Dan Sperber

Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist, anthropologist, and philosopher. Born in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, in 1942, he is known for his influential work in several fields, including cognitive anthropology, linguistic pragmatics, the psychology of reasoning, and the philosophy of the social sciences. Alongside British philosopher and linguist Deirdre Wilson, Sperber developed relevance theory, a prominent approach to linguistic interpretation. He also co-created the argumentative theory of reasoning with French psychologist Hugo Mercier. Sperber's contributions extend to cultural evolution, with his development of the 'epidemiology of representations,' also known as cultural attraction theory. He has held significant academic positions, including Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Professor at the Central European University. His early work involved ethnographic fieldwork among the Dorze people of Ethiopia.