Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19970620142306.006a9bec@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 14:23:06 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Re: Lynch's Memetic Theories about Masturbation (Long)
In-Reply-To: <199706201050.GAA26834@brickbat9.mindspring.com>
At 06:54 AM 6/20/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Aaron Lynch,
>>
>>Memetics is a branch of science first and foremost. This means that not all
>>of its theory, hypothesis, and fresh data will be culled by reference to
>>prior sources. To say first that it is a "branch of scholarship" may, in a
>>round about way, demand that it be built upon vast bodies prior scholarly
>>writings, such as those of hermeneutics.
>>
>
>But also social and cultural anthropology, sociology, political science,
>economics, literary history, history of science, history of ideas,
>historical demography, musicology, art history, archaeology, linguistics,
>various branches of psychology. Very little of that, of course, is written
>in memetic terms. But surely much of it is relevant. The fear that I have
>is that memetics aspires to solve problems variously addressed in those
>fields without undertaking to discover and assimilate what is known.
Bill, you might find my Chapter "A Missing Link: Memetics and the Social
Sciences" interesting. Perhaps it will lay to rest your fears that this
memeticist, anyway, sees the new field as a replacement for all those other
social sciences. I deemed the discussion of other social sciences important
enough to place in the front of the book, right after the intro.
>>Show me good data on reproduction versus age in taboo and non-taboo
>>populations, and I will not dismiss it.
>
>You have a point there.
Thank you.
>
----Aaron Lynch
THOUGHT CONTAGION: How Belief Spreads Through Society The New Science of Memes Basic Books. Info and free sample: http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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