Trying out cognitive practices

 In her book The Wandering Mind, Dr. Jamie Kreiner tells of High of St. Victor’s Little Book about Constructing Noah’s Ark.

The Little Book was written between 1125 and 1130. The ark is a metaphor for a sheltered place of study, so it’s an account of how to build a monastery or a place of meditation. Hugh worked on the idea until it became more of a blueprint than an idea. He could reconstruct it — this outline of his faith and his creative workshop — from memory. Kreiner calls it a “virtuosic performance of mnemonic and meditational techniques.”

I think Kreiner’s book is important because I think cognitive habits and practices are important. I think that “artificial intelligence” is an unfortunate phrase. I think “intelligence” is biological, a feature of living beings. I also think that using the term to describe computer models creates the kind of self-inflicted philosophical problems that Wittgenstein lamented.

I’m glad that scholars are talking about our own cognitive practices. I wish I could take Dr. Kreiner’s freshman course at the University of Georgia. Here’s here description:

 

I teach a class for freshmen in which we try out different medieval cognitive practices to help students tackle their first year of college. Their favorite exercise, by far, is meditation in the mode of Hugh’s Little Book. They pick a concept from one of their classes that they think is worth exploring — a little piece of organic chemistry, say, or coding or poetry — and they set up an imaginary construction site for it. To start building, they have to start associating, asking themselves how that one piece relates to other pieces, whether the connection is strong or weak, whether there’s more to analyze and build. All that work basically amounts to high-level studying, but rather than being boring or intimidating, it’s adventurous and immersive. It’s also highly memorable — as students appreciate on exam days.

 

• Source: Jamie Kreiner, The Wandering Mind; New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 2023, pp. 161-2.