This is the original meaning given by Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. The word ‘meme’ is more than a repeated fact – first, it doesn’t have to be a fact, and second, it suggests that our culture is the result of evolution in an environment where memes are selected for reproductive fitness (‘virality’).
I've read the Selfish Gene and loved it, but I had NO idea that meme originated from that book. I must have skimmed that paragraph. Thank you for this!
No, beliefs—whether true and justified (hence, knowledge) or otherwise—are not memes. Behaviors—including ones by which beliefs (including knowledge) are transmitted—are memes. If memes are viewed as analogous to genes (which is the whole point of the concept), beliefs (again, including knowledge) are among the features analogous to aspects of phenotype.
