Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Origin and Evolution of Culture DOCTORAL THESIS Liane Gabora Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel Krijgskundestraat 33, B1160 Brussels, Belgium http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/ [email protected] Promotor/Doctoral Advisor: Prof. Dr. Diederik Aerts Faculty of Science Free University of Brussels, 2001 THE Liane Gabora TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents............................................................................................................................................iii Detailed Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................iv Dankwoord....................................................................................................................................................... x Preface.............................................................................................................................................................xi Bijstelling......................................................................................................................................................xiii 1 The Need for a Theory of Cultural Evolution .............................................................................................. 1 2 Current Evolutionary Approaches to Culture............................................................................................. 13 3 Unresolved Issues and Potentially Fruitful Directions............................................................................... 29 4 A Computer Model of Cultural Evolution ................................................................................................. 47 5 Mind: The Culture Evolving Architecture ................................................................................................. 63 6 Creativity and Cultural Novelty ................................................................................................................. 83 7 What Sparked the Origin of Culture?......................................................................................................... 97 8 Autocatalytic Closure in a Cognitive System .......................................................................................... 109 9 Embryology of One and Many Worldviews ............................................................................................ 135 10 What is Missing in Current Evolutionary Theory ................................................................................ 145 11 Potentiality, Context, and Change of State........................................................................................... 153 12 Toward a General Theory of Evolution................................................................................................ 181 13 Contextualizing Theories of Concepts and Culture.............................................................................. 191 14 Summary and Synthesis of Main Points................................................................................................211 References.....................................................................................................................................................233 ii TOC, Dankwoord, Preface, Bijstelling DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 The Need for a Theory of Cultural Evolution ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Terminology........................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Aim and Objectives............................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Culture is Not just a Natural Extension of Biological Evolution........................................................ 5 1.4 Analogy or Another Form of Evolution? ............................................................................................ 7 1.5 Chapter by Chapter Outline................................................................................................................. 8 2 Current Evolutionary Approaches to Culture ...................................................................................... 13 2.1 Darwinian Approaches to Culture..................................................................................................... 13 2.1.1 Diffusion and Coevolutionary Studies......................................................................................... 14 2.1.1.1 An Example: Individuation in Families and Social Groups ................................................. 15 2.2 Neo-Darwinian Aproaches to Culture............................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 Approaches Inspired by Population Genetics.............................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Epidemiological Models of Culture............................................................................................. 17 2.2.2.1 A First Example: Conceptual Linkage Disequilibrium ........................................................ 17 2.2.2.2 A Second Example: A Cultural Analog to Genetic Hitchhiking.......................................... 18 2.2.2.3 A Third Example: A Possible Explanation for Cognitive Redundancy ............................... 20 2.2.3 Universal Darwinism, Second Replicators, and Memes.............................................................. 20 2.2.3.1 A First Example: A Potential Explanation for Human Altruism.......................................... 21 2.2.3.2 A Second Example: Runaway Cultural Selection ................................................................ 22 2.2.4 Interactors and Lineages .............................................................................................................. 23 2.3 Complexity Theory and the Genetic Algorithm................................................................................ 23 2.3.1 A First Example: Emergence of an Interconnected, Culture-evolving Worldview..................... 25 2.3.2 A Second Example: A Cultural Analog to the Pre-Cambrian Explosion .................................... 25 2.4 Selectionism and Evolutionary Epistomology .................................................................................. 25 2.4.1 An Example: Vicarious Selection................................................................................................ 27 2.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 27 3 Unresolved Issues and Potentially Fruitful Directions ......................................................................... 29 3.1 Evolution without Replicators........................................................................................................... 29 3.1.1 Self Description versus Instructions for Self Replication............................................................ 29 3.1.2 Representation versus Expression of Cultural Entities................................................................ 30 3.1.3 Non-replicator Transmission Results in Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics....................... 30 3.1.4 Replacing Replication with Retention ......................................................................................... 31 3.1.5 Substrate Neutrality ..................................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Culture is not Limited to Imitated Entities........................................................................................ 32 3.2.1 Consequences of Excluding Individual Learning........................................................................ 32 3.2.2 Consequences of Excluding Non-imitative Social Exchange...................................................... 34 3.2.3 Humans are not Passive ‘Meme Hosts’ ....................................................................................... 34 3.3 The Need to Merge Transmission Studies with Studies of Creativity .............................................. 35 3.4 Blending versus Particulate Inheritance............................................................................................ 36 3.5 The Generation of Cultural Novelty.................................................................................................. 37 3.5.1 Can Variation in Evolution be Nonrandom? ............................................................................... 37 3.5.2 Parallel versus Heuristic Search................................................................................................... 37 3.5.3 What Enables Novelty to be Strategically Generated?................................................................ 38 3.5.4 Does Creativity Yield to Mathematical Description?.................................................................. 38 iii Liane Gabora 3.6 Is Thought a Darwinian Process?...................................................................................................... 40 3.6.1 Selection Theory works with Distinct, Actualized States............................................................ 43 3.6.2 Selection Theory Cannot Describe Intrinsic Contextuality ......................................................... 44 3.7 Summary