Message-Id: <v03102801b21863e359c3@[194.109.13.153]>
In-Reply-To: <000801bdd8b5$74e09f40$da4e95c1@pc>
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 18:09:01 +0200
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Ton Maas <tonmaas@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Re: On Gatherer's behaviourist stance - previously Xtra!:
>One way to keep every body happy in this debate would be to use not the
>behavioural contagion metaphor, nor the thought contagion metaphor, but the
>SOCIAL CONTAGION metaphor - which implies neither bare-foot behaviourism or
>universally rejected 19th century introspectionism. The SOCIAL CONTAGION
>metaphor would include the spread of both internal states (beliefs,
>thoughts, attitudes and intentions, and, critically, their resultant
>behaviour between individuals i.e. it is a social process. I know this
>seems a wishy washy middle point between you, and that happy couple Aaron
>and Richard - but I think by looking at memetics as an explanatory framework
>with an innovative heuristic device might prove to more useful, rather than
>becoming to pre-occupied over the unanswerable question over the ontological
>status of a meme.
How eloquently spoken! It seems to me we're finally getting somewhere :-)
Ton
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