Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 13:40:08 -0700
From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: implied or inferred memes
Dear Jake,
Jake:
What I mean by saying "effectively on a genetic leash," however, is whether or not culture -- specifically memetics -- is sufficiently an emergent phenomenon in its own right, such that it does not make as much sense to explain it scientifically in terms of genetics.
Bill:
OIC. Thanks. <s>
Jake:
Many sociobiologists (though perhaps not all) would probably still say that genes form a better explanation for cultural phenomenon than anything currently offered in the established social sciences.
In fact, minus memetics being part of the social sciences -- which it is
still striving for such a place -- I would tend to agree with them. Prior to memetics, I would say that almost everything I have encountered in social sciences has been clearly under the sway of one political ideology or another. . . .
Compared to these other hack sciences * (a few notches above "pseudosciences"), memetics is at least based on something other than political ideology that actually has something to do with real scientific evolutionary theory, as opposed to someone's fantasy.
Bill:
Interesting viewpoint. Thanks.
Best,
Bill
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