Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA09863 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 24 Jul 2001 18:44:05 +0100 Message-ID: <005901c11467$ef5e3480$5f25f4d8@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <Pine.WNT.4.33.0107201051360.51-100000@C157775-A.frndl1.wa.home.com> <995818721.3b5afce1c20c5@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> <004101c112f3$09e15600$44c2fac1@necdirect> <006e01c11347$7bf5da00$1b24f4d8@teddace> <995889760.3b5c126016b4f@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> Subject: Re: Logic Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 10:40:24 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Philip Jonkers wrote:
> Do you mean to imply that humans are intrinsically logical?
> Well, what about the superstitious beliefs still infecting
> countless minds even today as Pascal noted (take horoscopes
> and religions/cults for instance).
Logic is only as good as its assumptions. If we assume that famine and
sickness are caused by "black magic" and, further, that a headless chicken
will invariably point to the individual responsible for this curse, then the
story Pacal describes is perfectly logical. Of course, the evidence won't
always support the assumptions. If the headless chicken fails to expose the
guilty individual, or if the famine continues even after such exposure, then
the villagers must abandon their assumption. Their failure to do so is
explained according to a meme.
Pascal noted that the "logic meme" has been promoted by "cartesian, western
thought." This is indeed not logic itself but a meme posing as logic, which
seeks to justify the proclamations of mechanistic science by labeling them
"logical."
Ironically, within the context of mechanistic philosophy, Creationism is
more logical than neo-Darwinism. If organisms are actually machines, as
Descartes proposed, then it follows that the species were designed and built
by a mechanic. The mechanic, of course, is God. Evolutionary theory is the
recognition that the species are not the products of external forces but are
in some sense spontaneous self-creations. The logical effect of this
recognition should have been the abandonment of the notion that an organism
is a kind of machine. But logic gave way to the persistence of mechanistic
thinking. Neo-Darwinian theory is the attempt to keep the machine while
ditching the mechanic. That this inherently illogical approach has survived
for 150 years now is testimony to the power of memes.
Ted Dace
===============================================================
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 : Tue Jul 24 2001 - 18:48:14 BST