Abstract
The article addresses the question whether culture evolves in a Lamarckian manner. I highlight three central aspects of a Lamarckian concept of evolution: the inheritance of acquired characteristics, the transformational pattern of evolution, and the concept of directed changes. A clear exposition of these aspects shows that a system can be a Darwinian variational system instead of a Lamarckian transformational one, even if it is based on inheritance of acquired characteristics and/or on Lamarckian directed changes. On this basis, I apply the three aspects to culture. Taking for granted that culture is a variational system, based on selection processes, I discuss in detail the senses in which cultural inheritance can be said to be Lamarckian and in which sense problem solving, a major factor in cultural change, leads to directed variation.
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply obliged to the editor of Biology and Philosophy, to an anonymous referee, and to Hans Rott for their inspiring and extensive comments. I am equally grateful to Marion Blute, Mayannah Dahlheim, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Wolfram Hinzen, Richard C. Lewontin and Carsten Reinhardt for helpful discussions of earlier drafts of this paper.
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Kronfeldner, M.E. Is cultural evolution Lamarckian?. Biol Philos 22, 493–512 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-006-9037-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-006-9037-7