Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 12:42:20 -0700
From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Dawkins' Mutation Test for Replicators
(Amended and continued):
Oops! I said that Japanese rhesus monkeys washed their food. They are macaques.
I have scanned Chapter 6 of "The Extended Phenotype". I do not see where Dawkins applies the mutation test to cultural artifacts and behaviors.
It is true that he regards memes as residing in the brain, and artifacts and behaviors as phenotypes of memes. However, I did not see that he gave any reason for doing so. I doubt if it had anything to do with the mutation test. (Did I overlook something?)
Bill
P. S. I suspect that Dawkins views memes that way by analogy with genes. (Not that my guess about Dawkins's reasons matters. <g>)
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