Lewontin on Cultural Evolution

[Roger Frye]

Lewontin doesn't have problems with the general idea of cultural
evolution as change as in Herbert Spencer, Progress: It's Law and Cause,
although he would object, along with Franz Boas, to its social Darwinism.

His objection is to the envy for the universal laws found in the natural
sciences which drives social "scientists" to force a theory of
biological evolution into their work.  He criticises the program
outlined by Leslie White on the 100th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of
the Species and constructed in 1975 by Wilson's Sociobiology: The New
Synthesis.  He objects particularly to the menus of human behavior
dictated by sociobiology (religiosity, indoctrinability, agressivity,
etc.) and the need to explain all observed behaviors by natural selection.

Lewontin's erudition does not extend to medieval arabic.  He
demonstrated the difficulty of applying lawfulness to history by making
fun of laws like "the natural territory of the Bedouin is on level
ground" in a book that he had read in translation.  I haven't been able
to identify the book.  The title sounded like "Muqabba", and the
author's name sounded like "Ibn kaLoun."

The method that Lewontin uses to shoot down memes as the analog of genes
is the same that he uses to criticize Doyne Farmer's challenge that he
take on more worthy opponents than old fashioned theorists like Cosmides
and Tooby and consider an SFI theory of the evolution of economy with
its variation and selection.  Analogy is not enough.  The porting of a
theory from one science to another cannot rest on finding analogous
parts, but must be based on an analysis of the mechanisms of the facts
it attempts to explain.  But then one can always find parts of the
theory of evolution like heretibility and genetic drift that don't
appear in the ported theory.

-Roger

[Mohammed El-Beltagy]

Hi Roger,

Many thanks for the summaries. I wish I want in SF to attend those lectures,
your summaries are the second best thing.

Now about Lewontin's reference to medieval Arabic texts, I think I know who
he was referring to. The guy he mentioned must be "Ibn Khaldun" and he is
buried about 15 miles from my current abode in Cairo. The text he is
referring to is the "Muqaddimah" or "Introduction". Ibn Khaldun was about to
start on treatises on the history of the Arab world and he wanted to outline
the methodology he will be using. In his introduction (not short,  goes on
for about 400 pages), he lays down the foundations of Sociology (he is
considered by many its founder), and presents a philosophy of history.  You
can find out more at http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/ibnkhaldun/.

Statements like "the natural territory of the Bedouin is on level ground"
are not bad for a first text on a theory of history written in the 1300s.
The statement itself still holds water to great extent to this day. Ibn
Khaldun was struggling to shed light on  the interaction between history,
geography, and the propensities of man.

Cheers,

Mohammed


----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Frye" <[hidden email]>
To: "The Friday Morning Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 3:12 PM
Subject: [FRIAM] Lewontin on Cultural Evolution

> Lewontin doesn't have problems with the general idea of cultural
> evolution as change as in Herbert Spencer, Progress: It's Law and Cause,
> although he would object, along with Franz Boas, to its social Darwinism.
>
> His objection is to the envy for the universal laws found in the natural
> sciences which drives social "scientists" to force a theory of
> biological evolution into their work.  He criticises the program
> outlined by Leslie White on the 100th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of
> the Species and constructed in 1975 by Wilson's Sociobiology: The New
> Synthesis.  He objects particularly to the menus of human behavior
> dictated by sociobiology (religiosity, indoctrinability, agressivity,
> etc.) and the need to explain all observed behaviors by natural selection.
>
> Lewontin's erudition does not extend to medieval arabic.  He
> demonstrated the difficulty of applying lawfulness to history by making
> fun of laws like "the natural territory of the Bedouin is on level
> ground" in a book that he had read in translation.  I haven't been able
> to identify the book.  The title sounded like "Muqabba", and the
> author's name sounded like "Ibn kaLoun."
>
> The method that Lewontin uses to shoot down memes as the analog of genes
> is the same that he uses to criticize Doyne Farmer's challenge that he
> take on more worthy opponents than old fashioned theorists like Cosmides
> and Tooby and consider an SFI theory of the evolution of economy with
> its variation and selection.  Analogy is not enough.  The porting of a
> theory from one science to another cannot rest on finding analogous
> parts, but must be based on an analysis of the mechanisms of the facts
> it attempts to explain.  But then one can always find parts of the
> theory of evolution like heretibility and genetic drift that don't
> appear in the ported theory.
>
> -Roger
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>
>

[Roger Frye]

Mohammed,
Thanks for the reply.  The translation that Lewontin used must have been
the one by Franz Rosenthal:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691017549/qid=1068909651/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1441012-0389649?v=glance&s=books

One of the customer reviews calls Ibn Khaldun the Newton of the social
sciences.
-Roger