This sentence did not evolve. I typed it essentially all at once and de
novo.
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Dehler, Bernie <bernie.dehler@intel.com>wrote:
> Gregory said:
> "Once one asks questions such as 'when is something not a mimic?' or 'what
> are examples of things that don't evolve?' they will see the limitations and
> boundaries of the concept/percept in question."
>
>
>
> I don't think there are any examples *what-so-ever* of anything that has *
> not* evolved. If you can think of just *one*, give an example, and I
> think I can explain to you how it evolved.
>
>
>
> …Bernie
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] *On
> Behalf Of *Gregory Arago
> *Sent:* Monday, January 12, 2009 12:03 AM
> *To:* asa@calvin.edu; gordon brown
> *Subject:* Re: [asa] Darwin only biological evolution?
>
>
>
> "...actually the only evolution we can attribute directly to Darwin is
> biological." - Gordon Brown
>
>
>
> Upon reading Darwin's "Descent of Man," such a statement as the above
> becomes less tenable. In fact, Darwin in it wrote about morals, values and
> reason, about psychology, anthropology and ethics. One can argue, of course,
> that Darwin didn't take the word 'evolution' out of thin air, i.e. he didn't
> coin the word - it has a past as well. One could credit or debit Darwin with
> importing 'evolution' into biology or for giving systematic shape to biology
> in which the term 'evolution' came to have a significant use. Or one could
> suggest that Darwin wrote about human beings more like a zoologist than an
> anthropologist. As far as I remember, Darwin didn't even use the term
> 'evolution' very often in "On the Origin of Species...in the Struggle for
> Life." What one cannot do, however, is divorce the person (qua scientist)
> entirely from his very real non-biological thoughts, which are part of his
> worldview on display in his writings; one cannot (better to say should
> not) dehumanise Charles Darwin in order to paint him as biology's genius.
> Not even Darwin's evolution is biology-only.
>
>
>
> Likewise, picking and choosing from Dawkins by accepting his
> concept/percept of 'memes' is ridiculous. What it shows is that the person
> who wants Dawkins' 'memes' but not his agnosticism/atheism simply doesn't
> understand the connection between the two. Rejecting 'memetics' in
> philosophy and social-humanitarian thought is common because the term 'meme'
> is absurd. However, one might ask the same thing about 'evolution,' which
> has in fact been rejected by a good many, while being accepted by others
> (witness Gordon suggesting that language and knowledge 'evolve'). Once one
> asks questions such as 'when is something not a mimic?' or 'what are
> examples of things that don't evolve?' they will see the limitations and
> boundaries of the concept/percept in question.
>
>
>
> Does Gordon have any evidence to back up the following statement?:
>
> "each of these has a theory that was *developed mostly independently* of
> the others, and it is difficult to find major features that all of them have
> in common beyond that they involve evolution."
>
>
>
> For example, was Herbert Spencer's evolutionary theory 'developed mostly
> independently' of Darwin's or do they somehow overlap and borrow from each
> other? Or how about Karl Marx's?
>
>
>
> I would contend that 'change-over-time' is a major feature common to them
> all; that to take away 'change' is to be left with no evolution. Would
> anyone on the ASA list disagree with this?
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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Received on Mon Jan 12 16:45:42 2009
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