Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA01506 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 10 Jan 2001 20:22:13 GMT User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.0 (1513) Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:18:55 -0500 Subject: Re: DNA Culture .... Trivia? From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B68214C1.67DC%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745BB7@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
on 1/10/01 12:07 PM, Vincent Campbell at v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk wrote:
>
> 4) There is also the issue of whether or not previous research actually does
> address the issues being discussed in the terms being used by memetics.
> Previous theories generally either misuse evolutionary theory in crude
> deterministic ways or offer varying degrees of cultural relativism neither
> of which really gets us anywhere (sweeping generalisations I know, but I'm
> trying to be succinct). Memetics may cover previous ground but from a new
> perspective- that may turn out to be rubbish or revolutionary, only the
> evidence will eventually tell.
Of course this previous research has not been done from a memetic POV.
That's not the issue. The issue that an aweful lot of memeticists don't
seem to know much about culture. If these folks were serious about studying
culture -- as opposed to exchanging memetic cliches -- they'd take the time
to learn something about what has been done and use that to guide their
memetic thinking.
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