At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I thought that I would make my point though the comic genius of others.
I would add that I don’t agree with everything John Cleese says, as he has made a number of errors about deterministic and probabilistic processes. But genes do build brains and ultimately cultures so the issue is graded rather than categorical. See my earlier blog about genes for language as opposed to genes for Shakespeare. But yes there is no gene for preferring Nicholas Cage movies or coconut ice-cream.
7 Comments
September 18, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Bruce,
Well, you can’t argue with John Cleese, can you?
His reductive explanation makes so much sense to someone like me who has an extra gene that makes me believe anything coming from a member of Monty Python, and it is situated directly below my god gene.
September 18, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Indeed, “always look on the bright side of life” should be a sacred text.
September 18, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Well he seems to be taking a pot shot at monism. i.e the repeated claim that behaviour cannot be explained ‘mechanically’. Well obviously there’s a complex interaction between environment and genetics, which is probably not predictable to the nth degree even in theory. But that’s not to say that it isn’t ‘mechanical’! (assuming by mechanical he means physical)
But I like the bit about the gene that explains why we don’t accept dualism
there probably is something to that, except in reverse, eh?
September 18, 2009 at 11:45 pm
I must have a monism gene. That’s the reason that monism makes so much sense to me. Not because it’s actually reasonable but because I have a gene to believe in it.
I also have a gene that tells me that John Cleese was a bit too unprecise in this video.
September 19, 2009 at 2:07 pm
haha, that was brilliant!
So if I can’t attribute my genes for liking Monty Python, then what can I attribute it to? Is it funny because it is done by Monty Python, or done by Monty Python because it is funny?
September 20, 2009 at 11:58 am
Bruce, I may break down and read your dang book instead of just stopping by your blog every now and then.
I am sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve been having on the misrepresentation front. It’s rather like the current BS over health care here in America where propaganda is passing as hard news so people believe Obama wants to kill grandma.
You are definitely a snazzy dresser and a star
xo
September 20, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Why thank you – I promise you will like the book as it contains much of the twisted humor and gross-outs that characterizes this blog. So if you enjoy the blog, you’ll love the book. And thank you for the compliments – I have such a fragile ego that these things are warmly appreciated.