Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA25005 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 8 Feb 2001 10:37:58 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745C4B@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 10:37:06 -0000 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
<Your view that sociopolitical institutions suppres our freedom does
> not address the contention that it is cognitively and somatically
> present to be suppressed. If it did not exist in the first place, the
> governmental form would not matter at all, since no form of
> government can suppress a nonexistent freedom.>
>
>
Well, I'm not sure that's what Robin was saying when he was talking
about the limitations of free will 'in some senses'. I'd agree there is
something there cognitively and somatically, as you put it, that corresponds
to free will, so there's no argument there.
My contention was merely that we are not equally free to make some
kinds of social decisions as others, and often people use the concept of
free will not in the cognitive sense, but in the socio-political sense.
I've (finally) got to Cavalli-Sforza's chapter on cultural transmission in
his most recent book, and one aspect that he talks about is the high
correlation between parents and children in terms of both religious beliefs
and political beliefs. Whilst the former is often described by people as
innate ('I was born X'), the latter is one of those things that people most
often ascribe to free will- it's "their" opinion, "their" point of view,
reached at by though and deliberation- only in lots of ways it isn't. One
could also look at the work of Bourdieu in relation to things like aesthetic
tastes, which he argues is closely related to factors like family,
geography, education, class etc. (actually if I remember correctly he argued
such things determine tastes, but I'm not sure I'd go that far, and for the
life of me I can't remember his term for this).
So, yes we have free will, but we don't use it nearly as much as we
think we do.
Vincent
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