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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baravalle, L., & Luque, V. (2021). Towards a Pricean Foundation for Cultural Evolutionary Theory. Theoria, 37, 209–231. https://doi.org/10.1387/theoria.21940
Birch, J. (2013). Kin selection: A philosophical analysis. PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Birch, J. (2017). The philosophy of social evolution. Oxford University Press.
Buskell, A. (2017). What are cultural attractors? Biology and Philosophy, 32, 377–394.
El Mouden, C., André, J.-B., Morin, O., & Nettle, D. (2014). Cultural transmission and the evolution of human behaviour: A general approach based on the Price equation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 27, 231–241.
Frank, S. (1995). George Price’s contributions to evolutionary genetics. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 175, 373–388.
Helanterä, H., & Uller, T. (2010). The Price equation and extended inheritance. Philosophy and Theory in Biology, 2(201306), 1–17.
Helanterä, H., & Uller, T. (2020). Different perspectives on non-genetic inheritance illustrate the versatile utility of the Price equation in evolutionary biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375, 20190366.
Henrich, J. (2004). Cultural group selection, Coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 53, 3–35.
Kerr, B., & Godfrey-Smith, P. (2009). Generalization of the Price equation for evolutionary change. Evolution, 63, 531–536.
Lehmann, L., & Feldman, M. (2008). The co-evolution of culturally inherited altruistic helping and cultural transmission under random group formation. Theoretical Population Biology, 73, 506–516.
Lewens, T. (2015). Cultural evolution: Conceptual challenges. Oxford University Press.
Nettle, D. (2020). Selection, adaptation, inheritance and Design in Human Culture: The view from the Price equation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375, 20190358.
Okasha, S. (2006). Evolution and the levels of selection. Oxford University Press.
Okasha, S., & Otsuka, J. (2020). The Price equation and the causal analysis of evolutionary change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375, 20190365.
Price, G. (1970). Selection and covariance. Nature, 227, 520–521.
Price, G. (1972). Extension of covariance selection mathematics. Annals of Human Genetics, 35, 485–490.
Price, G. (1995). The nature of selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 175, 389–396.
Queller, D. (2011). Expanded social fitness and Hamilton’s rule for kin, kith, and kind. PNAS, 108, 10792–10799.
Rice, S. (2004). Evolutionary theory. Sinauer.
Russ, M. (1992). Musorgsky: Pictures at an exhibition. Cambridge University Press.
Scott-Phillips, T., Blancke, S., & Heintz, C. (2018). Four misunderstandings about cultural attraction. Evolutionary Anthropology, 27, 162–173.
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Blackwell.
Sperber, D. (2000). An objection to the memetic approach to culture. In R. Aunger (Ed.), Darwinizing culture: The status of Memetics as a science (pp. 163–174). Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgements
I am extremely grateful to André Ariew, Jonathan Birch, Olesya Bondarenko, Andrew Buskell, Azita Chellappoo, Mitchell Distin, Philippe Huneman, Daniel Nettle, Samir Okasha, Raphael Scholl, Philipp Spillman and an anonymous referee from Springer for comments on an earlier draft.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lewens, T. (2023). Equations at an Exhibition: On the Cultural Price Equation. In: du Crest, A., Valković, M., Ariew, A., Desmond, H., Huneman, P., Reydon, T.A.C. (eds) Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines. Synthese Library, vol 478. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33358-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33358-3_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-33357-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-33358-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)