Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA14490 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 18 Feb 2000 21:09:37 GMT To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 13:07:40 -0800 From: "Scott Chase" <hemidactylus@my-Deja.com> Message-ID: <EDAPJNPNHGMEOBAA@my-deja.com> X-Sent-Mail: off X-Expiredinmiddle: true X-Mailer: MailCity Service Subject: more on Piaget and a note on Semon X-Sender-Ip: 209.240.200.38 Organization: My Deja Email (http://www.my-deja.com:80) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Language: en Content-Length: 5748 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I have neither _Adaptation and Intelligence_ nor _Behavior and Evolution_ a my disposal, but the following quote from Messerly (1996) supports some of my recollection of Piaget's ideas. Messerly (p. 91) writes:
(bq) "Instinctive knowledge is important because of its close proximity with biological functioning. Piaget asserted that instinctive knowing results when environmental disequilibrium initiates a non-specific message to the genetic system. Assuming that equilibrium results at the genetic level as a response to the disequilibrium, the genetic structural change is inherited by subsequent generations. This conception of evolution does affirm that information is transmitted from the environment to the genetic pool. However, Piaget claimed that this was not Lamarckism because the habits or behaviors associated with instinctive knowing are not directly transmitted to future generations. There is no "imprint" of the environment on the organism; rather, the genome responds to disequilibrium at the phenotypic level with directed variations at the genotypic level and some of these variations are then selected by the environment. The endogenous structures of the organism react to the disequilibrium caused by the enviro
nment." (eq)
Piaget may have distanced himself from a truly Lamarckian position, yet the directed variation part does stand out in this passage.
The part about "imprints" may allow me to move to my next topic. This reminds me of the parallel versus somatic induction issue which I recall was hashed out by August Weismann. In his book _The Mneme_ Richard Semmon tackles this in relation to the engrams and how they are transmitted to future generations. Schacter (1982) discusses this and Semon's conflict with Weismann and other critics of his book. To the best of my knowledge Schacter's book is the most comprehensive history of Semon. I don't have it handy right now, but I can try to go from memory and a backup with Schacter's other book (1996). Semon was born the same year that Darwin's _Origin of Species_ was published in 1859. His interest in biology and evolution landed him at the University of Jena under his mentor, the infamous Darwinian zealot Ernst Haeckel who coined the dictum "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", also known as the biogenetic law which harkened back to the Meckel-Serres law of parallelism between ontogeny and phylogeny (for major
elaboration see Gould, 1977 and Mayr, 1994). Under Haeckel's wing Semon explored Australia in search of *Ceratodus* eggs and also some monotreme and marsupial materials. I found the following website from Australia which adds some info, but the e-mail address seems to be defunct:
http://www.nexus.edu.au/schools/kingscot/pelican/ec-re001.htm
I happened to be reading a book called _Anniote Origins_ (1997. Academic Press) recently and in one of the two chapters devoted to the evolution of the amniote egg, there's a diagram which refers to one of Semon's old works. The diagram (on page 296) is of monotreme extraembryonic membranes. I was NOT expecting to stumble across this historical treasure, so it caught me by surprise.
To make a long story short, Semon returned to Jena and wound up falling in love with a colleague's wife and they got married. This was not taken well and Semon had to vacate his position at Jena. He retreated into relative isolation and began his theorizing on the mnemic principles allying memory, habit and heredity. He coined the term "engram" and also worked out some ideas about cue dependent retrieval processes in memory. His emphasis on organic memory was not well received and possibly detracted from his better ideas on retrieval processes. His main conection to the scientific world was through August Forel who had ties with Bleuler and Jung at the Burgholzli hospital.
Schacter provides plenty of details in his two books. I can add more if anyone's interested, but I couldn't hope to improve on Schacter's scholarship. One side issue I'm hoping to chase down is Semon's relatioship with Paul Kammerer (of midwife toad fame), since Semon cited him in _The Mneme_.
I've got miscellaneous references from Carl Jung, JZ Young, and Eugen Bleuler referring to Semon. This is kinda a rough preliminary of a history which should complement John Laurent's letter in vol 3 of JOM. I could flesh it out more if there's interest for a possible contribution. I could delve into Semon's theoretical issues more, plus remark on William Durham's brief mention of Semon in _Coevolution: Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity_ under the topic of memes along with the mnemons of JZ Young. Those of you interested in modeling might be interested in Hintzman (1996). I could also discuss Karl Lashley a little too.
refs:
Gould SJ. 1977. Ontogeny and Phylogeny. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts
Hintzman DL. 1986. "Schema abstraction" in a multiple trace memory model. Psychological Review (93): 411-28.
Mayr, E. 1994. Recapitulation reinterpreted: the Somatic Program. The Quarterly Review of Biology (69): 223-32
Messerly JG. 1996. Piaget's Conception of Evolution: Beyond Darwin and Lamarck. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. New York
Schacter DL. 1996. Searching for Memory: the Brain, the Mind, and the Past. Basic Books. New York
Schacter DL. 1982. Stranger Behind the Engram: Theories of Memory and the Psychology of Science. Erlbaum. Hillsdale, NJ
Semon R. 1921. The Mneme. The MacMillan Company. New York
Scott
PS- Joe Dees has commented that my lines aren't wrapping correctly on my posts. Has anyone else noticed this?
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