Memes versus signs

On the use of meaning concepts about nature and culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4472425
AutoresErkki Kilpinen (autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen2008
Número171
Fecha de publicación2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/semi.2008.075
OpenAlexW2076759817
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas10

In recent years, the so-called ‘meme’ concept, originally introduced by Richard Dawkins and modelled analogously after the phenomenon of gene, has aroused much discussion. There have also been attempts to develop a systematic discipline of ‘memetics’ upon this notion, and suggestions that this opens up unforeseen possibilities for studying human culture in a new way, as compatible with biological evolution. This article argues that these attempts are misguided. The meme is a new word but not a new concept, it is only a new version of the traditional semiotic concept of sign. More pointedly, the meme is not merely an old idea in new clothing, it is in all important respects an inferior alternative to the semiotic sign. The consequence of this is that the suggested memetics would leave open the cleavage between the study of nature and culture that semiotics traditionally has attempted to close

Clothing · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Memetics · Phenomenon · Semiotics · Semiotics of culture · Sign (mathematics) · Sign system · Sociology · Communication · History · Language and cultural evolution · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy