Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA06828 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 6 Dec 2001 20:58:24 GMT From: <AaronLynch@aol.com> Message-ID: <62.1764a1d9.294134df@aol.com> Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 15:53:51 EST Subject: Re: The selfish gene meme To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 113 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
In a message dated 12/6/2001 6:32:27 AM Central Standard Time, If Price
<I.Price@shu.ac.uk> writes:
> Hi Aaron
>
> I missedthe quote. Apologies
>
> > "... However, the ambiguity of a word with many definitions
> > swirling around
> > it can actually increase its propagation, even as some
> > scientists recoil from
> > it. When people are able to read into a word the meaning that
> > most suits
> > them, it may increase the numbers of non-specialists and even social
> > scientists who adopt and use the term. ..."
>
> Your 'Physics' memes are showing ne c'est pas? are 'even social
scientists'
> a sub group of 'non-specialists'?
>
In a message dated 12/6/2001 7:15:36 AM Central Standard Time, Vincent
Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> writes:
>
> 'even social scientists'?
>
> That's a bit like arguments where someone goes 'even slugs have brains, of
> sorts'. I assume you didn't mean that in the pejorative sense? :-)
>
> Vincent
Hi If and Vincent.
I suspect that you are trying to make a point that ambiguities can be found
in a great many, perhaps even most uses of "plain English." But if not, let
me clarify.
When I say "non-specialists," I mean people who do not specialise in cultural
transmission or evolution. This would include interested lay people such as
Wade. It would also include people whose interest is subordinate to something
else, -- a fund manager considering contagion forces in the stock market, for
instance.
When I say "even social scientists," I imply that we ordinarily expect social
scientists to prefer the most precise terms available when describing social
phenomena. In other words, I am suggesting that the usual preferences of
social scientists may have been circumvented by a replication phenomenon.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.thoughtcontagion.com
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