One thing that makes human being very different to other species is culture. Culture includes ideas, religion, technology, art, and so on. Culture transmits from generation to generation, from person to person. According to Dawkin in a process of transmission, culture forms evolution similarly to genetic evolution, and culture evolution is faster than genetic evolution. If genes build up organisms, memes build up cultures. Memes play a role as a unit of culture transmission and carry ideas from brain to brain by imitation. Memes are analogous to genes as replicator that has properties such as longevity, fecundity, and copying fidelity (1, 2, 3). At the first glance, the memes theory seems like it will open a new aspect of culture evolution as genetic evolution, but then the memes theory becomes very confused by not consistently with its own concept and definition. Also it lacks of a clear explanation why and how some memes can spread out and survive better than others.
Dawkin proposed memes theory by looking at the genetic evolution process and question whether there is something that happens beside genetic evolution
There may be others. If there are, provided certain other conditions are met, they will almost inevitably tend to become the basis for an evolutionary process. […] It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate that leaves the old gene panting far behind. The new soup is the soup of human culture. (2).
And he named it meme, a new replicator as “a unit of culture transmission or unit of imitation”. By definition, Dawkin argue that memes are analogous to genes as replicator. Therefore, memes will be a cause of culture ev...
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...in”, then meme unit in person A can be different to person B because person A may has sufficiently distinctive and memorable different to B therefore meme unit in this case is different between the two even though they are both transmit the same information.
Works Cited
Dawkins, Richard. “Memes: The New Replicators.” The Selfish Gene. (30th Anniversary Ed.) Oxford UP, 2006.
Blackmore, Susan. “The Theory [of Memes] is Promising and Testable.” Free Inquiry. 2000 (Summer), 20.3
42‐4.
Bradie, Michael. “Saying it Doesn’t Make it So.” Free Inquiry. 2000 (Summer), 20.3 43‐4.
Dennett, Daniel C. “Memes and the Exploitation of Imagination.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism. 48:2 (Spring), 1990: 127‐35.
Rose, N., “Controversies in Meme Theory.” Journal of Memetics ‐ Evolutionary Models of Information
Transmission. http://jom‐cfpm.org/1998/vol2/rose_n.html.
... The “Doubting Darwin”. Newsweek.com - "The New York Times" 07 Feb 2005. 44. eLibrary.
Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution, pub. 1979 by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
It has been believed that culture is unique to humans and no other groups of animals have culture, but recent evidence refutes this ideology. Before getting into the meat of the argument, it is important to first address the issues regarding the ambiguity of the term, “culture.” What is culture? Many scientists may argue that culture is the way of life for a group of individuals, this definition includes the values, beliefs and traditions of the group (Sapolsky, 2006). Other scientists may argue that culture is the transmission of habits and information by social means (Sapolsky, 2006). Despite the different specifics of what culture is, almost all scientists would agree that culture is transmitted socially through social learning that promotes the transfer of information between members in a group (Boesch and Tomasello, 1998). Based on these notions of culture, it can be justifiably stated that primates have culture. Primates exhibit food preparation techniques, use of tools, communication skills, and most importantly, behaviors of social learning. An exemplar of primates’ capabilities for culture is Koko, the lowland gorilla. Koko, in captivity, was able to learn American sign language, demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to deceive.
Lennox, James. "Darwinism." Stanford University. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition). , 13 Aug. 2004. Web. 12 May 2014.
With his provoking work entitled The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins attempts to answer such questions as he proposes a shift in the evolutionary paradigm. Working through the metaphor of a "selfish gene", Dawkins constructs an evolutionary model using a gene as the fundamental unit of selection, opposed to the more commonly accepted belief of the species as the unit of selection.
As culture is being learned and transmitted from one generation to the next, there is the question as to how it is being learned? And does it change? Banking on the simplified definition of (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2012) culture is learned through communication. This entails social interactions among people with common understanding of symbols, shared values and beliefs, and rules as a product of reciprocal information processing (Lustig, 2006).
According to Rachels, all these occurs due to natural selection and this theory gave an alternative hypothesis that rather on believing that
Melo-Martin, Immaculado de. "When is Biology Destiny? Biological Determinism and Social Responsibility." Philosophy of Science 70.15 (2003): 11. Expanded Academic Index. Infotrac. Mabee Library, Topeka. 20 April 2004
The concept of culture refers to the perceived generation to generation and is somewhat durable. To call such behavior cultural does not necessarily mean that it is refined, but rather means that it is cultured. Hence it has been acquired, cultivated and persistent. Social scientists have invented the notion of a subculture to describe variations, within the a society, upon its cultural themes. In such circumstances, it is assumed that some cultural prescriptions are common to all members of society, but that modifications and variations are discernible within the society.
Another counter-argument to the argument from design is evolutionary theory or Darwinism. This theory explains the appearance of biological design in nature (Himma). Scientists have demonstrated that the chemical origin of life is compatible with certain natural laws. Scientists have also explained the mechanisms by which life developed from simple to complex and how it continues to develop. The most important factor is that blind chance is not the only alternative to divine design; it is instead the cumulative process of natural selection. Therefore, the theory of evolution provides a much more convincing explanation that the argument from design because science provides a workable and testable explanation of how complexity came from simplicity.
vs. nurture. I will also try to present the third, new-emerging approach meant to. solve the mystery of, “What is it that makes us who we are?” “Our genes make us. We animals exist for their preservation and are nothing more than their throwaway survival machines.”
Culture is a way of life that allows a diverse group of people to interrelate with one another. It is usually passed down from one generation to the next by communication and imitation. The term itself has a set definition, but it normally relates to the behavior, beliefs, values, and symbols that are accepted by a group of people. Culture can also be used to describe the time period and events in history. In the sense of what was deemed as popular during a specific stage in time and its impact on the culture surrounding it. Micro-historian have been dissecting and interpreting the meaning of popular culture and the courses of action that lead up to the events.
Monastersky, Richard. (2004). Society Disowns Paper Attacking Darwinism. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 51, Iss. 5, A.16.
Klin, Candyce. “Darwinism as A Cultural Issue” Cedar Crest College, 2 June 2001. Web. 17
Culture has been a pervasive part of humanity since the beginning of civilization. Wood (2010), professor of communications, defines culture as "the totality of beliefs, values, understandings, practices, and ways of interpreting experience that are shared by a number of people" (p 78). The way I see it, culture shapes an individual and creates their worldview. Each culture emphasizes an important aspect of the humans and displays the complexities of our species. Even though culture includes many elements, I will discuss one of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, Individualism, and explain how it creates a high or low context culture.