Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA08323 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:15:50 GMT User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 08:11:08 -0500 Subject: Re: The selfish gene meme From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B835A390.D203%bbenzon@mindspring.com> In-Reply-To: <A0419A5A-EA9C-11D5-A082-003065B4D1F0@wehi.edu.au> 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 12/6/01 5:57 PM, John Wilkins at wilkins@wehi.edu.au wrote:
>
> On Thursday, December 6, 2001, at 11:19 PM, Price, Ilfryn wrote:
>
>> ...
>
>> Interestingly, your use of the term "replication space"
>>> suggests that you are
>>> referring to something that is defined with sufficient
>>> mathematical precision
>>> to call for a coordinate system. Some readers will want to
>>> know in exact
>>> quantitative terms how that space is defined, which in turn
>>> may cause them to
>>> want to know in more exact terms how the word "meme" is defined.
>>
>> I can appreciate how it would suggest that precision to a physicist but
>> I used it as no more than metaphor. C.f Dennet's space in the
>> Libraries of Mendel and Babel.
>>
> I think semantic spaces are much more than metaphors, but that the
> metrics are not absolute. Nevertheless, they can be measured
> contextually. This is done, often not well, in the social sciences all
> the time (eg, in "attitudinal surveys"). There was an old book entitled
> _The Measurement of Meaning_ back int he 50s on the subject. I reference
> it in
>
That's classic work. A more recent work in the same tradition is:
Charles E. Osgood, William H. May, and Murray S. Miron, Cross-Cultural
Universals of Affective Meaning. U of Illinois Press, 1975.
BB
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