"Of course the theory of cultural evolution (sometimes also described as psycho-social, super-organic, or exosomatic evolution) and the theory of biological evolution are, although analogous in some important ways, hardly identical. Indeed, they often start from quite different assumptions. [β¦] Just to mention several important differences: although biological theory now excludes the inheritance of acquired characteristics, all cultural development rests on such inheritance - characteristics in the form of rules guiding the mutual relations among individuals which are not innate but learnt. To refer to terms now used in biological discussion, cultural evolution simulates . Moreover, cultural evolution is brought about through transmission of habits and information not merely from the individual's physical parents, but from an indefinite number of 'ancestors'. The processes furthering the transmission and spreading of cultural properties by learning also, as already noted, make cultural evolution incomparably faster than biological evolution. Finally, cultural evolution operates largely through group selection; whether group selection also operates in biological evolution remains an open question - one on which my argument does not depend. Despite such differences, all evolution, cultural as well as biological, is a process of continuous adaptation to unforeseeable events, to contingent circumstances which could not have been forecast. This is another reason why evolutionary theory can never put us in the position of rationally predicting and controlling future evolution. All it can do is to show how complex structures carry within themselves a means of correction that leads to further evolutionary developments which are, however, in accordance with their very nature, themselves unavoidably unpredictable."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit (1988), Chap. 1: Between Instinct and Reason
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sociocultural_evolution
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Sociocultural evolution
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Sociocultural evolution β
Related Quotes
"Most important is that Darwin recognized that when it comes to human evolution, we shift from purely biological to cuβ¦"
"There are many dark chapters in mankind's history ranging from transatlantic slave trade to holocaust to dropping of β¦"
"Intensive studies of individual tribes are very important and I think ASI (ie. the Anthropological Survey of India) wβ¦"
"What is now required is a carefully and scientifically edited Dictionary or Gazetteer of the Castes, and Tribes, and β¦"
"I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you."
"The Laiharaoba is the bedrock on which the entire Meitei civilization rests."
"Credit should be given to the ancient Meitei civilization of Manipur to identify the Southern Zeliangrong area by theβ¦"
"Hakchang saba describes the birth and growth of the child and the subsequent processes of agriculture and house constβ¦"
"Moirang had a peculiar relationship with the Meiteis, who needed to appease and appropriate its pride, independence, β¦"
"Lai Haraoba stands supreme, have successfully preserved the essence of the Meitei civilization and world-view."