Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA11132 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 25 Jul 2001 12:48:24 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745FC5@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Logic Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:59:16 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dawkins' 'The Blind Watchmaker' takes this as its central idea, that
creationists assume the evolution requires a designer, requires someone to
set the process going. He refutes it ably and in a lot of detail.
I'm curious here, are you suggesting that creationism is more plausible that
evolution, or simply that a mechanistic description of evolution is no more
plausible than creationism?
What view of evolution, in your view, is plausible?
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Dace
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 6:40 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Logic
>
> 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
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> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
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