Cultural Evolutionary Psychology as Generalization by Recursion

authored by: Karim Baraghith, Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla
Abstract: Cultural evolutionary psychology (CEP) accounts for the cultural evolution of cognition. It is based on evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory and aims at a synthetic attempt which is achieved by what we want to call ‘generalization by recursion’. We argue in this paper that the evolutionary psychology program as a whole could greatly benefit from CEP’s generalization. As we will show, there is one theoretical element in particular, that CEP relevantly generalizes in contrast to its predecessors. It comes from cultural evolutionary theory and has been referred to as the ‘dual inheritance argument’. CEP’s novelty consists in showing that not only cognitive products (‘grist’) but also cognitive mechanisms (‘mills’) are subject to cultural evolution and provides lots of empirical evidence for this claim. This account is ‘recursive’, because CEP’s generalization of the dual inheritance argument theoretically employs a recursive feedback-loop between cultural learning and cultural evolution. We also argue that this account might be considered to supersede unificatory and reductionistic efforts of its competitors, because it is stronger than purely structural or analogical unification while at the same time it is not too strong in order to fall prey to implausible reductionism.
Organisation(s): Institute of Philosophy
External Organisation(s): University of Cologne
Type: Article
Journal: Journal for General Philosophy of Science
ISSN: 0925-4560
Publication date: 2024
Publication status: Accepted/In press
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Philosophy, General Social Sciences, History and Philosophy of Science
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-024-09682-9 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{4770857b2d07433f866e80c00cee126d,
title = "Cultural Evolutionary Psychology as Generalization by Recursion",
abstract = "Cultural evolutionary psychology (CEP) accounts for the cultural evolution of cognition. It is based on evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory and aims at a synthetic attempt which is achieved by what we want to call {\textquoteleft}generalization by recursion{\textquoteright}. We argue in this paper that the evolutionary psychology program as a whole could greatly benefit from CEP{\textquoteright}s generalization. As we will show, there is one theoretical element in particular, that CEP relevantly generalizes in contrast to its predecessors. It comes from cultural evolutionary theory and has been referred to as the {\textquoteleft}dual inheritance argument{\textquoteright}. CEP{\textquoteright}s novelty consists in showing that not only cognitive products ({\textquoteleft}grist{\textquoteright}) but also cognitive mechanisms ({\textquoteleft}mills{\textquoteright}) are subject to cultural evolution and provides lots of empirical evidence for this claim. This account is {\textquoteleft}recursive{\textquoteright}, because CEP{\textquoteright}s generalization of the dual inheritance argument theoretically employs a recursive feedback-loop between cultural learning and cultural evolution. We also argue that this account might be considered to supersede unificatory and reductionistic efforts of its competitors, because it is stronger than purely structural or analogical unification while at the same time it is not too strong in order to fall prey to implausible reductionism.",
keywords = "Cultural evolution, Dual inheritance theory, Evolutionary psychology, Theoretical generalization",
author = "Karim Baraghith and Feldbacher-Escamilla, {Christian J.}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",
year = "2024",
doi = "10.1007/s10838-024-09682-9",
language = "English",
journal = "Journal for General Philosophy of Science",
issn = "0925-4560",
publisher = "F. Steiner Verlag",
}