Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA00574 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 6 Oct 2000 10:29:46 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745A7A@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: the conscious universe Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 10:27:09 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Thanks for the reference, Derek.
It's not that I was offering Dennett or Pinker as unproblematic sources,
indeed it was the awareness that they disagree on memes that brought them to
mind, alnogside the fact that their approaches to issues such as
consciousness are born of different disciplines.
I wonder whether one needs to be a polymath in order to get to grips with
all the potentialities of memetics, as it sometimes seems, or whether one
can focus on particular aspects that reflect one's own expertise. For
example, whatever the objections, your designation of memes as cultural
artefacts best suits me, because it allows for social scientific research
methodologies (i.e. testing of manifest social phenomena, be it pokemon, or
particular news stories that run and run).
Obviously one eventually has to dive in to swim with the sharks I suppose.
Sorry, well off thread again.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Gatherer, D. (Derek)
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2000 1:46 pm
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: the conscious universe
>
> Vincent:
> How about reading Dennet or Pinker on consciousness?
>
> Derek:
> Ah, yes, the amount of time we've spent on this list disagreeing about
> what
> Dennett does or doesn't say, has been immense. Dennett seems to be the
> main
> cause for the revival of (popular) memetics in the 90s, since
> 'Consciousness
> Explained' in 1991. Pinker, of course, is quite anti-memetics, as in 'The
> Language Instinct' of 1994, and 'How the Mind Works'.
>
> And that reminds me, Sue Blackmore's new article is just out in Scientific
> American:
>
> Blackmore S.
> The power of memes.
> Sci Am. 2000 Oct;283(4):64-6, 68-71, 73
>
>
> ===============================================================
> 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 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
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