Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA22829 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 18 Oct 2000 02:39:23 +0100 User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.0 (1513) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 21:39:08 -0400 Subject: Re: Wimsatt on memes at the Uni Pittsburgh From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B6127771.517E%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <MailDrop1.2d7j-PPC.1001012121615@mac463.wehi.edu.au> Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU>
> Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 12:16:15 +1100
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Wimsatt on memes at the Uni Pittsburgh
>
> I found this at <http://www.pitt.edu/~pittcntr/frschedule.html> and
> thought it interesting to the group:
>
> ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES:
>
> "Evolution Meets Development: The Case of Cultural Evolution"
>
> William Wimsatt, University of Chicago
>
> Theories of cultural evolution need to pay much more attention than we
> have to the fine structure of ideas and cultural practices of the sort
> studied by humanists, historians, and anthropologists. This isn't just
> a conciliatory gesture: the possibility of having generative systems
> which transmit and maintain myriad fine details is crucial to what it is
> to have a culture, a symbolic system, and intentionality.
I certainly agree with this. One of the reasons I cannot take memetics
seriously is that no card-carrying memeticist seems to know much of anything
about culture, nor seems to have any interest in learning. It's all just
self-involved recirculating chatter about mental memes.
--William L. Benzon 708 Jersey Avenue, Apt. 2A Jersey City, NJ 07302 201 217-1010
"you won't get a wild heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds"--george ives
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