Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 14:49:34 -0400
From: Michael Best <mikeb@media.mit.edu>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Substance and Form
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for your email. And I'm sorry that the one time I appear on your
listserve it is by accident!
Honestly, I am not sure if Campbell used only the adjective and
adverbial versions "mnemonic" and "mnemonically". But since English has
those rules of transformation that is all fair. In my view he still
would have coined the term either way. Just so, had Dawkins only said
"memetics" we would have understood "meme" as his.
But all of this goes to a bunch of linguistic splitting-of-hairs and is
not very important. We refer to the project as "memetics" because "meme"
really is a lovely turn of phrase. But Dawkins is not the inventor of
the discipline and his word is just the most clever amongst a crowd of
proposed words and a longer history. *This* is my point; that we need to
keep ourselves aware of the body of work -- from all these folks. And to
be the inventor of a neologism, in and of itself, is not much of a
distinction.
Regards,
Mike
Aaron Lynch wrote:
>
> >OPPS! I am very sorry for sending that last email to the entire list! I
> >meant to just send it to the individual. What a moron I am; perhaps I
> >need another cup of coffee.
> >
> >My apologies for cluttering up your inbox.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Mike Best
>
> Mike,
>
> A pleasure to see you on this list.
>
> After your cup of coffee, perhaps you (or someone else on this list) can
> answer a question regarding your recent letter to JOM-EMIT. In it, you
> state that Campbell (1974) uses the word "mnemon," but you do not give a
> page number. I don't recall seeing this word in my original reading of
> Campbell, and my present re-read only finds the phrases "nonmnemonic
> problem solving" and "mnemonically supported thought," not _mnemon_. In
> case my eyes have deceived me, perhaps you could provide some enlightenment.
>
> Cordially,
>
> --Aaron
>
> Campbell, D.T. (1974). Evolutionary epistemology. In P.A. Schilpp (Ed.).
> The philosophy of Karl Popper. La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing.
>
> --Aaron Lynch
>
> http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
===============================================================
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