On Memetics

For most traditional meme enthusiasts, memes are "the new replicators" - or are practically defined in terms of the Dawkins replic...

I've covered the work of Sylvain Magne here before, see: Sylvain Magne: information vs codes Sylvain Magne: What is a meme? Here...

Another passage from Geoffrey Miller's meme critique (see also the previous post ) reads: genes and memes are not the only alternativ...

Geoffrey Miller comes across as yet another evolutionary psychologist who is clueless about memes and cultural evolution. However, I recentl...

Here is Dennett, introducing his idea of an age of post-intelligent design : The age of intelligent design is only a few thousand years ol...

Most modern meme critics frequently recycle the same content. Jordan Peterson seems to have come up with a new critique in a recent discussi...

I think most proponents of cultural evolution acceot the idea that it has a Lamarckian component. I have writen about the topic before - e.g...

Another claim in the recent Creanzaa, Kolodny and Feldman document ( Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters ) ...

It's frustrating:: critics keep repeating the same long-debunked objections to memetics. Jerry Coyne is one of the latest to raise the...

Here is S. J. Gould in 1996 on why memes won't work (35 minutes in): I think Brenda put her finger on exactly why the meme concept is ...

Three hours of meme criticism from Jean-Francois Gariépy: The audio is not always 100% clear, but he provides an executive summary: In...

It's apparently difficult for people to publicly admit that they were wrong. While cultural evolution has seen its share of criticisms o...

Thomas C. Scott-Phillips has recently weighed in on the 'cultural attraction' issue. Acerbi Alberto drew my attention to the paper w...

I've previously referenced Richard Lewontin 's lectures on cultural evolution here . Lewontin was clearly skeptical of the topic. ...

An oft-cited criticism of memes comes from Kalevi Kull (2000) who wrote: Meme is just an externalist view to sign, which means that meme i...

Here's Steven Rose on memes : The problem is that a meme can be almost anything: a fashion for wearing your baseball hat backwards, a ...

Evolutionary revolutionaries face opposition from conservatives, who apparently like their evolutionary theory the way they were taught it ...

Social anthropologist and memeophobe Tim Ingold has recently posted: a piece explaining the problems he has with cultural evolution. He w...

I sometimes pick on Steven Pinker when he says something stupid . Here his ignorance of cultural evolution apparently leads to a blasé attit...

Joe Brewer has written an essay explaining his enthusiasm for memes . He calls it "meme theory" - instead of "memetics"....