Equations at an Exhibition: On the Cultural Price Equation

In Agathe du Crest, Martina Valković, André Ariew, Hugh Desmond, Philippe Huneman & Thomas A. C. Reydon (eds.), Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines: Problems and Perspectives in Generalized Darwinism. Springer Verlag. pp. 2147483647-2147483647 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The Price Equation is a powerful, and unusual, tool within evolutionary theory. Because it is completely general in application, and also very nearly free of distorting idealisations, the Price Equation is widely regarded as having exceptional power for understanding evolutionary change. It is no surprise, then, that it has been applied to many different contexts outside of traditional ‘organic’ evolution, including the domain of cultural evolution. In this essay I argue for various ways in which the Price Equation can mislead about cultural evolutionary theory. They all derive from difficulties that processes of cultural reproduction pose for attempts to distinguish ‘selection’ from ‘transmission’. This does not mean the cultural Price Equation is of no use: its value remains as an analytical tool in those circumstances where a distinction between selection and transmission can be drawn without too much distortion.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,546

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-06-29

Downloads
21 (#1,033,118)

6 months
6 (#737,793)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Tim Lewens
Cambridge University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references