From: BMSDGATH <BMSDGATH@livjm.ac.uk>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: To have a mnemon
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 09:37:47 -0400 (EDT)
> Exactly! "Approval" seems to be the _least_ important prerequisite for an
> idea to catch on. And as De Bono so eloquently demonstrates, "logic" has
> more to do with appearances than with "solidity or argument". In his book
> "Against Method", Paul Feyerabend argues that in science "anything goes" -
> meaning that there are no inherent scientific grounds for the failure or
> success of theories. In fact, the most decisive reasons are external:
> social, political, economical etc.
Yes, I should have remembered what Feyerabend said:
'..confusionists and superficial intellectuals move ahead while the
deep thinkers descend into the darker regions of the status quo or, to
express it in a different way, they remain stuck in the mud.'
(Feyerabend 1988, p.54n)
If there's any mud on my academic boots, I'll remember to clean them
next time.
Feyerabend PK (1988) Against Method rev. ed. Verso, London.
On Feyerabend's relationship to memetics in general see:
Gatherer D (1997) Feyerabend, Dawkins and the politics of cultural
diversity. Anarchist Studies 5, 23-43.
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