Skip to content
Who's in the Video
Daniel C. Dennett is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.Dennett believes it's time to unmask the philosopher's art[…]
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Ever wondered where the word ‘meme’ comes from? Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett explains the term, coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, and its effects on our lives and history. How did we, as a species, become what we are – or more relevantly who we are? Natural selection and genetic evolution have made our physical bodies, but we are so much more than a collection of cells. We are also a conscious community, with language, music, cooking, art, poetry, dance, rituals, and humor. Dennett explains how these behaviors are the product of our cultural evolution. Memes are cultural replicators that spread like viruses, and only the most advantageous – or “the fittest” – of them survive. Daniel Dennett’s most recent book is From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds.



Related