Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA13719 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:09:37 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: solipsistic view on memetics X-Remote_Addr: 193.61.21.55 Message-Id: <E13Z7ZW-0003O7-00@gaea.uk.clara.net> From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:07:10 +0100 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> >>>That's like invoking God or different
> >>>dimensions to foreclose further questioning; a mystical and anti-
> >>>intellectual response, indeed.
Mysticism as it is used in the western 'intellectual' tradition 
functions as kind of "cooties" -  a dismissive mostly rhetorical term 
to be applied to arguments outside of a set of very rigid and 
formalistic discourse requirements. 
This use of 'mystic' is sort of the scholarly equivalent of 'nigger' or 
'faggot' and has little to do with the mystic tradition, whether it is 
western, eastern or islamic.  Most unbecoming behaviour!
I like Clifford Geertz's comment (quoting someone else I think) that 
western 'philosophy is a cultural disease - it can be cured.'
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