                           20020330.01

     Some incongruities and inconsistencies of Darwinianism:

     The decisive juncture of propagation is mating, and
specifically the choice of a mate, a circumstance which Darwin
may have overlooked, because, if I am not mistaken, he remained
unmarried and childless. Assuming that spontaneous variation of
heritable characteristics does occur, many of these would express
themselves by the age of procreation, would affect the choice of
a mate, and hence the survival or decline, - and in any event, -
the propagation of the species.

     The effect of pre-reproductive and reproductive behavior in
affecting a) germ plasm, and b) generational survival.  While the
inheritance of acquired characteristic is still a cognitive
taboo, the mutagenic potency of exposure to gamma rays and to
varioius cytotoxins is commonly recognized. Thus the
susceptibility of germ plasm to environmental influence proves to
be a matter of degree; the relative isolation of germ plasm from
the environment seems to be a quantitative rather than a
qualitative issue.

     There is prevalent an accounting of the individual as
distinct from his function. It is implicitly assumed that the
individual underlying (the subject of) the function is distinct
from what the individual does. Whether you put on a blue shirt or
whether you put on a white shirt, whether you travel to Rome or
to New York, whether you play violin or trumpet, whether you
speak English or German, whether you write detective stories or
philosophiscal treatises, your social security number remains the
same, your name remains the same and you remain the same person.
This assumption of underlying sameness may be useful, but it is I
think a fiction in a larger degree than one is prone to realise.

     I am impressed with the phenomenon of amblyopia ex anopsia:
An analogous elaboration of functional capacity resulting from
exercise and application occurs dramatically with the learning of
language, learning to play a musical instrument, and acquiring
mathematical skills. In each case one must infer that with the
acquisition of function, the structure of the subject is
modified, biophysically and or biochemically, if one needs such
references.  Thus function induced by the immediate environment
produces an alteration in substance,  changes the "being",
modifies and adapts the individual to make him sensitive to his
environment; and this acquisition of sensitivity, this passive
modification of mind, or brain, if one wishes, by the
environment, provides the most cogent explanation of the
phenomenon of knowledge that I have encountered. I know something
because I recognize it; I recognize it, because my proximity to
it has induced homoiosis, has induced a modification of my
sensitivity that makes me susceptible to its presence. Just as I
am able to see, because my eye has been uncovered and over a span
of years has been flooded with a series of images.

     In its ultimate implications, this epistemology revokes the
distinction between subject and object, zwischen Innen und
Aussen, und weist darauf hin, dass es ueberhaupt erst diese
Trennung von ich und Welt war, welche die Erkenntnis zum Problem
machte.

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