To Glove:
>...... That's not to say that what Julian Huxley calls 'psycho-social
evolution'
>(Essays of a Humanist) does not feature very significantly in
>determining the survival of the fittest. With a static genotype the
only
>evolution possible for the (identical) offspring would be 'psycho-
>social'. Would the MOQ rate this as stasis ?
>
>Glove:
>
>I think so, yes, 'course thats only my opinion. It seems to me that all four
>levels of the Metaphysics of Quality must be in a kind of harmony, and
>serious ramifications will result if any attempt is made to "fix" Dynamic
>Quality at the biological level, eventually resulting in stagnation and
>extinction. I happened to read an article a couple weeks ago in the New
>Scientist magazine about "Why are the clones dying young?" which the
>Metaphysics of Quality may help explain.
Peter:
Time to come off the fence. I agree. To my mind the rich diversity in
individuals at a biological level brought about by the mixing of genes
is a vital component in continuing human evolution.
Glove:
>I did a search on Julian Huxley and found part of his Essays on a Humanist,
>but other than that I am not familar with him at all. He seems to have
>somewhat of a religious fervor, does he not?
He certainly espouses some ideas which I find repulsive (for example his
1962 Galton Lecture - Eugenics in Evolutionary Perspective), but some of
his writings have a striking resonance:
'He (Man) is a reminder of the existence, here and there, in the
quantitative vastness of cosmic matter and its energy-equivalents, of a
trend towards mind, with its accompaniment of quality and richness of
existence; and, what is more, a proof of the importance of mind and
quality in the all-embracing evolutionary process.'
'I spoke of quality. This must be the dominant concept of our belief-
system - quality and richness as against quantity and uniformity.'
The Humanist Frame - Essays of a Humanist 1964
--+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: Peter@psfisher.demon.co.uk | | "Do not adjust your mind - there is a fault in the reality" | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
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