structuralism is a body of theory that some colleagues of mine and I have developed over the past 20-plus years. It is a perspective that integrates anthropology, human evolution, phenomenology and neuroscience. Because some of its fundamental tenets and conclusions are controversial, biogenetic structuralism is not easy to understand.

So I have decided to develop this self-guided tutorial to aid those who wish to: (1) have an introduction to the concepts and theories of biogenetic structuralism, (2) flesh out the weak spots in their understanding, (3) connect the principles of biogenetic structuralism to actual implications, and (4) learn how to carry out a biogenetic structural analysis of certain types of phenomena.

Perhaps it would be well for you to read over a short synopsis of biogenetic structuralism before you go any farther. When you have finished that, then come back to this page and we will continue on from here.

Good, now if you have read the synopsis of biogenetic structuralism, or have skipped over that bit, let me suggest to you some of the things you may hope to get out of this tutorial. Keep in mind that building this tutorial will be an on-going process, so you may want to check back from time to time to see what has been changed or added. Any substantial changes I make I will note on the index to the tutorial. If you have any questions you want to ask me, send me an e-mail from the "Send Charlie a Message" selection on the homepage index.

Some of the questions and issues you may expect to encounter during the course of the tutorial are:

* The basic concepts and tenets of biogenetic structuralism.
* What is it like, and what difference does it make to know oneself as a conscious brain?
* How do the genes influence our consciousness and our culture?
* What is neurophenomenology, and how can you do it?
* To what extent are we able to relate attributes of our own consciousness to properties and processes of our brains?
* What are some of the essential properties of conscious experience?
* What does biogenetic structuralism have to say about the nature of truth?
* Why are space exploration and colonization inevitable?
* What will the consciousness and culture of the next evolutionary stage of Homo be like?
* What is a cyborg and why is the evolution of cyborg consciousness inevitable?
* Why do all cultures have rituals, and how do rituals work to modify our consciousness?
* Why is mind-body dualism in Western thinking so debilitating to a modern science of human consciousness and culture?
* What is wrong with "postmodernism?"
* How is it we can intuit the unity of all things and still feel separate, and even alienated from the rest of the world?
* Is it possible that we can communicate directly from our conscious brain to the quantum universe, and cause things to happen at a distance?
* How does biogenetic structuralism relate to the archetypal psychology of Carl Jung?
* What can we learn about the structure of brain and consciousness from William James' radical empiricism?

If any of these questions are of interest to you, then you may find some benefit in exploring this tutorial. Many of these questions have motivated my involvement in generating biogenetic structuralism.

Perhaps you would be interested in reading a brief history of my own participation in creating this perspective. After you read that, return here and carry on. Now that I have suggested some of the questions that biogenetic structuralism addresses you may now wish to carry on to the general index for the tutorial. Or you may wish to return to the general biogenetic structural page.