description Dan Sperber Overview
Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist born in 1942, currently Emeritus Director of Research at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris. He is best known for developing relevance theory with British linguist Deirdre Wilson, first presented in their 1986 book Relevance: Communication and Cognition, which proposed a cognitive account of utterance interpretation in pragmatics. Sperber has also contributed to cultural evolution theory and the epidemiology of representations, arguing that culture spreads through psychological mechanisms rather than biological inheritance.
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What is Dan Sperber's relevance theory?
Relevance theory, developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their 1986 book "Relevance: Communication and Cognition," proposes that human communication is governed by a principle of optimal relevance. It argues that hearers infer meaning by seeking the interpretation that yields the greatest cognitive effects for the least processing effort.
Where does Dan Sperber conduct his research?
Dan Sperber is Emeritus Director of Research at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, which is affiliated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the CNRS. The institute is a major center for cognitive science and philosophy of mind.
Who did Dan Sperber develop relevance theory with?
Sperber developed relevance theory in collaboration with British linguist Deirdre Wilson. Their partnership produced the foundational 1986 book and a second edition in 1995 that significantly reshaped pragmatics and cognitive approaches to communication.
What is Sperber's epidemiological approach to culture?
Beyond relevance theory, Sperber proposed an epidemiological model of cultural representations, arguing that beliefs and ideas spread through populations in ways analogous to the transmission of pathogens. This framework treats cultural items as subject to psychological selection and transformation processes in human communities.
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