Cultural Evolution: Conceptual Challenges
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.93 (722 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 019880119X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-02 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Cambridge philosopher Tim Lewens's spritely little book, Cultural Evolution, is a splendid introduction to the topic, looking in careful detail at much of the discussion today. One merit of philosophy is that done properly it does lay out the issues and point to the proposed options leading the way forward. Cultural Evolution does all of this and more and hence is much to be welcomed." -- Quarterly Review of Biology
At the same time, others-typically with backgrounds in disciplines like social anthropology and history-have been just as vocal in dismissing the evolutionary approach to culture. Convinced of the exceptional power of natural selection, many thinkers--typically working in biological anthropology, cognitive psychology, and evolutionary biology--have suggested it should be freed from the confines of biology, and applied to cultural change in humans and other animals. Tim Lewens aims to understand what it means to take an evolutionary approach to cultural change, and why it is that this approach is often treated with suspicion. By taking seriously the problems faced by these approaches to culture, Lewens shows how such approaches can be better formulated, where their most signific
His publications include Darwin (Routledge, 2007), a philosophical introduction to Darwin and Darwinism, Biological Foundations of Bioethics (OUP, 2015) and The Meaning of Science (forthcoming with Penguin in 2015).. His research interests include the philosophy of biology, biomedical ethics, and general philosophy of science. Tim Lewens, Clare College, CambridgeTim Lewens is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of History and Philosophy of Sc