RE: solipsistic view on memetics

From: Vincent Campbell (v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 11:31:06 BST

  • Next message: Vincent Campbell: "RE: solipsistic view on memetics"

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    From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
    To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: solipsistic view on memetics
    Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 11:31:06 +0100
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    Nice one Joe!

    > ----------
    > From: Joe E. Dees
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 3:00 am
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: solipsistic view on memetics
    >
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: solipsistic view on memetics
    > From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk>
    > Date sent: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 09:07:10 +0100
    > Send 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.'
    > >
    > Religions, on the other hand, prove to be both more virulent and
    > more resistent to antimemetics than philosophies. When you are
    > ablde to show that a philosophical point is logically self-
    > contradictory, that its empirical consequences do not in fact follow,
    > or that it is inconsistent with contiguous truths, the holder of it will
    > generally concede, and even thank you for helping him/her
    > understand and grow, if (s)he is the sort of logical, rational,
    > reasonable, coherent and cogent person who prefers philosophical
    > discourse to religious proselytization, and is a genuine seeker of
    > understanding and its evolution. On the other hand, when you
    > demonstrate that a religious tenet is bereft of insight or veracity,
    > the holders of some religions will try to kill you, the holders of
    > others will attempt to wear you down with reams of infantile,
    > emotional and logicless rhetoric, and the holders of still others will
    > smile enigmatically (they hope) and revel in how the self-
    > contradictory nature of what they are asserting means that it must
    > contain a deeper, more profound truth, which they attempt to
    > masturbatorially embrace between sonic stopthinks known as
    > chants, in a love of and delight in the experience of dwelling in the
    > condition of not understanding.
    > >
    > > ===============================================================
    > > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    > >
    > >
    >
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >

    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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