RE: Central questions of memetics

From: Lawrence H. de Bivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Thu May 18 2000 - 14:14:04 BST

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Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 09:14:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Lawrence H. de Bivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
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Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics
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    On Thu, 18 May 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:

    >You say acts require beliefs. How do animals 'act' when, as far as we know,
    >they don't have beliefs? I suppose what I'm aksing is what do you mean by
    >'act'?

    I don't know whether a flinch would be considered an 'act', as you are
    using the term. A flinch does not seem dependent on a belief, as one can
    'know' that the movement causing the flinch isn't dangerous, yet one
    flinches anyway.

    A phobic-fear response may also be interesting for the act/belief
    question. The phobic fear is, in a profound sense, a response that
    by-passes the cognitive process. The stimulus produces a direct fear
    response, no matter how 'irrational' it is. It can be countered that the
    phobic person has an overarching belief -- that the phobia is keeping them
    safe -- but they will also know that the phobia is fundamentally
    irrational. It is quite easy to undo the phobia -- to remove it entirely
    -- but it has to be done with technical precision or the phobic structure,
    strong as it is, will retain its grip over the person.

    - Lawrence

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