Memetics

Professor Jack M. Balkin

Yale Law School

Syllabus

The following books are assigned for the course. Readings in the Supplemental materials are noted as "Supp."

1. Robert Aunger, The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think (Free Press 2002) ISBN: 0743201507

2. J.M. Balkin, Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology (Yale Univ Press 1998) ISBN: 0300072880

3. Susan J. Blackmore, The Meme Machine (Oxford Press 2000) ISBN: 019286212X

4. Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (Basic Books 2002) ISBN: 0465006965

5. Daniel Dennett, Freedom Evolves (Penguin USA 2004) ISBN: 0142003840

6. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (W.W. Norton & Company 1999) ISBN: 0393317552

1. Introduction: Models of Cultural Evolution (1/26/2004)

• Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (selections), Supp.
  

• Daniel C. Dennett, The Evolution of Culture, Supp.
  
• Robert Augner, "Three roads to cultural recurrence," in The Epidemiology of Ideas, ed. by Dan Sperber. Chicago: Open Court, Supp.

2. Memes and Cultural Software (2/1/2004)

• J.M. Balkin, Cultural Software, pp. 1-97

3. Memetic Drive and Imitation (2/9/2004)

• Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine
  

• Susan Blackmore, The Memes Eye View, Supp.

4. Criticisms of the Memetic Model (2/16/2004)

• David Hull, Taking memetics seriously: Memetics will be what we make it, Supp.
  

• Kevin Laland and John Odling-Smee, The Evolution of the Meme, Supp.
  
• Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson, Memes: Universal Acid or a Better Mousetrap?, Supp.
  
• Dan Sperber, An Objection To the Memetic Approach To Culture, Supp.
  
• Adam Kuper, If memes are the answer, what is the question?, Supp.
  
• Maurice Bloch, A Well Disposed Social Anthropologists' Problems with Memes, Supp.

5. Comparing Evolutionary Psychology, Memetics, and Gene-Culture Co-evolution (2/23/2004)

• Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown, Sense and Nonsense, (selections), Supp.

6. Where Memes Live (3/1/2004)

• Robert Aunger, The Electric Meme

7. Networks, Cascades and Fads (3/8/2004)

• Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (selections), Supp.
  

• Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Linked: The New Science of Networks (Selections), Supp.
  
• Duncan Watts, Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (Selections), Supp.

8. Diffusion of Innovations (3/22/2004)

• Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel

9. Memetics and Ideology (3/29/2004)

• J.M. Balkin, Cultural Software, pp. 101-294

10. Memetics and Religion (4/12/2004) (no class 4/5/2004)

• Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained

11. Memetics and Freedom (4/19/2004)

• Daniel C. Dennett, Freedom Evolves

12. Memetics and The Internet (4/23/2004)

• Jack M. Balkin, Freedom of Speech From A Meme's Point of View
  

• Cass R. Sunstein, The Daily We
  
• Jack M. Balkin, Balkinization: What I Learned About Blogging in a Year
  
• Jack M. Balkin, Balkinization: Political Discussion and Political Organization on the Internet
  
• Laura Trippi, Power Laws, Discourse, and Democracy
  
• Clay Shirky, Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality
  
• Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila, The Semantic Web
  
• Clay Shirky, The Semantic Web, Syllogism and Worldview

13. Cultural Evoultion and Progress (5/3/2004)

• Robert Wright, Non-Zero (selections)