Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA25913 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 15 Feb 2001 14:23:22 GMT Subject: RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 09:20:49 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010215142051.AAA11981@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 02/15/01 08:26, Vincent Campbell said this-
>The problem for memetics, perhaps, is that such things may be
>explainable simply in terms of individual and social psychology, with no
>need for memes at all.
>
> I suppose this brings us back to the perennial question on the list
>of what new/distinct explanatory insight does the meme concept provide in
>elucidating this kind of social behaviour.
Memes are, perhaps, one of the better ways to show one of the directions
from which individuality springs, because, it ain't all genes and
development, there is a real and active cultural environment, and
separating out some elements and calling them memetic (that is, related
to the processes of biological evolution) seems, at this point, to help
make the chaos of culture cogently understandable.
Maybe.
- Wade
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Feb 15 2001 - 14:25:51 GMT