Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA15770 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:47:19 GMT Message-ID: <004a01c1ba50$286f0900$57aceb3e@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <kennethvanoost@myrealbox.com> References: <B1C07A04-255F-11D6-A677-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> <003301c1b9b3$d06be120$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> Subject: Re: Debate opens anew on language and its effect on cognition Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 21:49:08 +0100 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: Philip Jonkers <philipjonkers@prodigy.net>
It all makes sense to me. To interpret the world around us language defines
which elements are important and
which can be ignored. We only have limited resources
(time and energy) to construct a worldview that makes
sense so we better discard all the non-essential elements. Language focuses
on the important elements.
For example, the inuit have a
zillion different words for different sorts of snow.
That is because snow is of central importance to the inuit
(for transportation, making iglos, etc.). We only have
snow... and wet snow perhaps.
Also it is not the elements of importance are not only
language specific but also, for example, dependent of profession. An car
engineer would look different at
a porsche 911 than let's say a business man who only
wants a fast ride.
Hi Philip and all,
This is something I tackled already in 2000 !
I said it then and I will say it again, without counting in the neurological
representations of what somebody is thinking, you can 't fully determine
the aspects of memetics !
That is, for example, the state of mind wherein a child found herself at the
time she decided ( for herself) to become a teacher, plays a role in ( hers)
future meme activity and affects her behavior. That idea, the thought
affects
and was affected by others people 's mind in her environment.
The importance lies in all the possible interpretations, all possible angles
of a problem, all the consequences must be counted in, all what an indi-
vidual carries within himself about the society where he lives in, the
ethics
of that same society, politics, community, etc...
The meme- contents holds within the essential, that is what we describes
as ' meaning ' includes not only the plain meaning as we do all understand
it, but also the characters of all the interrelations.
The Inuit, do possess dispositions about ' snow ' where we do not know
anything about.
In our case, noone will give the same importance to the word ' snow '
like the Inuit do. In that respect we are all * memetical unique*_ each
time that a word is spoken, a story told we will have, all of us individual,
different representations/ dispositions about what is spoken off, or what
the context of the story is, who we are, where we are and with who we are
is important to the ' meaning' - depended on profession for example, yes !
This is the bias of memetics !!
Regards,
Kenneth
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