Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Preface; 1 Light will be thrown; 2 Darwinian principles; 3 The origin of novelty; 4 Guided variation; 5 The units of culture; 6 Memes or minds; 7 Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary
Maria Kronfeldner examines how Darwinism has been used to explain novelty and change in culture through the Darwinian approach to creativity and the theory of memes. The first claims that creativity is based on a Darwinian process of blind variation and selection, while the latter claims that culture is based on and explained by units - memes - that are similar to genes. Both theories try to describe and explain mind and culture by applying Darwinism by way of analogies. Kronfeldner shows that the analogies involved in these theories lead to claims that give either wrong or at least no new des
