Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 16:05:24 -0600
From: "Dr. (Mr.) Kelly J. Salsbery" <salsbery@niu.edu>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk, salsbery@niu.edu
Subject: Papers critical of memetics
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On the web one can find many sites that are devoted to listing
papers that advocate the notion of memes and memetics. I think
that it would also be good to list papers that are critical of the
meme concept as well. We often learn a great deal when we
attempt to answer our critics.
For instance, I've heard nothing on this list about a
recent paper in _Skeptic_(1998, Vol 6:3) titled, "Memes: What are
They Good For" by James W. Polichak. I don't agree with Polichak's
conclusions, but he makes some good points. Overall, he seems aware
only of the less technical aspects of the memetics literature. He seems
to ignore
the more technical of Lynch's papers, all of the papers of Gabora, and
most of
the memetics papers written by our talented group of social scientists
(Gatherer, Marsden et. al) except for Speel.
I would like to hear some discussion about Polichak and some of the
other critics of memetics.
Dr. K. J. Salsbery
Department of Philosophy
Northern Illinois University
salsbery@niu.edu
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On the web one can find many sites that
are devoted to listing
papers that advocate the notion
of memes and memetics. I think
that it would also be good to list
papers that are critical of the
meme concept as well.
We often learn a great deal when we
attempt to answer our critics.
For instance, I've heard nothing
on this list about a
recent paper in _Skeptic_(1998,
Vol 6:3) titled, "Memes: What are
They Good For" by James W. Polichak.
I don't agree with Polichak's
conclusions, but he makes some good
points. Overall, he seems aware
only of the less technical aspects
of the memetics literature. He seems to ignore
the more technical of Lynch's papers, all of the papers of Gabora, and
most of
the memetics papers written by our
talented group of social scientists
(Gatherer, Marsden et. al) except
for Speel.
I would like to hear some discussion
about Polichak and some of the
other critics of memetics.
Dr. K. J. Salsbery
Department of Philosophy
Northern Illinois University
salsbery@niu.edu
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