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{{Medical anthropology}}


'''Dan Sperber''' (born 20 June 1942 in [[Cagnes-sur-Mer]]) is a [[French people|French]] [[Social science|social]] and [[Cognitive science|cognitive scientist]] and [[philosopher]]. His most influential work has been in the fields of [[cognitive anthropology]], [[linguistic]] [[pragmatics]], [[psychology of reasoning]], and [[philosophy of the social sciences]]. He has developed: an approach to [[cultural evolution]] known as the [[epidemiology of representations]] (or cultural attraction theory)) as part of a [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] reconceptualization of the [[social]]; (with British philosopher and [[linguist]] [[Deirdre Wilson]]) [[relevance theory]]; (with French psychologist Hugo Mercier) the argumentative theory of [[reasoning]]. Sperber formerly ''Directeur de Recherche'' at the ''[[French National Centre for Scientific Research|Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique]]'' is Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the [[Central European University]] in [[Budapest]].
'''Dan Sperber''' (born 20 June 1942 in [[Cagnes-sur-Mer]]) is a French [[Social science|social]] and [[Cognitive science|cognitive scientist]] and philosopher. His most influential work has been in the fields of [[cognitive anthropology]], linguistic [[pragmatics]], psychology of reasoning, and philosophy of the social sciences. He has developed: an approach to [[cultural evolution]] known as the [[epidemiology of representations]] or cultural attraction theory as part of a naturalistic reconceptualization of the social; (with British philosopher and linguist [[Deirdre Wilson]]) [[relevance theory]]; (with French psychologist Hugo Mercier) the argumentative theory of reasoning. Sperber formerly ''Directeur de Recherche'' at the ''[[French National Centre for Scientific Research|Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique]]'' is Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the Central European University in Budapest.


==Background==
==Background==

Sperber is the son of Austrian-French [[novelist]] [[Manès Sperber]]. He was born in France and raised an [[atheism|atheist]], but his parents, both [[Jewish secularism|non-religious]] [[Ashkenazi Jews]], imparted to the young Sperber a "respect for my [[Rabbinic]] ancestors and for religious thinkers of any persuasion more generally".<ref name="GE interview">{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Razib|title=10 questions for Dan Sperber|url=http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2005/12/10-questions-for-dan-sperber.php|work=Gene Expression|access-date=3 March 2011|date=17 December 2005}}</ref> He became interested in [[anthropology]] as a means of explaining how [[rational]] people come to hold mistaken religious beliefs about the [[supernatural]].<ref name="Edge interview">{{cite web|title=Edge: AN EPIDEMIOLOGY OF REPRESENTATIONS: A Talk with Dan Sperber|url=http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sperber05/sperber05_index.html|publisher=Edge|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref>
Sperber is the son of Austrian-French novelist [[Manès Sperber]]. He was born in France and raised an [[Atheism|atheist]] but his parents, both non-religious [[Ashkenazi Jews]], imparted to the young Sperber a "respect for my Rabbinic ancestors and for religious thinkers of any persuasion more generally".<ref name="GE interview">{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Razib|title=10 questions for Dan Sperber|url=http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2005/12/10-questions-for-dan-sperber.php|work=Gene Expression|access-date=3 March 2011|date=17 December 2005}}</ref> He became interested in [[anthropology]] as a means of explaining how rational people come to hold mistaken religious beliefs about the supernatural.<ref name="Edge interview">{{cite web|title=Edge: AN EPIDEMIOLOGY OF REPRESENTATIONS: A Talk with Dan Sperber|url=http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sperber05/sperber05_index.html|publisher=Edge|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref>


==Career==
==Career==

Sperber was trained in anthropology at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and the [[University of Oxford]]. In 1965 he joined the [[Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique]] (CNRS) as a researcher, initially in the ''Laboratoire d'Études Africaines'' ([[African studies]] laboratory). Later he moved to the ''Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative'' ([[Ethnology]] and [[Comparative Sociology]]), the ''[[Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée]]'' and finally, from 2001, the ''[[Institut Jean Nicod]]''.<ref name="Sperber bio">{{cite web|title=Dan Sperber — Biography|url=http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?page_id=2|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> Sperber's early work was on the [[anthropology of religion]],<ref name="Edge interview" /> and he conducted [[Ethnography|ethnographic fieldwork]] among the [[Dorze people]] of [[Ethiopia]].<ref name="Sperber 1975">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Rethinking Symbolism|url=https://archive.org/details/rethinkingsymbol00sper|url-access=registration|year=1975|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-09967-7}}</ref>
Sperber was trained in anthropology at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and the [[University of Oxford]]. In 1965 he joined the [[Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique]] (CNRS) as a researcher, initially in the ''Laboratoire d'Études Africaines'' ([[African studies]] laboratory). Later he moved to the ''Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative'' ([[Ethnology]] and [[Comparative Sociology]]), the ''[[Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée]]'' and finally, from 2001, the ''[[Institut Jean Nicod]]''.<ref name="Sperber bio">{{cite web|title=Dan Sperber — Biography|url=http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?page_id=2|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> Sperber's early work was on the [[anthropology of religion]],<ref name="Edge interview" /> and he conducted [[Ethnography|ethnographic fieldwork]] among the [[Dorze people]] of [[Ethiopia]].<ref name="Sperber 1975">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Rethinking Symbolism|url=https://archive.org/details/rethinkingsymbol00sper|url-access=registration|year=1975|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-09967-7}}</ref>


Sperber was initially attracted to [[structural anthropology]], having been introduced to it by [[Rodney Needham]] at Oxford.<ref name="Dosse 1997 pp. 268-270">{{cite book|last=Dosse|first=François|title=History of Structuralism: The rising sign, 1945-1966 volume 1|year=1997|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-2241-2}}</ref> He attended the seminar of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], credited as the founder of [[structuralism]], who encouraged Sperber's "untypical theoretical musings".<ref name="Sperber 2008a">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0003975608000118 | last1 = Sperber | first1 = Dan | title = Claude Lévi-Strauss, a precursor? | journal = European Journal of Sociology | volume = 49 | issue = 2 | pages = 309–314 | year = 2009}}</ref> Sperber, however, soon developed a more critical attitude to structuralism<ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Le Structuralisme en Anthropologie|url=https://archive.org/details/lestructuralisme0000sper|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=Editions du Seuil|location=Paris}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1353/anq.2010.0012 | last1 = David Berliner | title = ''Lévi-Strauss and Beyond'' (review) | journal = Anthropological Quarterly | volume = 83 | issue = 3 | pages = 679–689 | year = 2010| s2cid = 143554936 }}</ref> and objected to the use [[interpretive]] ethnographic data as if it were an objective record,<ref name="Sperber OAK">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=On Anthropological Knowledge|year=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26748-9}}</ref> and for its lack of explanatory power.<ref name="Sperber ExC">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Explaining culture: a naturalistic approach|year=1998|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-20045-1}}</ref> Nevertheless, Sperber has persistently defended the legacy of Lévi-Strauss' work as opening the door for naturalistic social science, and as an important precursor to [[cognitive anthropology]].<ref name="Sperber 2008a" /><ref name="Sperber 2008b">{{cite web|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Claude Lévi-Strauss at 100: echo of the future|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/claude-levi-strauss-at-100-echo-of-the-future|publisher=openDemocracy.net|access-date=3 March 2011|date=28 November 2008}}</ref>
Sperber was initially attracted to [[structural anthropology]], having been introduced to it by [[Rodney Needham]] at Oxford.<ref name="Dosse 1997 pp. 268-270">{{cite book|last=Dosse|first=François|title=History of Structuralism: The rising sign, 1945-1966 volume 1|year=1997|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-2241-2}}</ref> He attended the seminar of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], credited as the founder of structuralism, who encouraged Sperber's "untypical theoretical musings".<ref name="Sperber 2008a">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0003975608000118 | last1 = Sperber | first1 = Dan | title = Claude Lévi-Strauss, a precursor? | journal = European Journal of Sociology | volume = 49 | issue = 2 | pages = 309–314 | year = 2009}}</ref> Sperber, however, soon developed a more critical attitude to structuralism<ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Le Structuralisme en Anthropologie|url=https://archive.org/details/lestructuralisme0000sper|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=Editions du Seuil|location=Paris}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1353/anq.2010.0012 | last1 = David Berliner | title = ''Lévi-Strauss and Beyond'' (review) | journal = Anthropological Quarterly | volume = 83 | issue = 3 | pages = 679–689 | year = 2010| s2cid = 143554936 }}</ref> and objected to the use [[interpretive]] ethnographic data as if it were an objective record,<ref name="Sperber OAK">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=On Anthropological Knowledge|year=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26748-9}}</ref> and for its lack of explanatory power.<ref name="Sperber ExC">{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Explaining culture: a naturalistic approach|year=1998|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-20045-1}}</ref> Nevertheless, Sperber has persistently defended the legacy of Lévi-Strauss' work as opening the door for naturalistic social science, and as an important precursor to [[cognitive anthropology]].<ref name="Sperber 2008a" /><ref name="Sperber 2008b">{{cite web|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Claude Lévi-Strauss at 100: echo of the future|url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/claude-levi-strauss-at-100-echo-of-the-future|publisher=openDemocracy.net|access-date=3 March 2011|date=28 November 2008}}</ref>


After moving away from structuralism, Sperber sought an alternative naturalistic approach to the [[study of culture]]. His 1975 book ''Rethinking Symbolism'',<ref name="Sperber 1975" /> outlined a theory of [[Symbolic system|symbolism]] using concepts from the burgeoning field of [[cognitive psychology]]. It was formulated as a reply to [[Semiotics|semiological]] theories which were becoming widespread in anthropology through the works of [[Victor Turner]] and [[Clifford Geertz]] (which formed the basis of what come to be known as [[symbolic anthropology]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Basso|first=Keith H.|title=Review: Rethinking Symbolism|journal=Language in Society|year=1976|volume=5|issue=2|pages=240|doi=10.1017/s0047404500007077 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Hurtig|first=Richard|title=Book Reviews: Rethinking Symbolism|journal=Journal of Psycholinguistic Research|year=1977|volume=6|issue=1|pages=73–91|doi=10.1007/BF01069576|s2cid=189853660}}</ref> Sperber's later work has continued to argue for the importance of cognitive processes understood through psychology in understanding cultural phenomena and, in particular, [[cultural transmission]]. His '[[epidemiology of representations]]'<ref name="Sperber OAK" /><ref name="Sperber ExC" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Analytical sociology and social mechanisms|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter-url=http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?p=751|editor=Pierre Demeulenaere|chapter=A naturalistic ontology for mechanistic explanations in the social sciences}}</ref> is an approach to [[cultural evolution]] inspired by the field of [[epidemiology]]. It proposes that the distribution of cultural representations (ideas about the world held by multiple individuals) within a population should be explained with reference to biases in transmission (illuminated by cognitive and [[evolutionary psychology]]) and the "ecology" of the individual minds they inhabit. Sperber's approach is broadly [[Darwinism|Darwinist]]—it explains the macro-distribution of a trait in a population in terms of the cumulative effect micro-processes acting over time—but departs from [[memetics]] because he does not see representations as replicators except for in a few special circumstances (such as [[chain letters]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=163–173|editor=Robert Aunger|chapter=An objection to the memetic approach to culture}}</ref> The cognitive and epidemiological approach to cultural evolution has been influential, and has been described by the philosopher Kim Sterelny as "the Paris School" contrasted to the "California School" of Rob Boyd and Peter Richerson <ref>{{cite book|last=Richerson|first=Peter J.|title=Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution|year=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, Il.|isbn=978-0-226-71284-0|author2=Boyd, Robert}}</ref> <ref> {{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.12.005 | Sternely | Cultural Evolution in California and Paris | journal = Studies in History and Philosophy of Science </ref> <ref>{{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Adam|title=Anthropology and anthropologists: the modern British school|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-11895-8}}</ref> His latest work, published with cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier, has developed their argumentative theory of reasoning into a more general interactionist approach to [[reason]].<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1017/S0140525X10000968 |pmid = 21447233|url = https://repository.upenn.edu/goldstone/15/| volume = 34| issue = 2| pages = 57–74| last1 = Mercier| first1 = Hugo| last2 = Sperber| first2 = Dan| title = Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory| journal = Behavioral and Brain Sciences| date = 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Harvard University Press| isbn = 978-0-674-36830-9| last1 = Mercier| first1 = Hugo| last2 = Sperber| first2 = Dan| title = The Enigma of Reason| location = Cambridge| date = 2017}}</ref>
After moving away from structuralism, Sperber sought an alternative naturalistic approach to the study of culture. His 1975 book ''Rethinking Symbolism'',<ref name="Sperber 1975" /> outlined a theory of [[Symbolic system|symbolism]] using concepts from the burgeoning field of [[cognitive psychology]]. It was formulated as a reply to [[Semiotics|semiological]] theories which were becoming widespread in anthropology through the works of [[Victor Turner]] and [[Clifford Geertz]] (which formed the basis of what come to be known as [[symbolic anthropology]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Basso|first=Keith H.|title=Review: Rethinking Symbolism|journal=Language in Society|year=1976|volume=5|issue=2|pages=240|doi=10.1017/s0047404500007077 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Hurtig|first=Richard|title=Book Reviews: Rethinking Symbolism|journal=Journal of Psycholinguistic Research|year=1977|volume=6|issue=1|pages=73–91|doi=10.1007/BF01069576|s2cid=189853660}}</ref> Sperber's later work has continued to argue for the importance of cognitive processes understood through psychology in understanding cultural phenomena and, in particular, [[cultural transmission]]. His '[[epidemiology of representations]]'<ref name="Sperber OAK" /><ref name="Sperber ExC" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Analytical sociology and social mechanisms|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter-url=http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?p=751|editor=Pierre Demeulenaere|chapter=A naturalistic ontology for mechanistic explanations in the social sciences}}</ref> is an approach to [[cultural evolution]] inspired by the field of [[epidemiology]]. It proposes that the distribution of cultural representations (ideas about the world held by multiple individuals) within a population should be explained with reference to biases in transmission (illuminated by cognitive and [[evolutionary psychology]]) and the "ecology" of the individual minds they inhabit. Sperber's approach is broadly [[Darwinism|Darwinist]]—it explains the macro-distribution of a trait in a population in terms of the cumulative effect micro-processes acting over time—but departs from [[memetics]] because he does not see representations as replicators except for in a few special circumstances (such as [[chain letters]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Sperber|first=Dan|title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=163–173|editor=Robert Aunger|chapter=An objection to the memetic approach to culture}}</ref> The cognitive and epidemiological approach to cultural evolution has been influential, and has been described by the philosopher Kim Sterelny as "the Paris School" contrasted to the "California School" of Rob Boyd and Peter Richerson <ref>{{cite book|last=Richerson|first=Peter J.|title=Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution|year=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, Il.|isbn=978-0-226-71284-0|author2=Boyd, Robert}}</ref> <ref> {{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.12.005 | Sternely | Cultural Evolution in California and Paris | journal = Studies in History and Philosophy of Science </ref> <ref>{{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Adam|title=Anthropology and anthropologists: the modern British school|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-11895-8}}</ref> His latest work, published with cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier, has developed their argumentative theory of reasoning into a more general interactionist approach to [[reason]].<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1017/S0140525X10000968 |pmid = 21447233|url = https://repository.upenn.edu/goldstone/15/| volume = 34| issue = 2| pages = 57–74| last1 = Mercier| first1 = Hugo| last2 = Sperber| first2 = Dan| title = Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory| journal = Behavioral and Brain Sciences| date = 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Harvard University Press| isbn = 978-0-674-36830-9| last1 = Mercier| first1 = Hugo| last2 = Sperber| first2 = Dan| title = The Enigma of Reason| location = Cambridge| date = 2017}}</ref>
His most influential work is arguably in [[linguistics]] and [[philosophy]]: with the British linguist and philosopher [[Deirdre Wilson]] he has developed an innovative approach to linguistic interpretation known as [[relevance theory]] which {{as of | 2010 | lc = on}} has become mainstream in the area of [[pragmatics]], [[linguistics]], [[artificial intelligence]] and [[cognitive psychology]]. He argues that cognitive processes are geared toward the maximisation of relevance, that is, a search for an optimal balance between cognitive efforts and cognitive effects.
His most influential work is arguably in [[linguistics]] and [[philosophy]]: with the British linguist and philosopher [[Deirdre Wilson]] he has developed an innovative approach to linguistic interpretation known as [[relevance theory]] which {{as of | 2010 | lc = on}} has become mainstream in the area of [[pragmatics]], [[linguistics]], [[artificial intelligence]] and [[cognitive psychology]]. He argues that cognitive processes are geared toward the maximisation of relevance, that is, a search for an optimal balance between cognitive efforts and cognitive effects.


As well as his emeritus position at the CNRS, Sperber is currently professor in the departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at [[Central European University]]. He is also the Director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute, a scientific discussion and research website.<ref>{{cite web |title=ICCI - The Institute |url=http://www.cognitionandculture.net/the-institute.html |publisher=International Cognition and Culture Institute |access-date=3 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213211438/http://www.cognitionandculture.net/the-institute.html |archive-date=13 December 2010 }}</ref> He has been visiting professor in philosophy at Princeton (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1994, 1997), the University of Hong Kong (1997), the University of Chicago (2010); in anthropology at the London School of Economics (1988, 1998, 200, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); in linguistics at University College London (1992, 2007-2008); in communication at the Università di Bologna (1998). He is a Corresponding Fellow of the [[British Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|title=British Academy - Fellowship Directory |url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/cor.asp?letter=S |access-date=3 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606120329/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/cor.asp?letter=S |archive-date=6 June 2011 }}</ref> ). He has been awarded Rivers Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute, London in 1991, the Silver Medal of the CNRS in 2002 and in 2009 was awarded the inaugural Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize for excellence of French research in the humanities and social sciences.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dan Sperber, 1er lauréat du Prix Claude Levi-Strauss|url=http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid28486/dan-sperber-1er-laureat-du-prix-claude-levi-strauss.html|publisher=Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR)|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> His named lectures include the Malinowski Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics, 1984; the Mircea Eliade Lectures on Religion, Western Michigan University, 1992; the Henry Sweet Lecture Linguistics Association of Great Britain, 1998; the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture, British Academy, 1999; the Robert Hertz lecture, EHESS, Paris, 2005, the Lurcy Lecture, University of Chicago, 2010; (With Hugo Mercier) the Chandaria Lectures, Institute of Philosophy, University of London, 2011; the Carl Hempel Lectures, Princeton University, Department of Philosophy, 2017.
As well as his emeritus position at the CNRS, Sperber is currently professor in the departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at [[Central European University]]. He is also the Director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute, a scientific discussion and research website.<ref>{{cite web |title=ICCI - The Institute |url=http://www.cognitionandculture.net/the-institute.html |publisher=International Cognition and Culture Institute |access-date=3 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213211438/http://www.cognitionandculture.net/the-institute.html |archive-date=13 December 2010 }}</ref> He has been visiting professor in philosophy at Princeton (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1994, 1997), the University of Hong Kong (1997), the University of Chicago (2010); in anthropology at the London School of Economics (1988, 1998, 200, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); in linguistics at University College London (1992, 2007-2008); in communication at the Università di Bologna (1998). He is a Corresponding Fellow of the [[British Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|title=British Academy - Fellowship Directory |url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/cor.asp?letter=S |access-date=3 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606120329/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/cor.asp?letter=S |archive-date=6 June 2011 }}</ref> ). He has been awarded Rivers Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute, London in 1991, the Silver Medal of the CNRS in 2002 and in 2009 was awarded the inaugural Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize for excellence of French research in the humanities and social sciences.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dan Sperber, 1er lauréat du Prix Claude Levi-Strauss|url=http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid28486/dan-sperber-1er-laureat-du-prix-claude-levi-strauss.html|publisher=Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR)|access-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> His named lectures include the Malinowski Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics, 1984; the Mircea Eliade Lectures on Religion, Western Michigan University, 1992; the Henry Sweet Lecture Linguistics Association of Great Britain, 1998; the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture, British Academy, 1999; the Robert Hertz lecture, EHESS, Paris, 2005, the Lurcy Lecture, University of Chicago, 2010; (With Hugo Mercier) the Chandaria Lectures, Institute of Philosophy, University of London, 2011; the Carl Hempel Lectures, Princeton University, Department of Philosophy, 2017.

==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* ''Le structuralisme en anthropologie'' ([[Éditions du Seuil]], 1973)
* ''Le structuralisme en anthropologie'' ([[Éditions du Seuil]], 1973)
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Revision as of 16:15, 13 September 2021

This article is about the French social and cognitive scientist. For the Israeli rabbi, see Daniel Sperber.
Dan Sperber
Dan Sperber in Paris, December 2012
Born
Dan Sperber

(1942-06-20) 20 June 1942 (age 82)
Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
Alma materSorbonne
University of Oxford
Known forRelevance Theory, Epidemiology of representations, Cultural Attraction Theory, Argumentative Theory of Reasoning
Scientific career
FieldsCognitive anthropology, cognitive psychology, pragmatics, philosophy
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Dan Sperber (born 20 June 1942 in Cagnes-sur-Mer) is a French social and cognitive scientist and philosopher. His most influential work has been in the fields of cognitive anthropology, linguistic pragmatics, psychology of reasoning, and philosophy of the social sciences. He has developed: an approach to cultural evolution known as the epidemiology of representations or cultural attraction theory as part of a naturalistic reconceptualization of the social; (with British philosopher and linguist Deirdre Wilson) relevance theory; (with French psychologist Hugo Mercier) the argumentative theory of reasoning. Sperber formerly Directeur de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique is Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the Central European University in Budapest.

Background

Sperber is the son of Austrian-French novelist Manès Sperber. He was born in France and raised an atheist but his parents, both non-religious Ashkenazi Jews, imparted to the young Sperber a "respect for my Rabbinic ancestors and for religious thinkers of any persuasion more generally".[1] He became interested in anthropology as a means of explaining how rational people come to hold mistaken religious beliefs about the supernatural.[2]

Career

Sperber was trained in anthropology at the Sorbonne and the University of Oxford. In 1965 he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as a researcher, initially in the Laboratoire d'Études Africaines (African studies laboratory). Later he moved to the Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative (Ethnology and Comparative Sociology), the Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée and finally, from 2001, the Institut Jean Nicod.[3] Sperber's early work was on the anthropology of religion,[2] and he conducted ethnographic fieldwork among the Dorze people of Ethiopia.[4]

Sperber was initially attracted to structural anthropology, having been introduced to it by Rodney Needham at Oxford.[5] He attended the seminar of Claude Lévi-Strauss, credited as the founder of structuralism, who encouraged Sperber's "untypical theoretical musings".[6] Sperber, however, soon developed a more critical attitude to structuralism[7][8] and objected to the use interpretive ethnographic data as if it were an objective record,[9] and for its lack of explanatory power.[10] Nevertheless, Sperber has persistently defended the legacy of Lévi-Strauss' work as opening the door for naturalistic social science, and as an important precursor to cognitive anthropology.[6][11]

After moving away from structuralism, Sperber sought an alternative naturalistic approach to the study of culture. His 1975 book Rethinking Symbolism,[4] outlined a theory of symbolism using concepts from the burgeoning field of cognitive psychology. It was formulated as a reply to semiological theories which were becoming widespread in anthropology through the works of Victor Turner and Clifford Geertz (which formed the basis of what come to be known as symbolic anthropology).[12][13] Sperber's later work has continued to argue for the importance of cognitive processes understood through psychology in understanding cultural phenomena and, in particular, cultural transmission. His 'epidemiology of representations'[9][10][14] is an approach to cultural evolution inspired by the field of epidemiology. It proposes that the distribution of cultural representations (ideas about the world held by multiple individuals) within a population should be explained with reference to biases in transmission (illuminated by cognitive and evolutionary psychology) and the "ecology" of the individual minds they inhabit. Sperber's approach is broadly Darwinist—it explains the macro-distribution of a trait in a population in terms of the cumulative effect micro-processes acting over time—but departs from memetics because he does not see representations as replicators except for in a few special circumstances (such as chain letters).[15] The cognitive and epidemiological approach to cultural evolution has been influential, and has been described by the philosopher Kim Sterelny as "the Paris School" contrasted to the "California School" of Rob Boyd and Peter Richerson [16] [17] [18] His latest work, published with cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier, has developed their argumentative theory of reasoning into a more general interactionist approach to reason.[19][20] His most influential work is arguably in linguistics and philosophy: with the British linguist and philosopher Deirdre Wilson he has developed an innovative approach to linguistic interpretation known as relevance theory which as of 2010 has become mainstream in the area of pragmatics, linguistics, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. He argues that cognitive processes are geared toward the maximisation of relevance, that is, a search for an optimal balance between cognitive efforts and cognitive effects.

As well as his emeritus position at the CNRS, Sperber is currently professor in the departments of Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at Central European University. He is also the Director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute, a scientific discussion and research website.[21] He has been visiting professor in philosophy at Princeton (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1994, 1997), the University of Hong Kong (1997), the University of Chicago (2010); in anthropology at the London School of Economics (1988, 1998, 200, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); in linguistics at University College London (1992, 2007-2008); in communication at the Università di Bologna (1998). He is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.[22] ). He has been awarded Rivers Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute, London in 1991, the Silver Medal of the CNRS in 2002 and in 2009 was awarded the inaugural Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize for excellence of French research in the humanities and social sciences.[23] His named lectures include the Malinowski Memorial Lecture, London School of Economics, 1984; the Mircea Eliade Lectures on Religion, Western Michigan University, 1992; the Henry Sweet Lecture Linguistics Association of Great Britain, 1998; the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture, British Academy, 1999; the Robert Hertz lecture, EHESS, Paris, 2005, the Lurcy Lecture, University of Chicago, 2010; (With Hugo Mercier) the Chandaria Lectures, Institute of Philosophy, University of London, 2011; the Carl Hempel Lectures, Princeton University, Department of Philosophy, 2017.

Bibliography

  • Le structuralisme en anthropologie (Éditions du Seuil, 1973)
  • Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge University Press, 1975)
  • On Anthropological Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 1985)
  • (with Deirdre Wilson) Relevance. Communication and Cognition (Blackwell, 1986)
  • (with David Premack & Ann James Premack, eds.) Causal Cognition: A multidisciplinary debate. (Oxford University Press, 1995)
  • Explaining Culture (Blackwell, 1996)
  • (Ed.) Metarepresentations: A multidisciplinary perspective (Oxford University Press, 2000)
  • (With Ira Noveck, eds.) Experimental Pragmatics (Palgrave, 2004)
  • (with Deirdre Wilson), Meaning and Relevance (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
  • (with Hugo Mercier), The Enigma of Reason (Harvard University Press, 2017), ISBN 9780674368309

See also

References

  1. ^ Khan, Razib (17 December 2005). "10 questions for Dan Sperber". Gene Expression. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Edge: AN EPIDEMIOLOGY OF REPRESENTATIONS: A Talk with Dan Sperber". Edge. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  3. ^ "Dan Sperber — Biography". Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  4. ^ a b Sperber, Dan (1975). Rethinking Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09967-7.
  5. ^ Dosse, François (1997). History of Structuralism: The rising sign, 1945-1966 volume 1. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-2241-2.
  6. ^ a b Sperber, Dan (2009). "Claude Lévi-Strauss, a precursor?". European Journal of Sociology. 49 (2): 309–314. doi:10.1017/S0003975608000118.
  7. ^ Sperber, Dan (1973). Le Structuralisme en Anthropologie. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
  8. ^ David Berliner (2010). "Lévi-Strauss and Beyond (review)". Anthropological Quarterly. 83 (3): 679–689. doi:10.1353/anq.2010.0012. S2CID 143554936.
  9. ^ a b Sperber, Dan (1985). On Anthropological Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26748-9.
  10. ^ a b Sperber, Dan (1998). Explaining culture: a naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-20045-1.
  11. ^ Sperber, Dan (28 November 2008). "Claude Lévi-Strauss at 100: echo of the future". openDemocracy.net. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  12. ^ Basso, Keith H. (1976). "Review: Rethinking Symbolism". Language in Society. 5 (2): 240. doi:10.1017/s0047404500007077.
  13. ^ Hurtig, Richard (1977). "Book Reviews: Rethinking Symbolism". Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 6 (1): 73–91. doi:10.1007/BF01069576. S2CID 189853660.
  14. ^ Sperber, Dan (2011). "A naturalistic ontology for mechanistic explanations in the social sciences". In Pierre Demeulenaere (ed.). Analytical sociology and social mechanisms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  15. ^ Sperber, Dan (2000). "An objection to the memetic approach to culture". In Robert Aunger (ed.). Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 163–173.
  16. ^ Richerson, Peter J.; Boyd, Robert (2008). Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution. Chicago, Il.: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-71284-0.
  17. ^ {{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.12.005 | Sternely | Cultural Evolution in California and Paris | journal = Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
  18. ^ Kuper, Adam (1996). Anthropology and anthropologists: the modern British school. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-11895-8.
  19. ^ Mercier, Hugo; Sperber, Dan (2011). "Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 34 (2): 57–74. doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000968. PMID 21447233.
  20. ^ Mercier, Hugo; Sperber, Dan (2017). The Enigma of Reason. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-36830-9.
  21. ^ "ICCI - The Institute". International Cognition and Culture Institute. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  22. ^ "British Academy - Fellowship Directory". Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  23. ^ "Dan Sperber, 1er lauréat du Prix Claude Levi-Strauss". Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (MESR). Retrieved 3 March 2011.
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