From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat May 03 2003 - 23:19:38 BST
Phyllis, her husband and y'all:
Phyllis said:
That part about genetic mutations at the social level really struck me. My
husband (another philosopher) and I were discussing the evolutionary aspect
of Pirsig from the living being thread this morning, and he suggested
reading Steven (?) Pinker. Pinker claims that as humans are cultural
beings, that is where our current evolution is going on, at the
social/cultural level. I believe he suggests some sort of genetic
transmission of culture. ...Sounds to me as if this might dovetail into some
of the MoQ. Anybody else out there familiar with this writer? Comments?
dmb says:
I can only answer in the most general terms because its been many moons
since I looked at his book, "The Language Instinct". While he's certainly a
very smart guy and his books worth reading, I don't think his views are very
compatible with the MOQ. He's pretty much a scientific materialist, makes no
distinction between what Pirsig calls the social and intellectual levels and
is otherwise trapped in SOM, which tends to misunderstand things like
language. I think he's one of those who reduces the mind to brain activity.
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to criticize the guy for what he's NOT
doing. I mean, he's doing cognitive science, not metaphysics, and so we can
hardly blame the guy. Chomsky, another less-neurologically inclined language
guy, is like that too. He's brilliant and well worth reading, but it ain't
metaphysics.
Thanks,
dmb
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