Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA02083 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 4 Dec 2001 12:15:34 GMT User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 07:11:06 -0500 Subject: Re: Wilkins on the meme:engram relation From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B832210F.D144%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <92.1e36227b.293d52da@aol.com> 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 12/3/01 5:12 PM, AaronLynch@aol.com at AaronLynch@aol.com wrote:
>
> That said, I will add that if Gell-Mann had made a mess of the word "quark,"
> quantum chromodynamics would most likely still have developed, even if under
> a different name. One can think of all sorts of vague ways that Gell-Mann
> might have coined a word, perhaps referring to almost any subnuclear
> particle, for instance. But if he had, then physicists would have probably
> ignored the term and some other term would have emerged in connection with
> very similar theoretical constructs.
In the case of culture, what we need is a well-developed body of theory
about cultural change. The reason "meme" is surrounded with confusion is
that it doesn't link to any well-developed body of theory. It's just a word
that's analogically attached to a body of biological theory that folks want
to refit for cultural use. It's the refitting that's difficult.
Bill B
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