Does culture evolve by means of Darwinian selection? The lessons of Candide’s travels

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Guillo
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Darwinian Selection ◽  
Universal Algorithm ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Biological Phenomena

The meaning of the concept of natural selection undergoes important changes when it circulates, through the use of analogies, between the realms of biological and cultural phenomena. These changes are not easily detected, but they are unavoidable. They have to do with differences between the properties of cultural phenomena and those of biological phenomena: in particular, the absence of the equivalent of a Hardy–Weinberg law for culture. These differences make it necessary to translate the concepts of classic population genetics into the language of transmission. This translation enables the theorists discussed here to build a unitary general theory of evolution (GTE) based on analogies between biological and cultural evolution, and at the same time to single out their differences. But the unity and the rigor of this theoretical approach are merely apparent. The concept of selection as it is defined here loses, in its three spheres of application – GTE, culture but also biology – the meaning and explanatory power it has in classic population genetics. This means that the mechanism of Darwinian selection cannot be considered as a universal algorithm that is valid for both biological and cultural phenomena alike.

Ewolucja. Twórcza moc selekcji

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Dzik
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Biology ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Evolutionary Developmental Biology ◽  
Homeotic Genes ◽  
Time Dimension ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Theory Of Evolution

An instructive introduction to the theory of evolution and its applications in biology, physics, chemistry, geology and humanities. The author shows that evolution is a physical process, occurring in geological time dimension, describes how the Darwin’s theory of natural selection works in immunology, neurobiology, sociology as well as in certain aspects of culture and political institutions. He also shows the effects achieved through the action of selection in different areas of biological and social life. He discusses such problems as: the ambiguity of the term “theory of evolution”, the falsifiability of evolutionary hypotheses, connection between evolution and thermodynamics, the concept of reductionism, methodological background of phylogenetics, cladistics, evolutionary developmental biology and homeotic genes, as well as the cumulative nature of social and cultural evolution.

scholarly journals The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Organizational Account

This chapter examines the deep connections between biological organization, agency, and evolution by natural selection. Using Griesemer’s account of the re- producer, I argue that the basic unit of evolution is not a genetic replicator, but a complex hierarchical life cycle. Understanding the self-maintaining and self-proliferating properties of evolvable reproducers requires an organizational account of ontogenesis and reproduction. This leads us to an extended and disambiguated set of minimal conditions for evolution by natural selection—including revised or new principles of heredity, variation, and ontogenesis. More importantly, the continuous maintenance of biological organization within and across generations im- plies that all evolvable systems are agents, or contain agents among their parts. This means that we ought to take agency seriously—to better understand the concept and its role in explaining biological phenomena—if we aim to obtain an organismic theory of evolution in the original spirit of Darwin’s struggle for existence. This kind of understanding must rely on an agential perspective on evolution, complementing and succeeding existing structural, functional, and processual approaches. I sketch a tentative outline of such an agential perspective, and present a survey of methodological and conceptual challenges that will have to be overcome if we are to properly implement it.

Towards a general theory of evolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence W. Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Chemical Mechanisms ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Selective Retention ◽  
Far From Equilibrium ◽  
Natural Selection Theory

Towards a general theory of evolution argues that defining natural selection in terms of “blind variation and selective retention”— as in A-life and replicator selection—ignores the fact that what varies is necessarily part of a far-from-equilibrium physical system that requires physical work to be produced. But natural selection theory is agnostic about the physical-chemical mechanisms underlying the maintenance, repair, and reproduction of organism structures and functions. A more general theory of evolution is proposed that includes an account of a type of process able to reconstitute the organization of the physical system capable of producing that process if damaged.

A theory of supply-driven evolution for cultural evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Julian Z. Xue
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Selection Of

A process akin to biological evolution is one of the most promising candidates today for producing a general theory of cultural evolution. Current understanding of this process focuses on both drift as well as the selection of cultural variation as the primary vehicles of cultural change. Here, I show that natural selection can produce cultural change in the direction of the generation of cultural variation. I show how this mechanism can result in long-term cultural trends and how it adds to known mechanisms. I present examples to show how this theory is compatible with documented cultural and historical change.

Memes, Minds and Evolution

Philosophy ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holdcroft ◽  
Harry Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

It has been claimed, notably by Dawkins and Dennett, that there are units of cultural evolution, called ‘memes’, whose survival is explicable in terms of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. They also play an important part in Dennett's theory of consciousness. Memes are distinct memorable units, not atoms, which have vehicles, and whose success depends on the ability of those vehicles to multiply. We argue that even if the theory of memes is structurally isomorphic with the theory of natural selection, it has a very different ontology calling for novel accounts of variation, replication and fitness. We question whether such accounts are plausible, and conclude that memes and their tokenings cannot assume the causal roles they would have to to obey the ‘laws’ of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

scholarly journals Fitness ecológico

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Ginnobili
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Ecological Fitness ◽  
Propensity Interpretation

RESUMENExiste un acuerdo relativo en la necesidad de distinguir dos usos del término «fitness»: el ecológico y el de la genética de poblaciones. Algunos consideran que el segundo ha venido a reemplazar al primero. Otros que el fitness ecológico tiene cierta capacidad explicativa de la que el segundo carece. Estos últimos autores han intentado dar respuesta a cómo es que el fitness ecológico se relaciona con las propiedades particulares de los organismos, siendo estas tan heterogéneas. En este trabajo intentaré dar una respuesta más adecuada a esta cuestión, utilizando el marco conceptual de la metateoría estructuralista.PALABRAS CLAVEFITNESS, SUPERVENIENCIA, SELECCIÓN NATURAL, ESTRUCTURALISMO METATEÓRICO, INTERPRETACIÓN PROPENSIONISTA DEL FITNESSABSTRACTThere is relative agreement on the need to distinguish two different uses of the term «fitness»: the ecological fitness and the population genetics fitness. Many consider that the latter has come to replace the former. Others think that the ecological fitness has certain explanatory power that the population genetics fitness lacks of. Among the last ones, many have tried to give response to how ecological fitness relates to organism’s properties, especially because of their being so heterogeneous. In this paper I will try to give a better answer to this matter using the conceptual framework of metatheoretical structuralism.KEYWORDSFITNESS, SUPERVENIENCE, NATURAL SELECTION, METATHEORETICAL STRUCTURALISM, PROPENSITY INTERPRETATION OF FITNESS

Darwinian Evolutionary Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Descent Of Man

Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist, published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and the follow-up work The Descent of Man in 1871. In these works, he argued for his theory of evolution through natural selection, applying it to all organisms, living and dead, including our own species, Homo sapiens. Although controversial from the start, Darwin’s thinking was deeply embedded in the culture of his day, that of a middle-class Englishman. Evolution as such was an immediate success in scientific circles, but although the mechanism of selection had supporters in the scientific community (especially among those working with fast-breeding organisms), its real success was in the popular domain. Natural selection, and particularly the side mechanism of sexual selection, were known to all and popular themes in fiction and elsewhere.

Evolution, genetics, and systematics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Synthetic Theory ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Current Paradigm ◽  
Epigenetic Processes

This chapter starts with the general principles of the theory of evolution by natural selection advanced by Darwin and the Mendelian theory of heredity. Next comes consideration of the “new-Darwinian synthesis” or “synthetic theory,” which integrates both precedents into what has become the current paradigm of the life sciences. Molecular evolution and population genetics follow, including epigenetic processes. Next, special models of selection are considered, such as sexual selection and the models that account for altruistic behavior. After the mechanisms of speciation, the main concepts of systematics are explored, which facilitate understanding of different traits. The chapter finally explores the fundamental concepts of taxonomy and the methods from phenetics to cladistics, that makes it possible to evaluate the diversity of organisms and the methods for dating the fossil record.

The Social Development Model

2018 ◽  
pp. 223-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Cambron ◽  
Richard F. Catalano ◽  
J. David Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Antisocial Behaviors ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Social Development Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Tests

This chapter presents an overview of the social development model (SDM)—a general theory of human behavior that integrates research on risk and protective factors into a coherent model. The goal of this synthesis is to provide more explanatory power than its component theories. This chapter first specifies the model constructs and their hypothesized relationships to prosocial and antisocial behaviors. It then provides a synthesis of what has been learned from empirical tests of social development hypotheses for predicting pro- and antisocial behaviors. This chapter also highlights interventions derived from the SDM and summarizes their impact on pro- and antisocial behaviors. Finally, the chapter concludes by presenting future directions for SDM-based research.

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