At 1:15 PM -0600 12/8/98, glove wrote:
>Hi Keith!
>
>if you really do stomp spiders then you are indeed committing a crime, in my
>opinion, for whatever that is worth. but be that as it may, if the
>"unlearned behavior" of spiders does not arise via intellect, it must be
>biological. but arent we mixing apples and oranges then?
I agree on both counts.
I'm committing a crime (misdemeanor in my judgment) because I'm destroying
a biological pattern of life in favor of inorganic death. However, I'm not
destroying an intellect. The spider has no capacity for symbolic
manipulation and culture.
It's also exatly my point that contend that 'we' are mixing apples and
oranges. You claimed the spiders displayed intellectual behavior. I
disagreed and said spiders were acting with biological mind (apples) not
abstract ideas (oranges). Different things, not to be confused.
>by biological, i take that to mean life itself. for something to be alive.
>is web-building a biological event? i am not a biologist, but Rupert
>Sheldrake, who wrote "The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance; A New Science of
>Life" believes that we cannot account for "unlearned behaviour" by any
>biological means. there seems to be nowhere that these "patterns" are stored
>in the body.
Neither are there specific locations in the DNA strand for a lot of other
behaviors. That doesn't mean they don't derive from the complex interaction
of genotype and phenotype during the actual life of an entity. I don't
believe that this is evidence of intellectual behavior. As I tried to show
in my Cybernetic post, intellect is a form of constraint on culture, which
can be viewed as the continual exchange of ideas from one mind to another.
>if that is true, how do we account for spiders building webs? there is so
>much we do not understand. my only suggestion would be to stop stomping and
>start watching the little spiders, and they may teach something of value.
You make it sound like I go out of my way to kill spiders at every chance!
I have no doubt they do hold valuable lessons for us and I don't claim my
occasional stomping reaction to be based on anything but some primitive
fear and need to keep my apartment free of infestation. However, my point
is that I don't believe they possess (or are possessed by) intellect.
Cheers,
Keith
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