Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA10164 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 4 Mar 2000 18:06:07 GMT Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.20000304120358.011e2d44@popmail.mcs.net> X-Sender: aaron@popmail.mcs.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 12:03:58 -0600 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net> Subject: Re: J.Z. Young on mnemons In-Reply-To: <JLICPGAKDIINCCAA@my-deja.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 08:40 AM 3/4/00 -0800, Scott Chase wrote:
>This is an apt quote from J.Z. Young:
>
>(bq) "Incidentally many modern ideas on the subject go back to Richard
Semon (1904) who wrote much of the mneme or mnemic faculty and invented the
word engram. I do not think however that anyone has used mnemon or a
similar word in quite the same sense of the module now to be proposed" (eq)
>
>ref:
>
>Young JZ. 1965. The organization of a memory system. Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London (163): 285*-320
>
>I may have goofed the initial page number on my previous post.
>
>Scott
>
Thank you, Scott.
I have actually seen this article, although not until after inventing a new
definition for "mnemon" and publishing it in 1991. I do not, however, the
term in the same sense as the module Young (1965) proposes. Young's meaning
also differs from my own in that he does not define "mnemon" as something
that can be "the same" from one organism to another. Young's "mnemon" is
thus not, in my view, a memetics-related term: without "sameness" from
individual to individual, there can be no "replication," and Young does not
discuss "replication." Also, Young's usage seems does not seem to be in
current usage by memory researchers as far as I can tell. I would, however,
be interested in hearing from anyone who finds a memory research paper or
other science paper from the past 25 years that uses the word. I intend to
make a more comprehensive footnote about the word in future works. Notice
that Young also expresses some uncertainty about whether anyone else has
used "mnemon" before he did. That is not surprising, since the word itself
is easily coined. Nevertheless, I would also appreciate hearing from anyone
who knows of a usage pre-dating Young's.
I also have found one dictionary that lists "Mnemon" with a Greek mythology
definition, although this may be a typographical mutation of "Memnon."
--Aaron Lynch
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