Re: teleology and language

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 02:53:25 BST

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From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: teleology and language
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 21:53:25 -0400
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    >From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >Subject: Re: teleology and language
    >Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 17:31:26 -0700
    >
    >Dear Wade,
    >
    > >
    > > > Humans select among their linguistic options every
    > > > day.
    > >
    > > But they don't select for them.
    >
    >The environment doesn't select for anything, either, in biological
    >evolution. :-)
    >
    > > They are available options. Like items
    > > on a shelf in a store.
    > >
    >
    >If nobody buys pet rocks, they disappear from the shelves.
    >
    > > I'm not saying language is static. But mere dynamism is not evolution.
    > >
    >
    >No, but that's not what I said. What I said was, "Replication,
    >variation, selection." I did not make up that definition of evolution.
    >
    >
    Evolution is "heritable changes in a population over time" where "heritable
    changes" are often seen as "allelic frequency changes". Selection is NOT
    part of the definition of evolution.

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