Message-Id: <199904071057.GAA29622@smtp4.mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 07:11:23 -0400
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: bbenzon@mindspring.com (Bill Benzon)
Subject: RE: A more
>
>But back to memetics: aside from Zen etc., there is a strand of scientific
>psychology which casts doubt on the unitary nature of the self, and that is
>the study of multiple personality cases. William Benzon gives some
>references to this in his paper 'The Evolution of Narrative and the Self',
>which was readable on http:\\www.newsavanna.com until it closed recently for
>maintenance. It is also in J. Soc. Evol. Sys. in about 1996 (if I remember
>rightly).
[snip]
>
>Zen and/or other Buddhisms
>Multiple personality psychology
>Hume via Dennett
>some deconstructionists
>
I wouldn't put myself in the anti-self camp. What multiple personality
suggests to me is that the self is a CONSTRUCTION. But constructions can
be quite real and functional. They can also be flawed.
It seems to me that memetic anti-selfhood is a consequence of belief in the
autonomous agency of memes. The brain is just a garage full of memes who
have muscled their way in and now compete with oneanother for floor space.
Among those memes, of course, is the self meme. And we also have various
anti-self memes who want to drive the self meme out of the garage.
Oh those pesky memes!
William L. Benzon 201.217.1010
708 Jersey Ave. Apt. 2A bbenzon@mindspring.com
Jersey City, NJ 07302 USA http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/
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