Serialised book (with a progressively updated >>dashboard/ToC<< page). Part II: Philosophy of the Life Instinct

Book: Philosophy of Life Instinct: Chapter 16: Learning and Education

Levers of mind power

Shashi Sastry
ILLUMINATION Book Chapters
15 min readApr 4, 2021

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Image by the author.

A seed sprouts, a baby cries for attention. They don’t need to learn how. These inclinations are in the cells, organs and bodies of life forms. We saw this in Chapter 4 (Life and the Life Instinct). From the Life Instinct, there are innate impulses for self-preservation and growth in the cosmic oddity of life.

The simpler life forms we know live, grow and reproduce purely through their inherent capabilities. A leaf senses sunlight's direction, and its cells and fibres react to turn it towards the light. Plants and the simplest animals go through life in this ‘detect and react’ way.

But life forms we consider intelligent actively learn and adapt to new conditions or control their environment. These advanced species begin learning at some point before or after birth. Learning is the creation of new memories and rules in their mind— of objects, relationships and events.

Sense data enters the brain continuously while we are awake. The brain has evolved specialised regions to encode information for immediate and…

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Shashi Sastry
ILLUMINATION Book Chapters

I am a prism, refracting the light of thought into a rainbow of content for you. Poetry, philosophy, architecture, and more. LESS STUFF, MORE VEG = A FUTURE.