Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA21508 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 19 Mar 2002 00:42:29 GMT X-Originating-IP: [199.183.183.113] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: FW: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:36:35 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F741wkSylC86OR000178d7@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 19 Mar 2002 00:36:36.0068 (UTC) FILETIME=[2028A240:01C1CEDE] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>An adequate study would also seem to require a high degree of 'objectivity'
>or
>ideological neutrality in order to make valid observations about the
>behaviours
>studied. The person doing the study would need to know enough about
>quantum
>physics, and mysticism, yet at the same time be neutral, or at least not
>irrationally critical of either side. We can be critical of the
>convergence
>or supportive of it, but I'm not sure that either kind of partisan could
>perform an adequate study of it. This would be the case, at least
>ideally, in
>anthropology, with which I am familiar and also with law as an academic
>discipline, which which I am more familiar.
>
>At any rate, my interest in more in how to construct a model of enquiry
>than it
>is in the goodness, badness or neutrality of the interaction between
>quantum
>guys and mystic guys.
>
One thing you might find easy to check into is the number of award winning
scientists who have Chinese names these days. A large number of them work
and study in the U.S., but their roots remain in China. I remember a team
who came up with the name "the eight-fold path" for a physics discovery --
their names escape me right now, but I do remember that at least one of them
was Chinese. Taoism also contains a number of concepts that lend themselves
to recent discoveries. "Yin" and "Yang" seem to pop up frequently. The
phenomena you are looking at may be tied more to who is making the
discoveries than intercultural borrowing.
Cheers,
Grant
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