Re: What about this?

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 10 Aug 2003 - 17:42:46 GMT

  • Next message: joedees@bellsouth.net: "Re: What about this?"

    >From: joedees@bellsouth.net
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >Subject: Re: What about this?
    >Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 20:21:47 -0500
    >
    >From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com>
    >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >Subject: Re: What about this?
    >Date sent: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 20:19:36 -0400
    >Send reply to: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > >From: joedees@bellsouth.net
    > > >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > >Subject: What about this?
    > > >Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 20:44:21 -0500
    > > >
    > > >The cognitive meme is a template from which the multiple behavioral
    > > >manifestations communicating it are minted; these behaviors then
    > > >impress thamselves upon observing minds, creating more templates.
    > > >
    > > >
    > > An artifact or an overt behavior could act as a template from which
    > > indivuduals bringing different life histories into the mix could
    > > derive differing ideas. The same external template creates different
    > > impressions across individuals.
    > >
    >Yes, but they share familial similarities as tokens of an overarching
    >type.
    >
    OK, maybe we are looking at two sides of the same coin (yes that was terrible) :-)

    How well would the type-token distinction apply to claasification or phylogenetics, both from the perspective of a natural system that truly reflects what's "out there" and an artificial ("in there") system as reflecting the categories humans use to impose order on a diverse array of species?

    People tend to see species as tokens of types (ie- instanes of general categories), but is this the way thingss actually evolved, as organisms that are members of higher level groups with contingent histories due to isolation in deep time and separate pathways to the present? Phyla didn't just magically drop from the sky, but they must have some status in the natural system that goes beyond subjective abstractions within an observer's head.

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