Re: New Memes Book

From: Kate Distin (memes@distin.co.uk)
Date: Tue 22 Mar 2005 - 14:48:19 GMT

  • Next message: Kate Distin: "Re: New Memes Book"

    Bill Spight wrote:

    > Dear Kate,
    >
    >> Sorry - I've used the word too many times in that paragraph,
    >> referring to different things. My assumption is that the wheel being
    >> copied was itself the result of a meme (whether written or held
    >> mentally). Then I'm using the word "meme" again to refer to the
    >> wheelwright's new representation of the wheel he's copying.
    >>
    >> It occurs to me that again we may be using vocabulary at slight
    >> cross-purposes here. As I've said above, I'm happy for
    >> representations to be mental as well as physical (in the form of
    >> blueprints or whatever).
    >
    >
    >
    > Well, before I contrasted the wheel as the realization of an idea with
    > the blueprint as the representation of an idea. You seemed to agree
    > that the blueprint was a representation, and hence, memetic.

    Yes.

    > Now you talk about mental representations as well. In this case, that
    > gets confused for me with the idea of which the blueprint is a
    > representation. Is the blueprint a representation of a meme (mental
    > representation)? Or is it an alternate representation of the same thing?
    >
    I'd drafted a rather complicated reply to you, but for some reason seemed to put things more succinctly in my response to Julio - perhaps you wouldn't mind looking there for a summary of my position. As a more direct reply to you: essentially I believe that the idea of which the blueprint is a representation can also be represented mentally. The same information can be carried in pen-and-paper and also in a brain.

    > Do you hold that all ideas are mental representations?

    Yes, I think I do.

    > That there are mental representations for all cultural elements or
    > components?

    Yes - but qualified by a belief that there are different levels of representation, with some being pretty primitive compared with others.

    > Are we talking about prototypes or schemata? What about sensori-motor
    > schemata?
    >
    > Thanks,
    >
    > Bill

    I'm not sure what you mean by "prototypes or schemata". Could you explain a bit further?

    Kate

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