Tim Tyler: Internalism vs externalism in memetics

One controversial issue in memetics since its early days concerns whether memes can be usefully said to be embodied in images, videos, and texts, or alternatively whether memes are things that only exist inside human minds. This is the internalism vs externalism debate. In this video, I come firmly down on the side of externalism.

Transcript: http://on-memetics.blogspot.com/2011/09/tim-tyler-internalism-vs-externalism-...

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"Memetics: Memes and the Science of Cultural Evolution."

Amazon.com link: http://amazon.com/dp/1461035260/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• memetics
• internalism
• externalism

[viorelagocs]

In the end I think that the whole debate goes down to weather the memes are concrete (internalism) or abstract (externalism) entities...

[tmtyler]

@viorelagocs Yes - and it is true that this is a matter of definition - and so this is a debate over terminology. However, some definitions are better than others...

[tmtyler]

I'm not sure what background you are looking for - but there are a number of other explanations of what "internalism" and "externalism" mean in the context of memetics - e.g. start with the "Memetics" article on Wikipedia.

[apekillssnake]

@tmtyler Philosophy is well established, memetics I'm not so sure about, this is why I dismissed the notion of it some years ago, when it first really started to come out! I think without proper understanding the mental aspects of internalism it is wrong to kill it, dont you think! I'm happy to revise my concept by checking as you have said, but for now I think the philosophic argument stands.You did not really answer if you were referring to mind as brain, which would then change the landscape

[apekillssnake]

I dont agree with the framing of this via internalism or externalism because this fails to explain the philosophy behind either. Are you referring to mind as brain or mind as something other than brain here?