Note where I asserted that "Dawkins’ meme gene paradigm is the actual, objective truth for all of us. "
And a “vision of truth” is completely the opposite of what I contend: that in regard to my own particular “self” here and now pertaining to the morality of abortion, “I” am “fractured and fragmented”.
And I explain my reasoning for that in my signature threads.
And it is folks like Satyr and the “blank slate” philosophers who insist not only that the deadlock can be broken but that this must be the case because their own frame of mind has already broken it.
Now, I’m not arguing that it can’t be broken, only that given my own frame of mind “here and now” genes and memes seem embedded in the labyrinthian trajectory of our lived experiences such that we only have so much understanding and control over them.
I have already addressed that above:
In regard to memes…
In other words:
1] I was raised in the belly of the working class beast. My family/community were very conservative. Abortion was a sin.
2] I was drafted into the Army and while on my “tour of duty” in Vietnam I happened upon politically radical folks who reconfigured my thinking about abortion. And God and lots of other things.
3] after I left the Army, I enrolled in college and became further involved in left wing politics. It was all the rage back then. I became a feminist. I married a feminist. I wholeheartedly embraced a woman’s right to choose.
4] then came the calamity with Mary and John. I loved them both but their engagement was foundering on the rocks that was Mary’s choice to abort their unborn baby.
5] back and forth we all went. I supported Mary but I could understand the points that John was making. I could understand the arguments being made on both sides. John was right from his side and Mary was right from hers.
6] I read William Barrett’s Irrational Man and came upon his conjectures regarding “rival goods”.
7] Then, over time, I abandoned an objectivist frame of mind that revolved around Marxism/feminism. Instead, I became more and more embedded in existentialism. And then as more years passed I became an advocate for moral nihilism.
Memes are everywhere on that thread: from my childhood, the Army, Vietnam, college, political commitments, particular experiences in particular contexts…philosophers I’ve read.
Where is the equivalent from you.
And then…
And my whole point is not only was I unable to resolve the conflicting goods embedded in John and Mary’s calamity, the calamity itself was part of the epiphany [along with Barrett and Novak] that led to my abandonment of objectivism itself.
As for calling my arguments “gobbledygook”, rather than actually addressing them, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before you are back to “You dirty Communist!”
Is this going to be a substantive exchange or not?