Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA01735 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 1 Mar 2000 16:48:44 GMT Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 08:48:51 -0800 (Pacific Standard Time) From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: new line: what's the point? In-Reply-To: <ECS10003011147A@imap.uea.ac.uk> Message-ID: <Pine.WNT.4.21.0003010848430.116-100000@c157775-a.frndl1.wa.home.com> X-X-Sender: market@[140.160.80.50] Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
The point of memetics as I see it is a unifying bridge for all these
disciplines. As such, it will function much like genetics as a
referential basis for other disciplines.
Memetics provides the best explanations to date for the selective
transmission of cultural information, whether that information takes the form
of meanings, of kinship relationships, of technologies, or of natural laws.
Memetics can equally serve to explicate Kuhn's ideas about paradigm in
science and the attribution of meanings to different clothing. Memetics
itself as a conceptual framework is a "mutation" from some rather thoroughly
worked fields such as the history of ideas. Its value lies in its
explanatory usefulness.
We should not fear tautology. The semiotitians have shown us that in any
given sign system, there is no way out but to adopt a different sign system.
The noosphere is tautological. Our task is to expand the circle to encompass
more of the phenomena that we perceive. (Again, see Bateson and Bateson for
a more thorough discussion of tautology.)
TJ
-- -- TJ Olney market@cc.wwu.edu Not all those who wander are lost. -- http://mp3.musicmatch.com/artists/artists.cgi?id=113&display=1=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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