Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 17:22:18 +1000
From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.edu.au>
Subject: RE: socially selected memes
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B203492BE@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl>
On Thu, 29 Jul 1999 09:08:05 +0200 D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl
(Gatherer, D. (Derek)) wrote:
>John:
>If Popper is a Fisherian, Feyerabend is a Wrightean. He likes variation
>and drift.
>
>Derek:
>Indeed, and one might even say that Kuhn was a Eldredge/Gould-ian
>punctuationist.
Except that Kuhn was a progressionist (see the afterword to the 1970
edition of SSR):
Imagine an evolutionary tree representing the development of the modern
scientific specialities from their common origins in, say, primitive
natural philosophy and the crafts. A line drawn up that tree, never
doubling back, from the trunk to the tip of some branch would trace a
succession of theories related by descent. Considering any two such
theories, chosen from points not too near their origin, it should be
easy to design a list of criteria that would enable an uncommitted
observer to distinguish the earlier from the more recent theory time
after time. Among the most useful would be: accuracy of prediction,
particularly of quantitative prediction; the balance between esoteric
and everyday subject matter; and the number of different problems
solved. - Those lists are not yet the ones required, but I have no doubt
they can be completed. If they can, then scientific development is, like
biological, a unidirectional and irreversible process. Later scientific
theories are better than earlier ones for solving puzzles in the often
quite different environments to which they are applied. That is not a
relativist's position, and it displays the sense in which I am a
convinced believer in scientific progress. (Kuhn 1970: 205f)
It's also more a Scala Naturae version of evolution, akin to Lamarck's,
than Darwinian. One could imagine a memetic Gouldian having kittens at
such a statement.
Some attempts to apply PE to culture can be found in the latter essays
in
Peterson, Steven A., and Albert Somit. The dynamics of evolution: the
punctuated equilibrium debate in the natural and social sciences.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
--John Wilkins, Head, Graphic Production The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research Melbourne, Australia <mailto:wilkins@WEHI.EDU.AU><http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins> Homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus of Rotterdam
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