Cultural Selection

by Tim Lewens

Humans learn in ways that are influenced by others. As a result, cultural items of many types are elaborated over time in ways that build on the achievements of previous generations. Culture therefore shows a pattern of descent with modification reminiscent of Darwinian evolution. This raises the question of whether cultural selection-a mechanism akin to natural selection, albeit working when learned items are passed from demonstrators to observers-can explain how various practices are refined over time. This Element argues that cultural selection is not necessary for the explanation of cultural adaptation; it shows how to build hybrid explanations that draw on aspects of cultural selection and cultural attraction theory; it shows how cultural reproduction makes problems for highly formalised approaches to cultural selection; and it uses a case-study to demonstrate the importance of human agency for cumulative cultural adaptation.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

82 pages, Paperback

Published June 27, 2024

Reviews

[Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still uncertain about how pragmatic (how "real") these hypothesis about the selection of cultural elements are, but the topic itself is definitely engaging.