Campbell's Rule of Design Through Evolution

We should think of it like this - evolutionary theory describes how design is created by the competition between replicators. Genes are one example of a replicator and memes another. The general theory of evolution must apply to both of them, but the specific details of how each replicator works may be quite different.

This relationship was clearly seen by the the American psychologist Donald Campbell (1960, 1965) long before the idea of memes was invented. He argued that organic evolution, creative thought and cultural evolution resemble each other and they do so because all are evolving systems where there is blind variation among the replicated units and selective retention of some variants at the expense of others. Most importantly, he explained that the analogy with cultural accumulations is not from organic evolution pe se; but rather from a general model of evolutionary change for which organic evolution is but one instance. Durham (1991) calls this principle 'Campbell's Rule'.

Notes:

Natural selection doesn't just apply to biological designs, but exists on molecular and memetic levels as well.

Folksonomies: evolution memetics cultural change

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 The Meme Machine (Popular Science)
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Blackmore , Susan (2000-05-16), The Meme Machine (Popular Science), Oxford University Press, USA, Retrieved on 2011-01-09
Folksonomies: memetics


Schemas

04 SEP 2011

 Why Evolution is True

Memes that support the Theory of Evolution
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