creators_name: Gatherer, Derek
type: journalp
datestamp: 2005-06-06
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:56:04
metadata_visibility: show
title: Meme Pools, World 3 and Averroes’ Vision of Immortality
 


ispublished: pub
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
keywords: Averroes, consciousness, Dawkins, immortality, meme pool, Popper
abstract: Dawkins’ concept of the meme pool, essentially equivalent to Popper’s World 3, is considered as an expression in modern terms for what Averroes knew as the ‘active intellect’, an immortal entity feeding into, or even creating, the ‘passive intellect’ of consciousness.  A means is thus provided for reconciling a materialist Darwinian view of the universe with a conception of non-personal immortality.  The meme pool/active intellect correspondence provides a strong basis for regarding science as a communal enterprise producing enrichment of the meme pool and expansion of consciousness, and emphasizes the virtues of memetic conservation in relation to vanishing cultures.

date: 1998-06
date_type: published
publication: Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science
volume: 33
number: 2
pagerange: 203-219
refereed: TRUE
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citation:   Gatherer, Dr Derek  (1998) Meme Pools, World 3 and Averroes’ Vision of Immortality.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/4378/1/zygon.pdf