Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA12968 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 28 Mar 2001 20:19:04 +0100 Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 19:59:46 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme Message-ID: <20010328195946.E11214@reborntechnology.co.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745D29@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.15i In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745D29@inchna.stir.ac.uk>; from v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk on Wed, Mar 28, 2001 at 11:21:55AM +0100 From: Robin Faichney <robin@reborntechnology.co.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Wed, Mar 28, 2001 at 11:21:55AM +0100, Vincent Campbell wrote:
>
> <In terms of sheer numbers of racists, what proportion do you think
> would
> > be swayed either way by genetic arguments? Don't make the mistake of
> > thinking everyone is like you, a thorough-going rationalist. I'd bet the
> > vast majority of racists are happy to assume the "others" to be inferior,
> > without caring much about any fact or pseudo-fact. These people have
> > psychological problems that no amount of rationalisation will affect.
> > It's just like any other ingrained prejudice.>
> >
> Is it any better to try and change racists minds by irrational
> means?
Is psychology irrational?
I always did suspect that those who are always trumpeting rationality
don't appreciate psychology.
> > Less credibility among whom? If they're racists,
> > they're unlikely to care. If they're not racists, such views wouldn't
> > have much credibility for them anyway.>
> >
> Social credibility- in other words what, collectively as a society,
> we regard as credible viewpoints around which to organise ourselves. A bit
> like Rousseau's general will.
Sounds very airy-fairy to me, but this is rather peripheral to my main
interests, and I don't want to pursue it.
-- Robin Faichney Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)=============================================================== 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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Mar 28 2001 - 20:34:22 BST