Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sun Apr 15 2001 - 14:41:54 BST

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Subject: Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 06:41:54 -0700
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    A scholarly book on memetics has recently been published:

    Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science, edited by Robert
    Aunger, OUP.

    Synopsis

    The publication in 1998 of Susan Blackmore's bestselling "The Meme Machine"
    reawakened the debate over the highly controverial field of memetics. In
    recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in "memes". The one
    thing noticably missing though, has been any kind of proper debate over the
    validity of a concept regarded by many as scientifically suspect. This work
    pits leading intellectuals, (both supporters and opponents of meme theory),
    against each other to battle it out, and state their case. It contains a
    foreword by Daniel Dennett, and contributions from Dan Sperber, David Hull,
    Robert Boyd, Susan Blackmore, Henry Plotkin, and others.

    Amazon US:
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192632442/darwinanddarwini/
    Amazon UK:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192632442/humannaturecom/

    --J. R.

    Useless hypotheses:
     consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
    analog computing, cultural relativism

         Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
         but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
         (Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)

    http://www.shasta.com/jr
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/virtropy

    ===============================================================
    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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