Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA24433 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 18 Mar 2000 14:53:27 GMT Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 09:51:59 -0500 From: Robert Logan <logan@physics.utoronto.ca> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: your mail In-Reply-To: <20000317205517.17364.qmail@nw175.netaddress.usa.net> Message-ID: <Pine.SGI.4.10.10003180941080.4681496-100000@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Meme adherents
I wonder why people who believe that memes are a useless concept bother to
advocate their position. What is it about the idea which is so powerful
and threatening to them that they must take up arms against it. Curious.
n'est pas. This thought is directed to those of us who think that memes
are useful. If you are in the other camp please do not take offense but
perhaps you could explain why you spend time studying a concept you deem
useless.
Memes obviously resonate with many scholars from many different fields and
hence in the sense of a Kuhnian paradigm they are useful. I remind the
group of a Planck quote from Kuhn's book: " a new scientifc truth does not
triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but
ratherbecause its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up
that is familiar with it."
From these words I conclude it is not the arguments of our generation that
will win the day one day or another but rather whether or not the next
generation of scholars will find memes useful.
With goodwill to all and hoping to avoid flames I am Bob Logan
On 17 Mar 2000, Derek Gatherer wrote:
> Mark: (on Martin Gardner)
> His whole argument is summarized in this quote: "I will argue here, a meme
> is so broadly defined by its proponents as to be a useless concept,”
===============================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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 18 2000 - 14:53:38 GMT