ミームという視点

Abstract

This paper partly defends and partly criticizes Sterelny's maneuver on the meme's-eye view through comparison with Blackmore, Dennett, and Distin's arguments. His maneuver consists of two parts: the coevolution of memes and us, and meme's usefulness and modularity. I argue that Sterelny's maneuver is partly successful in that the coevolution of memes and us can defend the meme's-eye view against the claim that memes are unnecessary for the explanation of cultural evolution, comparing this first part of the maneuver with Blackmore and Dennett's "memetic drive". Moreover, Sterelny argues that meme's usefulness and modularity can also save the meme's-eye view and are important for memetic evolution. While defending the latter view referring to Distin's arguments, I argue that these properties can be explained in terms of our cognitive and social environments, therefore we cannot use these properties when defending the meme's-eye view. Finally, by considering whether the modified version of Sterelny's maneuver can be applied to other cases or not, I investigate the future of the meme's-eye view.