The three chambers of the mind.

I'm listening to my iPod at work and Canto 9 of the Faerie Queene has just come on in which "Guyon and prince Arthur are bent on rescuing Alma, the soul, who is beset by the vices and passions which dwell in her body. In her mind lie three great chambers belonging to Imagination, Judgement and Memory." It reminded me of one of the first leftist mantras I heard back in the '60's as applied to education. Regurgitate was the magic word. Children shouldn't be required to 'mindlessly' remember mere facts. They should be taught to learn for themselves. At the time I was dubious about this strange idea, but thought it was plausible. Now I think of it as the first attack the educational revisionists made against true learning. Memory is important for so many things. Multiplication tables, Latin declensions, dates in history, geographical facts, were all strongly emphasized at the time I entered the school system. The nice thing about a good memory is that it's so portable. You've always got it handy. But by the time I was about ready to become part of the educational establishment myself all that had changed. We were told by the edpsych profs that learning of mere facts stifled the imagination.
More recently the magic word has been 'judgemental.' This is a very bad thing, we are told. It leads to prejudice and injustice. But I noticed early on that the ones who condemned 'judgementalism' the loudest tended to be the most judgemental people I knew. I came to realize that what it really meant was that they wanted their opinions to be immune from criticism no matter how illogical or lacking in evidence. One only has to read the Daily Cos or the Huffington Post to see what I mean. The most salient characteristic of that particular readership seems to be an overwhelming hatred of anyone who contradicts the pieties they hold dear. Not only are holders of opposing views wrong, they are infidels.
Imagination is first on Spenser's list and if you ever leaf through some of the periodicals devoted to the art establishment you will notice that these artists have virtually zero imagination. I always wonder, "Whatever gave these people the idea of taking up art?" Every single one of them seems to be doing his best to produce the most trivial banalities. The more trivial the better, and you'd better not be judgemental otherwise it proves you to be an ignorant philistine. Art is what they say it is, asshole.
Imagination, judgement and memory. Those were the components of Mind, in Spensers way of thinking. Our contemporary scientists say that there is really no such thing as Mind. There are just brain cells and neurons.