Re: Aunger vs. Pinker on Galton

From: William Benzon (bbenzon@mindspring.com)
Date: Thu 21 Apr 2005 - 01:43:20 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: Aunger vs. Pinker on Galton"

    on 4/20/05 7:18 PM, Bill Spight at bspight@pacbell.net wrote:

    [snip]

    >
    > I was also disappointed by Blackmore. In "The Selfish Gene" Dawkins
    > talks about memes replicating by "a process which, in the broad sense,
    > can be called imitation." Now, that statement cries out for more
    > detailed explication and analysis based upon social learning theory. But
    > Blackmore takes off her psychologist hat for a second and says, "Hey,
    > it's imitation."
    >

    But at least Blackmore is within the realm of the more or less possible. Even if she takes imitation at unanalyzed face value, one can imagine that something would be left of her ideas if one were more careful. But Aunger's confusion is so massive that it's hard to imagine anything coming of his book. It's also hard to imagine how it ever got past editorial review.

    Bill B

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