Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 04:09:41 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Matti J{rvinen <mj62067-AT-uta.fi>
Subject: Re: Gods, Apes, Genes - Language


On Fri, 30 Apr 1999, hugh bone wrote:

 
> Humans and animals exhibit selfishness, but they have "minds"  - genes 
> or photons don't have minds; they just persist in their destiny as do
> the 14 billion-year old photons which impact orbital telescopes,
> ending their long journey from the Big Bang.

Sorry for being studip,but I always thought the point being (in Dawkins` 
 and friends) that persons,minds,whatever are NOT the units displaying
this famous selfishness.Who are the selfish ones,then?Genes,exactly the
genes,statistically and for the most part.

The case is obviously not that we were attributing intentionality to the
genes.It´s rather that what we call intentional is really functional,and
what is functional means actually context-dependent (context being the
causal network on micro-level).

So,as you already pointed out,"selfishness" is a dramatic device.But what
kinds of avenues could this kind of materialist thinking open for the
postmodernist-mafia who´ve this far been all so eager to engage in all
sorts
of spiritualist enterprises?

yours,matti.