virus: RE: Is Objectivism a Meme? per Rosdeitcher (long)
Wright, James 7929 (Jwright@phelpsd.com)
Sun, 02 Mar 97 16:27:00 EST
On March 1 D. Rosdeitcher wrote a lengthy post on the subject, trying to
answer questions from D. Hindle (I think) and in the process illuminating
a lot of shadowy territory. I think I can understand why David has such
difficulty with Richard. Someone else alluded to David accepting
Objectivism as his "religion", giving examples of how accepting the Three
Principles as valid leads to certain conclusions. I'm not sure I would
characterize David's objectivism as a religion, however; I think it's
closer to a "filter" from another poster's work, where information is
viewed from within a frame of reference, and judged accordingly.
I would have a question for David, however:
as a child, I probably believed in both Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny,
because I was told of them by those I trusted and empirical results
(presents and candy) flowed to reinforce the illusion. Now that I am
older and must provide the presents and candy, I no longer believe (hold
the illusion). I understand differently than I did as a child.
Richard seems to be holding forth that there are understandings (Level 3
and beyond?) which either exist independently or separately from the
tenets of Objectivism. He seems to have no problem with Objectivism
existing, although it's explanations of certain phenomena (propagation of
memes) have gaps or inaccuracies in them from his point of view.
My question for you, David, is : do you allow for the possibility of
understandings that exist either independently or separately from
Objectivism, that may have equal validity for describing objective
reality? Or is Objectivism the only possible model / method / philosophy
/ approach to validly perceive objective reality?
Your answer will tell us quite a bit.
If I have neglected or misquoted someone, I apologize in advance;
"cut-and-paste" doesn't seem to work for me through this firewall access.
Richard, how does one develop the "knack" for "flexing meme-space on the
fly"? Can you say a turning word here?
My thanks to the list for putting up with what turned out to be a rather
long post.
Cheers!
James Wright