Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA04757 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 6 Aug 2001 22:50:27 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 16:54:24 -0500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Logic Message-ID: <3B6ECBC0.14995.5A4B18@localhost> In-reply-to: <002501c11eab$8dc19700$0988b2d1@teddace> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 6 Aug 2001, at 12:10, Dace wrote:
> From: <joedees@bellsouth.net>
> > > Genes determine eye color. This is a well-established fact.
> > > What's *not* established is that they determine the structure and
> > > functions of the eye. In neo-Darwinian biology, genes play very
> > > much the same role as the ether in Newtonian astronomy. Rather
> > > than accept the existence of action-at-a-distance, astronomers
> > > posited an ether across which waves of gravity could propagate
> > > like waves on the ocean. Now the same thing has happened in
> > > biology. We have trouble accepting the possibility that
> > > influences are exerted over a distance (in this case across time
> > > instead of space). So we invent a germ-plasm which mechanically
> > > induces the formation of the body. While genes do indeed play an
> > > important role in the activities of the organism, the genetic
> > > program is as mythical as the lumineferous ether.
> > >
> > Actually, the mythical thing is the idea that there is a cold
> > morphic resonential wind blowing through the halls of history that
> > contains the shape of things to come. The argument ad ignorantium
> > (we haven't proven the exact linkage of genes with ocular structure
> > in every particular yet, so it must be due to something else someone
> > dreamed up) was listed as a logical fallacy by the greeks 2500 years
> > ago, and the passage of time has not led to any successful
> > re-evaluation of its status as a logical error.
>
> It's not just that the "exact linkage of genes with ocular structure"
> hasn't yet been worked out but that no linkage whatsoever has been
> worked out. Nobody has the slightest idea how genes could produce eyes
> or any other organic structure all the way down to protein.
>
> That's not to say that the argument for resonance-based memory is
> based entirely on a critique of gene-based memory.
>
Actually, since there is no evidence that one can present that
unequivocally corroborates MR, its proponents have been reduced
to impotently attacking all other alternatives, especially those for
which reams of corroborative evidence exists.
>
> > > It's a purely logical point. The music from a radio does not
> > > originate from within the radio itself. Therefore we cannot
> > > assume that in all cases the form of a thing arises from within
> > > the thing itself. You can't just assume a priori that the form of
> > > the body originates from within the body. It must be demonstrated
> > > a posteriori. No such demonstration has been forthcoming.
> > >
> > The music does not originate from inside the radio because it is
> > intentionally beamed into the ambient air by radio engineers. Your
> > analogy would, to be assiduously applied, require the existence of
> > the Great Morphic Beamer, that is, of a God, most likely akin to the
> > god of the latest propaganda incarnation of the biblical
> > creationists, intelligent design theory.
>
> Morphic resonance need not be intentional. It follows naturally from
> the principle of like-affects-like. What Sheldrake is proposing is a
> law of natural forms.
>
Sheldrake journeys beyong the pale of logic and evidence. The
people who did not, and who made much less grandiose but more
supportable claims, are D'arcy Thompson (ON GROWTH AND
FORM) and George Spencer-Brown (LAWS OF FORM)
>
> TD
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
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>
===============================================================
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
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