Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA09988 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 20 Sep 2000 14:07:11 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745A37@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: memetics and knowledge Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 14:04:56 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
OK, I think that's a fair description of my position.
Oops, fire alarm!
must go.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Wade T.Smith
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 1:44 pm
> To: memetics list
> Subject: RE: memetics and knowledge
>
> On 09/20/00 03:55, Vincent Campbell said this-
>
> >Where on earth did you get the idea that I "took the side" of the
> mystical
> >bicycle?
>
> My reading of all of this would say that you take the side that would
> appreciate some _offer_ of a 'mystical bicycle' - that you would
> appreciate something that claimed to offer secrets of the universe to
> supply some model of the workings of the universe - that a scientific
> claim (a claim about the natural, not the supernatural) offer some form
> of replication and testing.
>
> Robin has offered the techniques of meditation - not, admittedly,
> mysticism as we understand it, but, ne'ertheless, methods offered by
> mystics. (Well, they are offered as well in Harvard's teaching hospitals,
> but, hell, who's noticing that when there are mystics about...?) There
> are health benefits, 'well-being' benefits, to lots of relaxation
> techniques.
>
> The problem remains that the claims of mystics - to have 'felt' the
> workings of the inner mysteries of the universe, range far from these
> humble health benefits, and, while some of the effects of this tangent
> with the unknown are inductable with drugs and deprivation states, such
> mental states are _in extremis_ .
>
> If mysticism is a state we all can reach _in extremis_, then perhaps
> there is an ethical consideration....
>
> We all fall off of our first bicycle....
>
> - Wade
>
> ===============================================================
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===============================================================
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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