Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA19017 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 21 Apr 2001 05:07:48 +0100 Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 21:08:01 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Genetic transmission of phallic attraction?!? [was Re: memes and sexuality] In-Reply-To: <20010420235553.25747.qmail@awcst094.netaddress.usa.net> Message-ID: <Pine.WNT.4.21.0104202031330.162-100000@C157775-A.frndl1.wa.home.com> X-X-Sender: market@[140.160.80.17] Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Logical typing problems again.
> > A genetically transmitted tendency to be attracted to phallic power
> > symbols, though, is another matter, which I think only a rabid
> > anti-psychologist or the like could insist should not be taken
> > seriously.
> Robin,
> You are kidding are you? Does this mean that our genes determine what we are
> attracted to? Non-sense.... again a bio-reductivist viewpoint. You might as
> well *say* that we are attracted guns because, by proxy, the assertion could
> be made.
So, genetics doesn't determine or influence anything? I suppose that females
attract males and viceversa purely because of culture...
Two things to clear up here, 1) the difference between predisposition and
determinancy. And 2) These two things are of different logical types and
must be treated at the appropriate logical level.
If genetic selection favors males who gravitate toward powerful tools that
can be wielded as weapons, then genetics are determining a predisposition.
If that set of genes are raised in a memepool with access to and beliefs
about using such weapons, then we have Robin's situation.
There is no biological reductionism. I recommend Lynch's treatment of this
difference in regard to homosexuality in Thought Contagion.
A further muddling occurs in Robin's statement when he asserts the
interpretation of a gun as a "phallic power symbol." To the extent that it
is such a thing, that is memetic. The physical power embodied in it as an
explosive killing device is something quite different.
TJ Olney
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