It means that if I talk about memes, I leave myself open to an easy challenge to which I currently have no reply. I’d really like a good reply, since I think it’s a genuinely useful aid to thinking about what it means for an idea to be popular, so if you have one I’m keen to hear it!
Suppose I present a concrete non-rigorous analogy: “A chain letter is like an organism with a habitat of human minds.”. What is the easy challenge that I have left myself open to? I already freely conceded that it was non-rigorous.
You leave yourself open to the reply that the non-rigorousness of the analogy makes it useless or even pernicious. Owning up to a fault doesn’t make it go away.
Would you say that “We have no way of being rigorous about it” means that we shouldn’t teach the meme analogy?
It means that if I talk about memes, I leave myself open to an easy challenge to which I currently have no reply. I’d really like a good reply, since I think it’s a genuinely useful aid to thinking about what it means for an idea to be popular, so if you have one I’m keen to hear it!
Suppose I present a concrete non-rigorous analogy: “A chain letter is like an organism with a habitat of human minds.”. What is the easy challenge that I have left myself open to? I already freely conceded that it was non-rigorous.
Johnicholas:
You leave yourself open to the reply that the non-rigorousness of the analogy makes it useless or even pernicious. Owning up to a fault doesn’t make it go away.
Congratulations, you have just reduced the proper use of humility to a single proverb. I shall endeavor to go around repeating this.