Fwd: Nanay seminar

BOUNCE koglist(a)www.cogpsyphy.hu: Non-member submission from ["Collegium Budapest" <nanay(a)uclink4.berkeley.edu>] --- From: "Collegium Budapest" <nanay(a)uclink4.berkeley.edu> To: <koglist(a)cogpsyphy.hu> Cc: <mafla(a)hps.elte.hu> Subject: Nanay seminar Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 11:42:41 -0700 The Rector and the permanent fellows of Collegium Budapest invite you to the following fellow seminar: Bence Nanay Genes, Memes, and Photocopied Pages. Is Replication a Philosophically Interesting Concept? 11.00. am. Thursday, May 6, 2002. Seminar Room Collegium Budapest Szentharomsag ter 2. 1014 Abstract: What do photocopied pages, DNA molecules, and memes, the units of cultural transmission have in common? A simple answer to this question would be that these entities are being copied in some way or another. Philosophers of biology call these entities replicators. The concept of replicator is intended to be a generalisation of genotype, so that evolutionary explanation could be given for processes in which entities other than genes are involved. I question the importance of the concept of replication by suggesting the possibility that the various definitions of replication either cannot serve as the basis of evolutionary explanations or they are so narrow that only the gene counts as replicator, which would make the general category of replication useless. After analysing various definitions of replication, it is argued that only one of these could be used in evolutionary explanations, namely, the one that is involved in so-called cumulative selection. Finally, I question that anything else than genes may belong to this category. If the conclusion is correct, this means that the very popular attempts to provide evolutionary explanation for various phenomena, such as culture, neural development or operant conditioning, lack the explanatory power they aim to have.