A fun short writing project with my BFF who blocks me on BlueSky 🥰 - ThreadSky

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richardmoore.bsky.social • 38 days ago

A fun short writing project with my BFF who blocks me on BlueSky 🥰

Reposted from British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

Sterelny, Cultural Evolution, Niche Construction, and Ecological Inheritance

Correspondence from Richard Moore and Claudio Tennie on Kim Sterenly's 'Cultural Evolution, Niche Construction, and Ecological Inheritance'

Comments

ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social•38 days ago

Interesting!!!
But as an interested lay-person I am not sure what is at issue here. Couldn't we say that people both copy other people & also make discoveries based on learning? Is there a cash-value to the question "which is more important"? Given that we can't ever untangle the two in practice?

richardmoore.bsky.social•38 days ago

We can do both. It may be that people discover more when working independently, but that wouldn't show they didn't need to do some copying to get to that place. One virtue of copying is that it's time efficient, since we don't then need to relearn the things our ancestors learned for themselves.

richardmoore.bsky.social•38 days ago

As for which one is more important, I'm sure that varies on a case by case basis. Some things (e.g. tool manufacture) can likely be improved substantially by individual learning/invention. In other cases (e.g. language mastery) that's harder to envisage.

richardmoore.bsky.social•38 days ago

We make two quick claims: Sterelny downplays the role of imitation in human cultural learning, and because of that he likely also downplays the Darwinian replicators in human culture.

The letter is only short, so go read it for yourselves.

richardmoore.bsky.social•38 days ago

Also, the new @thebjps.bsky.social Letters to the Editor format is a really good one. I wish more Philosophy journals would consider something like it. 8,000 word responses are time-consuming and difficult to write, but 1,000 words is a day of work, and often enough to say what needs to be said.

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