"A Self-Witnessing Report on Book Conservation"
By Jeffrey Tong
June 20, 1983
Introduction:
Altruism, relating to chapter 6 of Krupat, is an aspect of the automatic self, which
is the spiritual self that has freedom to choose between selfism and altruism.
Swedenborg defines altruism as putting someone else's interest first, but using
your intelligence to maintain your original goals. It relates to helping society or in
simpler terms, Altruism = good uses.
I often do research for my major so borrowing books is crucial to me. Last
summer, I remember borrowing books but didn't return them for over two weeks.
A letter came to me stating that my grades were kept until all fines were paid for
overdue books. I went down after a couple of days past, paid the fine and had my
grades processed. Since I was reluctant to return the books, it later dawned on me
that if I didn't have those books, I might not have had a good grade in the class, or
even possibly an incomplete. I guess I justified the situation because school was
over, but I forgot that graduate students may have needed the books for their
research. The fact that our society revolves around needed information, an
innocent thing such as forgetting to return two books can hinder an information
system.. I can imagine if everyone were to forget to return library materials, We'd
be in a big mess.
Procedure:
For purposes of this paper, Dr. James showed us a film on the conservation of
books at the University of Hawaii, namely Sinclair, and Hamilton libraries. To
relate this to altruism, we are to recall from past experiences, specific incidents
which the film exemplifies. Notes were gathered during the film.
Certain procedures are followed to conserve the life of books. These include
properly removing books from the shelves, placing them back on the shelves.
Books should not be bent flat, marked, or repaired by the borrower. Eating and
drinking should be kept away from books long with dirt and sun, and children
and pets. Most importantly, books should be returned on time.
Just a short film taught me a lot about caring for books (the University's property).
I never knew the proper way to pull books off the shelf. I've always pulled books
off the shelf by the binder. Common sense of nots were observed and still are. I
do however, do place books flat on the photocopy machine for reasons of saving half
the amount if I photocopied the books properly. If a place the book flat, most of the
time can get two pages on one copy This also saves a lot of time if you photocopy
reference material like I do. One thing observed while photocopying n this manner I
do not press down on the binder, nor do I use the lack out cover, which could add
pressure to the binder (located over he glass plate).
Depending on the area you live, has a lot to do with the conservation of the books.
Now, most common sense things like not leaving books y heat sun, rain, snow,
are followed. Some discretion of placement must be observed. I leave borrowed
books on my book case along with the rest of my books. I like to think that I take
care of borrowed books if they were my own. I keep them flat, and separate
them from my books as not to mistake them for my own.
Results:
When looking at the common considerations that I've discussed above, I used my
material thoughts derived from the automatic self. By taking in stimulus from the
outside, I processed and related to what I've been taught about taking care of
others property in general. Since new information and a redefinition of caring or altruism has been given, some change has been observed.
This weekend I looked up some information for another class so I observed my
behavior and monitored it. I consciously removed the books from the shelf,
remembering to push the outer books in and pulling the book I wanted from the
center of the book. All other considerations were followed except one. A conflict
arose when I went to photocopy reference material. I placed the book, as I've for years,
flat on the machine so that two pages could be photographed instead of each page, as
observed in the film. Even though this thought occurred to me, individual self or
reflective self, went on performing the task even though new information was
given in conservation of books. I do realize that the libraries considerations were
filmed for a purpose, but I justified that paying double is not necessary. Also, I
did not press down on the binder or use the black out flap so as not to press the
binder completely flat.
After photocopying, I looked through the reference again and noticed a couple of
outliner markings which attracted my eyes, which were not of importance to my
subject matter.
Discussion:
In relation of my thoughts to the Ennead Matrix, my memories were shown in the
automatic self. The automatic self gives an illusion of freedom of thought acting
as a complete self. Dr. James calls this Negative Bias. Stored memories from the
outside world are processed through material sensations to the material cognitions
which in turn are processed through material drives. Once this happens, the
automatic self reacts appropriately to the situation. The automatic self will carry
out information and make inferences , but cannot assign symbolic meaning;
which are done by the spiritual self.
Real thoughts, internal thoughts, those not derived from memory are part of the
spiritual self. These immaterial thoughts also called "collective" are thoughts
which reflect the good of everyone, synonymous to Altruism.
Thoughts of caring for a book have been redefined for me with the new
information given in the film. In explaining the spiritual world, I focused on the
conflict of the proper way to photocopy.
For the spiritual self, freedom to choose between selfism and altruism is evident
here in zone ?. This is the axiomatic self which effect behavior by converting
inner thoughts to the external thoughts. We move from a freedom environment to
a non-freedom environment.
When I thought about weather it was really bad to open the book flat when
photocopying, my internal thoughts did not find truths in the statement: "Never press
down on the binder when photocopying and to place half book over the edge,"
meaning that only one side of the page should be photographed. My spiritual drives
chose selfism, because some doubt of the truth of the statement was processed by
the spiritual cognitions. This in turn affected my behavior, thus photo copying two
sides of the page at once.
Afterthought:
I learned that although some altruisms make for a better and more considerate
society, true altruism is impossible. Choosing between selfism and altruism is a
matter of controlling the thoughts and input into the internal self. If one thinks
negatively, his external thoughts and actions will reflect that thought. Thus, if
one is to be more altruistic, thinking good thoughts of everyone will help achieve
this desire.