Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA14375 (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 13:37:05 +0100 Message-ID: <3917C04D.72E7243E@mediaone.net> Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 08:37:49 +0100 From: Chuck Palson <cpalson@mediaone.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Central Questions of Memetics References: <20000509083845.96916.qmail@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Paul marsden wrote:
> 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.
Here's what it says about the source: he is not a Bhuddist, and he is not
interested in injecting Bhuddist ideology into issues treated by a community of
scientists.
> 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.
You are correct there. The best place to find such arguments is in most
religions of the world. Many religions believe in the independent existence to
all sorts of objects, and then they either worship them or try to immunize them
against their effects.
>
>
> Paul Marsden
> Graduate Research Centre in the Social Sciences
> University of Sussex
>
> tel +44 7967 175 626
> email paulsmarsden@hotmail.com
> ________________________________________________________________________
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>
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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
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