Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA28527 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 2 Dec 2001 22:31:10 GMT Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 09:26:43 +1100 Subject: Re: Wilkins on the meme:engram relation Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.edu.au> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <F173SZZhu6hDLjFBrp200005fa1@hotmail.com> Message-Id: <A9EF68AE-E773-11D5-88AB-003065B4D1F0@wehi.edu.au> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.475) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Saturday, December 1, 2001, at 06:55 AM, Scott Chase wrote:
> Wilkins may object to my singular focus on one minor aspect of his
> article, but I was reading his article after Gatherer's where the
> Lynchian homoderivative mnemon and Dawkins B were discussed and my one
> track mind may have derailed a bit. Back to the drawing board.
>
Actually, Scott, I don't object. The many-many mapping from lower level
to higher is a problem in genetics and in memetics that needs to be
addressed. Evolutionary genes (replicators) and memes (also replicators)
are not the same as the physical entities that are usually their
instantiation. I am tending to see replicators as abstract entities with
no causal role. In sum, they are bookkeeping entities, as Wimsatt once
said.
-- John S Wilkins PhD candidate, species concepts History and Philosophy of Science, jointly with Botany The University of Melbourne, Australia http://www.users.bigpond.com/thewilkins/darwiniana.html=============================================================== 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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