Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA20931 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 24 Jan 2002 01:23:21 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020123201857.03528310@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 20:20:43 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Selfish memes? In-Reply-To: <200201240027.g0O0QxS20992@sherri.harvard.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 07:27 PM 23/01/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Robin Faichney -
>
> >Sorry, Lawrence, I've been trying for a while to remember where I saw or
> >heard that, without success, though I'm very confident he did write or
> >say it.
>
>This is apparently from The Selfish Gene, somewhere...
>
>"Of course," Dawkins writes, "the personification of the gene is not to
>be taken literally ... Personification is sometimes a useful device, and
>for critics to accuse us of taking it literally is almost as stupid as
>taking it literally in the first place. Physicists are not literally
>charmed by their particles and the critic who would so accuse them is a
>tiresome pedant."
>
>- since it was mentioned in a review of the same at
>http://www.salon.com/21st/books/1998/12/22books2.html
The review mentions several of his books. I am not sure about this, but I
think the quote is from The Extended Phenotype.
Keith Henson
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