From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Thu 12 Jun 2003 - 19:46:19 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wade T. Smith" <wade.t.smith@verizon.net>
> The performance model is quite happy with these two statements, as both
> are part of its matrix, and can manage them with ease. The future,
> however, is both malleable and inscrutable, as the aleatory is a deeper
> part of nature than culture, and the instinctual is only mildly
> understood. There is no reason memetics needs to study only what will
> be, as it is contains a darwinian engine, which is all about moving
> what happened before within the conditions of the present, than about
> what will be. Indeed, I truly doubt there is any darwinian mechanism
> that can 'predict' the future of a species. This was the main error of
> Lamarck, considering such effects.
Lamarck is in this aspect not well understood if you consider the fact,
like I do, that he intented to write in part 3 of his Psilosophie Zoologique
about the mind and not about biological evolution of a species.
on page 576 , in French, Flammarion edition, he writes, ( translated
by me)...
" Principle one, all the intellectuals actions which are born within
' ideas ', without regard if those are acquired at the moment itself,
or results out of those already acquired, because, within actions
[ performances !!!????] its all about ideas, or about connections
between ideas, or about operations with and upon ideas.
Second principle, all ideas, whatever it will be, originates from a
sensation, it is to say direct or indirect.
( Note, Lamarck has is here about sensualism in the 18 century)
....and yes indeed, within all actions, ideas are always the subject
or the material for the actions which they support."
Within the concept of creativity, innovation and discovery, that
is to say, engineering, Lamarck " saw " a predictable future....
But I agree, Darwinian engines are working upon man 's crea-
tivity. Creativity provides conditions and parameters not the
direction.
Regards,
Kenneth
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