Why Did Memetics Fail? Comparative Case Study

Varování

Publikace nespadá pod Fakultu sportovních studií, ale pod Filozofickou fakultu. Oficiální stránka publikace je na webu muni.cz.
Autoři

CHVAJA Radim

Rok publikování 2020
Druh Článek v odborném periodiku
Časopis / Zdroj Perspectives on Science
Fakulta / Pracoviště MU

Filozofická fakulta

Citace
www http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00350
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00350
Klíčová slova Dual-inheritance cultural evolution; memetics; gene-culture coevolution; history of science; case study
Přiložené soubory
Popis Although the theory of memetics appeared highly promising at the beginning, it is no longer considered a scientific theory among contemporary evolutionary scholars. This study aims to compare the genealogy of memetics with the historically more successful gene-culture coevolution theory. This comparison is made in order to determine the constraints that emerged during the internal development of the memetics theory that could bias memeticists to work on the ontology of meme units as opposed to hypotheses testing, which was adopted by the gene-culture scholars. I trace this problem back to the diachronic development of memetics to its origin in the gene-centered anti-group-selectionist argument of George C. Williams and Richard Dawkins. The strict adoption of this argument predisposed memeticists with the a priori idea that there is no evolution without discrete units of selection, which in turn, made them dependent on the principal separation of biological and memetic fitness. This separation thus prevented memeticists from accepting an adaptationist view of culture which, on the contrary, allowed gene-culture theorists to attract more scientists to test the hypotheses, creating the historical success of the gene-culture coevolution theory.
Související projekty:

Používáte starou verzi internetového prohlížeče. Doporučujeme aktualizovat Váš prohlížeč na nejnovější verzi.

Další info