the more I think about Dawkins (or at least about what people, including SJ
Gould, say about his views), the more it reminds me of Wilhelm Reich. Reich
started trying to merge Freudian psychoanalysis with Marxian political
economy, but as his book THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM shows, he became more
and more reductionist. At one point he found a plankton-like creature in
sea water and saw it as the basic element of life. Eventually, he went the
reductionist route from biology to physics and came up with orgone energy.
Will Dawkins move on to physics in response to his critics? Maybe he could
develop the concept of econe energy, the physical form of possessive
individualism.
Didn't Dawkins develop the concept of the "meme," a unit of culture
analogous to a gene? The meme sounds like a perfectly good reason to avoid
studying anthropology and sociology -- and like a perfectly reductionist
way to deal with culture. It's ridiculous.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
["clawww" or "liberalarts" can replace "bellarmine"]
