Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 12:24:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Valla Pishva <vpishva@emerald.tufts.edu>
Subject: Re: Predator avoidance and memes
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Ton Maas wrote:
> Although I am very much with you on this - especially the onesided emphasis
> on "feedback" (knowledge) over "calibration" (know-how and skill) in modern
> education (both in school and via the media), there remain quite mysterious
> aspects to individual intellectual growth. A famous case is the controversy
> between Darwin (a scientist with a lot of hands on experience in the field)
> and Butler, about which Gregory Bateson once commented that although
> Butler's main experience with nature was probably limited to his own cat,
> he nevertheless had a more profound understanding of it than Darwin. Now
> *my* response to this would be that Butler obviously must have looked
> *very* carefully, curiously and repeatedly at his cat, but I have no idea
> of what really happened. I am tempted to say that real insight into the
> fundamental fabric of life (or the human condition if you like) can
> probably be derived from *any* intensively mastered skill, hence Zen
> notions like the art of tea. My friend and colleague Frits Smeets enjoys to
> paraphrase the old catholic catechism: "Why are we here on earth? We are
> here on earth to achieve mastery. Mastery at what? Doesn't matter."
>
> Regards,
>
> Ton
Well, this harks back to what cognitive psychologists would call
declarative (know-that) vs procedural (know-how) knowledge. Knowing
everything possible about how to ride a bike is obviously different from
being able to ride a bike (and frequently having trouble explaining to
others how to do it). The most famous is example is Mary, the
neuroscientist who is world's leading expert on "seeing red" but has
never actually seen red herself. 1st hand knowledge obviously is hard to
convey, since the "experience" apparently cant be imparted via declarative
knowledge; declarative knowledge has to be transformed into procedural
knowledge first. An analagous case would hold with memes: so perhaps the
only way for me to "understand" the religion meme is to actually have it.
But then this brings up a cyclical problem.
Sorry if this isn't too related to the list.
-val
>
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
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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