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Biology and social life: book review/Biologie et vie sociale: note de lecture: The trouble with memes: deconstructing Dawkins's monster

An Essay Review of The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reappraisal by Kate Distin and Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd

54 Hassart Street, HB4, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA, alex.walter{at}rutgers.edu

The essay explores the adequacy of the `meme' concept to explain the basic mechanism of cultural evolution. Distin's defense of `memetics' is deficient because it is based on a flawed analogy with genetics. Although Richerson and Boyd's `cultural variant' is not based on a flawed analogy with genetics, their alternative appears primarily to be operant conditioning in disguise and presents no novel innovations in learning theory. Both models of gene—culture co-evolution are examples of one-sided cultural determinism with no genuine biological component. Analysis of the information metaphysics of memes and cultural variants reveals that both concepts are also committed to mind—body dualism.

Key Words: Co-evolution • Cultural variants • Culturgens • Dual inheritance • Evolutionary psychology • Gene • culture • Memes • Memetics • Sociobiology

Social Science Information, Vol. 46, No. 4, 691-709 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0539018407082597


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