Memes are indeed an interesting theory.
What I have read indicates: The theory is quite new and poorly tested. It is very loosely defined, and people who talk about memes don't entirely agree one to the next just what the entity is that they are talking about.
Your article addresses this subject as though it were well-established fact, as opposed to what it has seemed to me - a rather new fad in psychological/philosophical circles still trying to define itself and isolate its subject matter.
I think talk about memes is bad psychology and even worse philosophy. :-/
Most such talk
is pretty bad. But that's because most of those who use the term don't understand what Dawkins was really talking about, and extrapolate the idea far beyond good science. Of course psychology doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation of solid science anyway... --
LDC
I do not really understand why talking about memes is wrong or bad or why talking about any kind of philosophical fact is wrong or bad. I am sorry for that but I had really been lured by the idea of meme, when I first read it, because it seemed to shed light on many questions in my mind. I do not personally think that it is the best way to understand the meme theory in the initial form described by Dawkins and write that to Wikipedia. As the meme theory suggests the ideas evolve and the meme theory is not an exception for that. So, writing the different versions of this theory as understood by different scholars seems to me more beneficial. I can not understand the harsh criticism brought to the meme theory. As the theory itself suggests that there are no good or bad ideas. There are ideas that are more prone to spread among people and thus survive for a longer time and the meme theory seems to be a good candidate for this. So, can anyone please "enlighten" me about what is so wrong with this theory?
Secondly, I believe that, when someone changes the initial form of an article completely, he/she would better briefly explain in the talk section the bad parts (wrong ideas, bad English etc.) of this initial form. This may be much more didactic for the readers.
ErdemTuzun
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