Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 09:52:38 +1000
From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.edu.au>
Subject: RE: socially selected memes
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B203492B6@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl>
On Wed, 28 Jul 1999 09:26:43 +0200 D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl
(Gatherer, D. (Derek)) wrote:
.....
>In Popper's work the evolutionary strand is explicit, and in
>Feyerabend's a
>bit more implicit - but Feyerabend's quasi-ecological picture of
>science as
>a sort of jungle ecology of competing ideas is very persuasive.
>Feyerabend
>is also very readable (unlike the other two), and I suspect that his
>argument is not really as good as he presents it. (He studied with
>Brecht
>and the physics iconoclast/charlatan Felix Ehrenhaft, so I suppose he
>know
>before McLuhan did that the medium is the message). His forays into
>Greek
>pottery, Renaissance politics, and the technicalities of handmade
>telescopes
>are a joy to read - but is it a hoodwink?????
If Popper is a Fisherian, Feyerabend is a Wrightean. He likes variation
and drift.
I attended a seminar by a friend of Feyerabend's just recently, and he
said that PKF was a jokester - it's my opinion that most of what he
wrote from about 1970 on was a dadaist attenmpt to get a reaction.
--John Wilkins, Head, Graphic Production The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Melbourne, Australia <mailto:wilkins@WEHI.EDU.AU><http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins> Homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus of Rotterdam
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