OPEN SEMIOTICS RESOURCE CENTER

Virtual Symposia

The Toronto Semiotic Circle organized a symposium on "Imitation, Memory, and Cultural Changes: Probing the Meme Hypothesis" held at Victoria College (University of Toronto), Northrop Frye Hall, Room 205, on May 4-6, 2007.

This event was organized with the financial support of Victoria University (SSHRC and Principal Office grants), the Departments of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Toronto, the Emilio Goggio Chair of Italian Studies, and in cooperation with the Open Semiotic Resource Center.

Rationality, Evolution, and the Meme Concept

Abstract

From a psychological standpoint, the fundamental insight of memetics is that a belief may spread without necessarily being true or helping the human being who holds the belief in any way. “Helping the human” of course can be cashed out in terms of the distinction between replicators and vehicles, yielding a fourfold categorization of meme efficacy/inefficacy. The two categories that involve meme replication in the absence of vehicle benefit link the controversies surrounding the meme concept to what has been termed the Great Rationality Debate in cognitive science. The implications of this debate for controversies in memetics will be explored. It will be argued that many controversies are dissolved when the importance of the grain size of belief is understood.