Methodological problems in evolutionary biology VIII. Biology and culture

Acta Biotheoretica 36 (1):23-34 (1987)
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Abstract

Biology cannot accommodate all aspects of culture. Aspects of culture that a biological approach can take into account can be covered by the biological categories of phenotype and environment. There is no need to treat culture as a separate category. Attempts to elaborate biological explanations of cultural variation will meet with success only if biologists expand theories of development, and integrate them in evolutionary biology. The alternative — elaborating the idea of so-called cultural inheritance — makes little sense from a biological point of view.

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Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature.Philip Kitcher & J. H. Fetzer - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (3):389-392.
The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. R. C. Lewontin.Michael Ruse - 1976 - Philosophy of Science 43 (2):302-304.
Précis of Genes, Mind, and Culture.Charles J. Lumsden & Edward O. Wilson - 1982 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 5 (1):1-7.
Genes and culture, protest and communication.Charles J. Lumsden & Edward O. Wilson - 1982 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 5 (1):31-37.

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