Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA13528 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 9 May 2000 09:41:09 +0100 Message-ID: <20000509083845.96916.qmail@hotmail.com> X-Originating-IP: [62.6.131.147] From: "Paul marsden" <paulsmarsden@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Central Questions of Memetics Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 01:38:45 PDT Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Chuck Palson on Blackmore
>I have never heard her speak, so I can't say anything about her
>intelligence based on broader experience. But judging from the book, I
>would have to say that she is quite a bit below average intelligence. I
>even had the feeling that there might be some psychological dysfunction she
>was trying to work out.
Hmm... this comment probably says more about its source than target. For
those of us who contend that the social sciences are, in principle, no less
'hard', or natural than other sciences (i.e. we are monists), Blackmore's
(who was BTW my PhD advisor) central contribution in the MM was the argument
that the fantastic capacity of the human brain was driven by culture (via
sexual selection) and not genes. Memetics offers a genuine alternative to,
and rationale against, biological reductionism, in a model which can explain
how culture is a non-miraculous emergent property of evolutionary forces. I
do not know of any other argument in social science that provides a model
for the emergence of the capacity for culture and its relative independence
to a biological substrate, as opposed to simply positing it.
Paul Marsden
Graduate Research Centre in the Social Sciences
University of Sussex
tel +44 7967 175 626
email paulsmarsden@hotmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 09 2000 - 09:41:24 BST