Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 10:09:40 +0100
Subject: Re(2): Paper on chimp culture
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: I.Price@shu.ac.uk (Ilfryn PRICE)
Mark
You have neatlyencapsulated what is IMO the fundamental (or at least a fundamental) 'chicken and egg' question in memetics.
>My model is just a variation on
>your 'singing ape' hypothesis. I reverse the causality, saying we 'talk
>because ancient primates thought.' Your hypothesis suggests 'we think
>because ancient primates sang.' Seems to me there is plenty of room for
>dialog.
It is easy to conceive of 'language' 9sensu lato) as a product of 'thoughts', i.e part of the phenotype through which
internalised memes replicate. The alternative position is that thoughts and minds are languaged into existence, in essence the
mind becomes the extended phentoype of 'language'. Now a question to the list
I have a memory of reading about a school of psychology, rather than philosophy, concerning minds / mental representations
being the product of conversations we have with ourselves as much as others, but I have forgottrn the reference. Can anyone
help?
If
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