Replicating Reasons: Arguments, Memes, and the Cognitive Environment

Philosophy & Rhetoric Nov 2017

Replicating Reasons: Arguments, Memes, and the Cognitive Environment

Christopher W. Tindale University of Windsor

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
Open Access: Closed
Topics: argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Regier (2024)

Figuring the Topos: Finding Common Ground in Cognitive Environments

Philosophy & Rhetoric

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 21 works outside this index ↓

Aristotle. 1984. “Poetics.” In The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, ed. Jonathan Barnes, 2316–40. Princet…

↗
Ball, John A. 1984. “Memes as Replicators.” Ethology and Sociobiology 5 (3): 145–61.

↗
Braet, Antoine C. 2005. “The Common Topic in Aristotle's Rhetoric: Precursor of the Argumentation Scheme.” Ar…

↗
Cicero, Marcus. 1949. Topics. Trans. H. M. Hubbell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

↗
Eemeren, Frans H., van. 2004. A Systematic Theory of Argumentation: The Pragma-Dialectical Approach. Cambridg…

↗
Goddu, Geoff. 2011. “Is ‘Argument’ Subject to the Product/Process Ambiguity?” Informal Logic 31 (2): 75–88.

↗
Kienpointner, Manfred. 1986. “Towards a Typology of Argumentative Schemes.” In Argumentation Across the Lines…

↗
Leff, Michael. 1983. “The Topics of Argumentative Invention in Latin Rhetorical Theory from Cicero to Boethiu…

↗
Mercier, Hugo, and Dan Sperber. 2011. “Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory.” Behavior…

↗
Mercier, Hugo. 2017. The Enigma of Reason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

↗
Midgley, Mary. 2010: The Solitary Self: Darwin and the Selfish Gene. Durham, UK: Acumen.

↗
Midgley, Mary. 1994. Letter to the editor. New Scientist, 12 Feb., 50.

↗
Nicklas, Pascal. 2015. “Biopolitics of Adaptation.” In The Politics of Adaptation: Media Convergence and Ideo…

↗
Peirce, Charles S. 1892. “The Law of Mind.” Monist 2 (4): 533–59.

↗
Rubinelli, Sara. 2006. “The Ancient Argumentative Game: τόποι and loci in Action.” Argumentation 20: 253–72.

↗
Santibáñez, Cristián. 2012. “Mercier and Sperber's Argumentative Theory of Reasoning: From the Psychology of …

↗
Santibáñez, Cristián. 2015. “Steps Towards and Evolutionary Account of the Argumentative Competence.” Informa…

↗
Sperber, Dan. 2000. “An Objection to the Memetic Approach to Culture.” In Darwinizing Culture: The Status of …

↗
Thagard, Paul. 2000. Coherence in Thought and Action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

↗
Tindale, Christopher W. 2011. “Out of the Space of Reasons: Argumentation, Agent, and Persons.” Pragmatics an…

↗
Tindale, Christopher W. 2015. The Philosophy of Argument and Audience Reception. Cambridge: Cambridge Univers…

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 5 View in citation network →