[page completion eta 2020-05-26]
[note to self: this is an infscr anotated illustrative bibliography – not a complete citation index! – use it as excuse to sort out bookshelves]
These pages of this site deliberatly intended to downplay scholarlyness in order to emphasise the practicality of cliology and memetics. Good engineering, of course, has a solid scientific literature, and cliology, were it to become a thing, would be based on stacks of interdiciplinary research.
It is tempting to get all academic and fill these pages with citations, but for the sake of clarity and time, they are ommitted. However, some of the key themes and research programmes are listed here, along with a few selected texts. This site will endevour to evaluate certain foundational works pertaining to cliology in the review section. As these reviews are somewhat deeply involved, then the effort is taking rather a long time.
This lot needs ordering and much can be cut out. Journal articles and websites ommitted. Links to amazon?
I once saw an academic pick up a new book and turn immediately to the citations section, skimming through the authors. The first time I noticed this action, I thought it was some kind of vanity search. Then I caught myself doing it. I realised that being familiar with a lot of the literature, but not all, I was looking at where the author was coming from. I could gather much of the content’s argument from the stances of the references and figure out what unfamiliar stuff was in it from the titles I did not recognise. This page is presented in that vein. While there are many theoretical areas and popular science titles, it should be apparent that my view of what cliology should be about heavily leans on persuasion including sales and linguistics. The balance of titles presented here should not be taken as a cliologcal cannon, rather it represents my own personal bias.
Chaos and complexity, network science, maths
While cliology can be thought of as dealing with culture, it is very much grounded in natural science. Fundamentally, it rests on systems theory: complex adaptive systems, chaos and complexity.
- Duke, D. Richard. Gaming: The Future’s Language
- Gleick, James. Chaos: The Amazing Science of the Unpredictable
- Godel Escher Bach
- O’Connor, Joseph & McDermott, Ian. The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving.
- Polya, G. How to Solve It
- Slobodkin, Lawrance B. Simplicity & Complexity in Games of the Intellect
- Smullyan, Raymond: To Mock a Mockingbird
- Watts, Duncan, J. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
Evolution and Biology
At the next level, en route to culture, is evolutionary biology, which is an extension of complex adaptive systems thinking.
- Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species
- Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene
- Dawkins, Richard. River Out Of Eden
- Dawkins, Richard. The Extended Phenotype
- Dennett, Daniel C. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
- Dunbar, Robin. Grooming Gossip and the Evolution of Language
- Huxley, Julian & Kettlewell, H. B. D. Charles Darwin and His World
- Ridley, Matt. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
- Rose, Hilary & Rose, Steven. Alas Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology.
- Wilson, David Slone. This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution
- Wilson, E. O. Sociobiology
Psychology, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Cultural Evolutionary Psychology
This is the level of culture, evolution and psychology which examines how culture evolves on top of our biological evolution.
- Hayes, Cecilia. Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking
- Rokeach, Milton. Beliefs Attitudes and Values: A Theory of Organization and Change
Memetics
Memetics can be seen as an extension to the theory of cultural evolutionary psychology that explicitly employs the meme-gene analogue to explain culture.
- Beck, Don Edward & Cowan, Christopher, C. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change.
- Brodie, Richard. Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme
- Blackmore, Susan. The Meme Machine
- Lasn, Kalle. Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics.
- Lynch, Aaron. Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society.
- Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- Minshall, Britt. The Book of Meme Law: Understand the Hidden Forces that Control Human Existence.
- Price, If. & Shaw, Ray. Shifting the Patterns.
- Wilson, Edward. & Unruh, Wes. The Art of Memetics
- Zarella, Dan. Zarella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness
Behavioural Economics
Cliology is theoretically based in cultural evolutionary psychology, but very much aligns with the practical goals of behavioural economics.
- Ayres, Ian. Super crunchers
- Barabasi, A. L. The Formula: the science behind why people succeed or fail
- Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking Fast and Slow
- Thaler & Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happyness
Persuasion, influence, propaganda, thought-shaping
The practical implications of cliology, as aligned with behavioural economics, is that of shaping culture through promoting changes in mass actions and thoughts. Memes are the vehicle for propagating methods of persuasion.
- Bernays, Edward. Propaganda
- Cialdini, Robert, B. Influence: Science and Practice.
- Ellul, Jaques. Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
- Reucek, Joseph, S. Social Control.
Logic and argumentation
One component of persuasion is that of reasoning and logic. Theories of argumentation are built into methods of constructing memes in an effort to propagate mass behavioural change.
- Heinrichs, Jay. Winning Arguments
- Kuhn, Thomas, S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
- Pirie, Marsden. How To Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic.
- Ramage, John, D. et. al. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric With Readings.
- Schopenhauer, Arthur The Art of Always Being Right: Thirty-Eight Ways to Win When You Are Defeated.
- Shermer, Michael. The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense
- Shermer, Michael. Why People Believe Wierd Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other Confusions of Our Time.
- Toulmin, Stephen. The Uses of Argument
Sales, advertising, marketing, PR, consumer behaviour, negotiation
A clear example of how memetic persuasion is applied goes by less scientifically based but more commonly named commercial activity associated with sales.
- Brown, Rob How to Build Your Reputation
- Burt, Tim. Dark Art: The Changing Face of Public Relations
- Davies, Nick. Flat Earth News
- Etherington, Bob. Selling Skills for Complete Amateurs
- Ewen, Stuart. PR! A Social History of Spin.
- Kennedy, Gavin. The New Negotiating Edge: The Behavioural Approach for Results and Relationships
- Linstrom, Martin. Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong
- Lindstrom, Martin. Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy.
- Lovell, Mark. & Potter, Jack. Assessing the Effectiveness of Advertising.
- McConnell, Ben &Huba, Jackie. Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer SalesForce.
- Moore. Geoffrey, A. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Product to Mainstream Customers.
- Poundstone, William. Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
- Roman, Kenneth. & Maas, Jane. How to Advertise: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why.
- Rampton, S. & Strauber, John. Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future.
- Rampton, S. & Strauber, John. Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq.
- Silverman, George. The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth.
- Stark, Peter, B & Flaherty, Jane. The Only Negotiating Guide You’ll Ever Need
- Strauber, John. & Rampton, S. Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
- Trout, Jack. Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition.
- Underhill, Paco. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.
- Woods, Walter, A. Consumer Behaviour.
Organisational theory, management science, Business
Routines and competences are the backbones of organisations ranging from the rituals of tribal groups to the complexities of governmental departments, international NGOs and global corporations. Memetics can be used to decipher the “DNA” of organisations, and cliology can be applied to organisational development.
- Beer, Stafford. Management Science
- Burrell, Gibson. Pandemonium: Towards a Retro-Organisational Theory
- Morgan, Gareth. Images of Organisations.
- Nalebuff, Barry J. & Brandenburger, Adam M. Co-opetition
- Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation.
- Trompenaars, Fons & Hampden-Turner, Charles. Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business
Strategy, Tactics, War
Memes are implicated in conflict and competition as such emerge from a clash of ideas. Memes, like organisms, are survival machines and adopt various strategems in their interaction with other memes.
- Ohmae, Kenichi. The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business
- Tung, Douglas, S. & Tung, Kenneth. More Than 36 Strategems
- Von Clausewitz, Carl von. On War
Contextual Behavioural Science, Behaviourism
Of course, individual and group behaviour can be investigated without meme theory and the modern reboot of behaviourism: contextual behavioural science is informative for cliology.
- Biglan, Anthony. Changing Cultural Practices: A Contextualist Framework for Intervention Research
- Chomsky’s reply
- Skinner, B. F. About Behaviourism.
- Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity
- Wann, T. W. (Ed.) Behaviourism and Phenomenology: Contrasting Bases for Modern Psychology.
Psychotherapy, NLP, TA, Hypnosis etc.
Methods of psychotherapy and change emerge from the underlying descriptive sciences of psychology. Behavioural coding, persuasion, and influence employ models for intentional and practical purposes; whether for therapy, commerce or other needs for changing mindsets and culture. Cliology’s engineering orientation, as a framework and toolkit for changing cultural practice, draws heavily from the array of techniques used in effective communication.
- Alman, Brian, M. & Lambrou, Peter. Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Manual for Health and Self-Change
- Ambrose & Newbold: A Handbook of Medical Hypnosis.
- Andreas, Connirae. & Andreas, Steve. Heart of the Mind: Engaging Your Inner Power to Change.
- Andreas, Steve. & Andreas, Connirae. Change Your Mind and Keep the Change
- Bandler, Richard. & Grinder, John. Frogs into Princes: Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- Bandler, Richard. & Grinder, John. Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning.
- Bandler, Richard. & Grinder, John. The Structure of Magic: Volume 1
- Bandler, Richard. & Grinder, John. Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD: Volume 1
- Bandler, Richard. User Your Brain for a Change
- Bandler, Richard. & MacDonald, Will. An Insider’s Guide to Sub-Modalities
- Battino, Rubin. & South, L. Thomas. Ericsonian Approaches: A Comprehensive Manual.
- Berne, Eric. Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships.
- Berne, Eric. What Do You Say After You Say Hello?
- Brodie, Richard. Getting Past OK: A Straightforward Guide to Having a Fantastic Life
- Chong, Dennis, K. & Smith-Chong, Jennifer, K. Don’t Ask Why: A Book About the Structure of Blame, Bad Communication and Miscommunication.
- Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
- Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. The Evolving Self
- Cooke, C. E. & Van Vogt, A. E. Hypnotism Handbook.
- Dilts, Robert. Changing Belief Systems with NLP
- Farrelly, Frank. & Brandsma, Jeff. Provocative Therapy.
- Grinder, John., DeLozier, Judith., & Bandler, Richard. Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD: Volume 2
- Grinder, John. & Bandler, Richard. Trans-formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis.
- Grinder, John. & Bandler, Richard. The Structure of Magic: Volume 2
- Hall, L. Michael. Mind Lines: Lines for Changing Minds.
- Hall, L. Michael. The Sourcebook of Magic: A comprehensive Guide to the Technology of NLP.
- Hayley, Jay. Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson. MD.
- Lankton, Steve. Practical Magic: A Translation of Basic Neuro-Linguistic Programming into Clinical Psychotherapy.
- Lawley, James & Tompkins, Penny. Metaphors In Mind: Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling
- Milton H. Erickson. Hypnotic Alteration of Sensory, Perceptual and Psychophysiological Processes.
- Norem, Julie, K. The Positive Power of Negative Thinking.
- O’Connor, Joseph. & Seymour, John. Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People.
- Peters, Steve. The Silent Guides: Understanding and Developing the Mind Throughout Life
- Peters, Steve. The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme for Confidence, Success and Happiness
- Peters, Steve. My Hidden Chimp: Helping Children to Understand and Manage their Emotions, Thinking and Behaviour with TEN Helpful Habits.
- Robbins, Anthony. Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny.
- Rose Charvet, Shelle. Words That Change Minds: Mastering the Language of Influence.
- Stewart, Ian. & Joines, Vann. TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis.
- Seligman, Martin, E. Learned Optimism: How to Change your Mind and Your Life.
- Seligman, E. P. Martin. Authentic Happiness.
- Watzlawick, Paul. Muchhausen’s Pigtial: or Psychotherapy & “Reality”.
- Watzlawick, Paul., Weakland, John. & Fisch, Richard. Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution
- Watzlawick, Paul., Beavin Bavelas, Janet., & Jackson, D. Don. Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes.
- Watzlawick, Paul. (Ed.) The Invented Reality: How Do We Know What We Believe We Know? (Contributions to Constructivism)
- Wolinsky, Stephen. Trances People Live: Healing Approaches in Quantum Psychology.
Religion, Cults, Magic and Illusion, mindfulness etc.
Religion, in the widest sense, provides cases of how non-scientifically verifiable memes can proliferate. Some of the principles are maladaptive, many are beneficial (albeit with some metaphysical explanandum), most are benign. Cliology looks to the dynamics of their spread to learn how to employ those mechanisms within designer memes. It also considers how beneficial traditional techniques for change, discredited and lost because of their implausible explanations, can be revised, updated and employed practically given a modern framework of understanding.
- Bonewits, Philip. Real Magic
- Hassan, Stephen. Combatting Cult Mind Control
- Hine, Phil. Condensed Chaos: an introduction to Chaos Magic
- Houdini, Harry. On Deception
- Howe, Mark. Open Air Evangelism: A Practical Handbook
- Macknik, Stephen. & Martinez-Conde, Susana. Slights of Mind: What Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about our Brains
- Piattelli-Palmarini, Massimo. Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds
- Singer, Margaret Thaler. Cults In Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in our Everyday Lives.
- Turner, Victor. Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society.
- Warner, Graham. The Evangelism Handbook: Gaining the World Without Losing Your Soul
Other
Superhuman
The sweet spot