Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 11:21:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: HAB: Re: Habermas & meme theory


Matthew:

This is a very interesting issue. 

I have been working for a long time to develop a richer sense of
evolutionarity, with Habermas' work always near-to-mind. Though I've
not been involved with Popper's or Campbell's views specifically, I
believe there's a lot of promise in the notion of evolutionary
epistemology, once one recognizes that evolution (a progressive
notion) is not reducible to natural selection. 

I don't know of anywhere that Habermas mentions Dawkins, but an
absense of Dawkins would be, in my view, to Habermas' credit, since
Dawkins has (I believe) a very biologistic sense of evolution. A
psychologically-based sense of memes is far more appropriate than a
biologically-based sense of memes. Mihaly Csikzsentmihalyi has an
interesting approach to memic history in _The Evolving Self_,
HarperCollins, 1993. I have endeavored to integrate aspects of his
approach to evolution and Habermas'thinking, along with aspects of
other theoriests (in my eclectic approach--which fits the hybridity
of evoutionary thinking, I hope), but I'm not ready to elaborate on
this; I would, though, like to participate in a pursuit of meme
theory, relative to Habermas--but I don't have time to contribute a
large volume of comment and response. 

It's unfortunate that the Habermas List seems to be in hibernation. 

--- matthew piscioneri <mpiscioneri-AT-hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear List,
> 
> Re-reading Communication & the Evolution of Society recently I was
> given to 
> consider the similarities between aspects of Habermas's theory of
> social 
> evolution as a learning process and increasingly popular variants
> of memetic 
> theory, as well as its older counterpart evolutionary epistemology.
> Habermas 
> was certainly aware of Popper's work and perhaps Donald Campbell's
> work 
> also. My question is are list members firstly aware of any explicit
> 
> references to Dawkins in Habermas's writings, and, secondly,
> whether my 
> linking of Habermas's theory of social evolution to the
> evolutionary 
> epistemological ideas of Popper as well as Dawkin's meme theory
> holds any 
> water?
> 
> Regards to all
> 
> Matthew Piscioneri
> School of Philosophy
> University of Tasmania
> 
> 
> >From: Gary D <gedavis1-AT-yahoo.com>
> >To: mpiscioneri-AT-hotmail.com
> >Subject: Re: HAB: Between Ethics and Norms
> >Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 19:38:31 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >Matthew:
> >
> >I highly recommend the first chapter of _Justification &
> >Application_: "On the Pragmatic, the Ethical, and the Moral
> >Employments of Practical Reason."
> >
> >Gary
> >
> >
> >--- matthew piscioneri <mpiscioneri-AT-hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > Dear List,
> > >
> > > Please, where does Habermas make explicit the ethical basis for
> > > rule-following? What I am trying to get clear is the place in
> his
> > > work for
> > > the difference between the normative and the ethical.
> > >
> > > Is it too simplistic/inaccurate to maintain that for Habermas
> the
> > > production
> > > of norms is a social behaviour essential to the self
> reproduction
> > > of the
> > > human species, and it is from this connection to the
> reproduction
> > > of the
> > > species that the ethical basis of a normative structure is, in
> the
> > > final
> > > analysis, derivable?
> > >
> > > Regards to all,
> > >
> > > MattP
> > >
>
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