Physical idealism

[bennyboy]

It's not really at odds with evolution at all.  My point is that like our mental understanding of things, the DNA represents a collection of ideas which are reworked or recycled, rather than a "set piece" for a species.

But do you mean to suggest that such a "collections of ideas" as represented by DNA structures are, outside of the ideas by which you categorize your experiences, anything but (keeping in mind that the following presumes an affection of the mind) some vague "substance" with attributes that affect your senses, and thereby your intellect?

Yeah, it's a case of the chicken or the egg.  Clearly, the DNA has ideas which are expressed as the human body and the human mind (at least in qualitative terms).  However, where do those ideas come from?  Evolution I'd say boils down to the following principle: chaotic systems, if they allow for properties which persist through time, will tend to organize.  Since statistically those properties which are likely to dominate will dominate, you end up with a record of what I'd call "statistical moments" in space and time.  And I'd call the resultant persistent properties of those moments "ideas," since they provide the framework for subsequent events.

However, given our understanding of life, I'd say that at least some ideas will obviously transcend their medium.  Reproduction, for example, will always be a part of the evolution of life, on Earth or elsewhere.  So will selection, etc.  So should we say that reproductive instincts come FROM the DNA, or that the principle of reproduction which is really a principle of form arising out of a chaotic system, leads to DNA or something like it?

I'd say the ideas drive the DNA, not vice versa, and they cannot therefore be said to BE DNA, but must be thought of as abstract principles.