Abstract

ABSTRACTSome arguments that are delivered in a dialectical exchange are never again recalled. Others are repeated again and again across argumentative situations and settle in a community's shared cognitive environment, thus demonstrating a memetic quality along lines that have become popular with several cultural theorists as a way of describing the evolution of culture. Moreover, some arguments may themselves act as memes. If memes “are replicators and tend to increase in number whenever they have the chance” (Blackmore 1999, 37), then they should be of interest to rhetoricians and argumentation theorists. I explore the relationship between arguments and memes, considering the nature of the meme and its argumentative potential. While controversial, meme theory promises to shed new light on how persuasion works in our mutual cognitive environments, and the attention it gives to how reasons move from mind to mind encourages the effort of the exploration.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2017-11-15
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.50.4.0566
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Argumentation

References (46) · 3 in this index

  1. Anthony, Susan B. 1873. “On Women's Right to Vote.” www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm.
  2. Aristotle. 1984. “Poetics.” In The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, ed. Jonathan Barnes, 2316–40. Princet…
  3. Ball, John A. 1984. “Memes as Replicators.” Ethology and Sociobiology 5 (3): 145–61.
  4. Blackmore, Susan. 1999. The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. Argumentation
Show all 46 →
  1. Cicero, Marcus. 1949. Topics. Trans. H. M. Hubbell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  2. Damasio, Anthony. 1994. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. London: Picador.
  3. Dawkins, Richard. 1976. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Dawkins, Richard. 2013. An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist. New York: HarperCollins.
  5. Dawkins, Richard. 2015. Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science. New York: HarperCollins
  6. Dennett, Daniel. 1995. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  7. Dennett, Daniel. 2003. Freedom Evolves. London: Penguin.
  8. Dennett, Daniel. 2006. Breaking the Spell. London: Penguin.
  9. Dennett, Daniel. 2013. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. New York: Norton.
  10. Dennett, Daniel. 2017. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. New York: Norton.
  11. Eemeren, Frans H., van, and Rob Grootendorst. 1992. Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies. Hillsdale, N…
  12. Eemeren, Frans H., van. 2004. A Systematic Theory of Argumentation: The Pragma-Dialectical Approach. Cambridg…
  13. Garssen, Bart. 2001. “Argument Schemes.” In Crucial Concepts in Argumentation Theory, ed. Frans H. van Eemere…
  14. Goddu, Geoff. 2011. “Is ‘Argument’ Subject to the Product/Process Ambiguity?” Informal Logic 31 (2): 75–88.
  15. Jan, Steven B. 2007. The Memetics of Music: A Neo-Darwinian View of Musical Structure and Culture. New York: …
  16. Kennedy, George A. 2007. Aristotle on Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  17. Kienpointner, Manfred. 1986. “Towards a Typology of Argumentative Schemes.” In Argumentation Across the Lines…
  18. Rhetorica
  19. Mercier, Hugo, and Dan Sperber. 2011. “Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory.” Behavior…
  20. Mercier, Hugo. 2017. The Enigma of Reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  21. Midgley, Mary. 2010: The Solitary Self: Darwin and the Selfish Gene. Durham, UK: Acumen.
  22. Midgley, Mary. 1994. Letter to the editor. New Scientist, 12 Feb., 50.
  23. Miller, Carolyn R. 2000. “The Aristotelian Topos: Hunting for Novelty.” In Rereading Aristotle's “Rhetoric,” …
  24. Nicklas, Pascal. 2015. “Biopolitics of Adaptation.” In The Politics of Adaptation: Media Convergence and Ideo…
  25. Peirce, Charles S. 1892. “The Law of Mind.” Monist 2 (4): 533–59.
  26. Peirce, Charles S. 1992. The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings. Vol. 1. Ed. Nathan Hauser and…
  27. Peirce, Charles S. 1998. The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings. Vol. 2. Ed. Peirce Edition Pr…
  28. Perelman, Chaïm. 1982. The Realm of Rhetoric. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
  29. Perelman, Chaïm, and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. 1969. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Trans. John…
  30. Pyper, Hugh S. 2008. “The Selfish Text: The Bible and Memetics.” In A Memetics Compendium. ed. Robert. Finkel…
  31. Richards, I. A. 1936. The Philosophy of Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.
  32. Richards, Jennifer. 2008. Rhetoric. New York: Routledge.
  33. Argumentation
  34. Santibáñez, Cristián. 2012. “Mercier and Sperber's Argumentative Theory of Reasoning: From the Psychology of …
  35. Santibáñez, Cristián. 2015. “Steps Towards and Evolutionary Account of the Argumentative Competence.” Informa…
  36. Solon, Olivia. 2013. “Richard Dawkins on the Internet's Hijacking of the Word ‘Meme.’” 20 June. www.wired.co.…
  37. Sperber, Dan. 2000. “An Objection to the Memetic Approach to Culture.” In Darwinizing Culture: The Status of …
  38. Thagard, Paul. 2000. Coherence in Thought and Action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  39. Tindale, Christopher W. 2011. “Out of the Space of Reasons: Argumentation, Agent, and Persons.” Pragmatics an…
  40. Tindale, Christopher W. 2015. The Philosophy of Argument and Audience Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge Univers…
  41. Whately, Richard. 1963. Elements of Rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press.