From: Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Date: Sat 17 Jun 2006 - 01:44:19 GMT
Ted wrote:
>It's a core belief of memetics that cultural meaning is
>contained in artifacts such as books, musical scores,
>game rules, etc.
This statement seems incorrect to me, although to be honest, I can't really
evaluate it well because,
(1) I'm not entirely sure what exactly you mean by the term "cultural
meaning" above. ("of cultural significance"? "interpretation within a
cultural context"? "significance to individuals of a specific culture"? or
something else entirely?)
And,
(2) I don't think memetics actually speaks much to questions of "meaning"
per se.
Memetics is much better suited to address itself to questions of diffusion,
distribution, frequency & adaptation of cultural items, or trends within
those aspects, rather than addressing interpretation of their
objective/subjective "meanings" per se.
>I initiated the RS thread specifically to dispute this point.
>No one on the list expressed agreement with my assertion
>that meaning is strictly mental.
That's because it isn't.
"Meaning", as far as cultural tokens or artifacts are concerned, is an
emergent phenomenon resulting from the interaction of mind & artifact within
a cultural context.
Just mind alone is not enough -- and neither is just artifact.
-Tim Rhodes
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