ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with a discussion of the lack of theoretical consensus concerning how to understand cultural evolution. This is attributed to ‘biologism’, a pernicious yet understandable tendency to confuse domain-specific features of biological models with general features of evolutionary explanations. It is suggested that the genotype-phenotype distinction is a particularly harmful kind of biologism. The importance of lateral transfer in social contexts is emphasized, and it is argued that neither replication nor reproduction are essential features of evolutionary systems. The meaning of selection in social evolution is explained using the distinction between broad and narrow evolution by natural selection from Chapter 1. The characteristic forces of cultural evolution are discussed, drawing on and critiquing Richerson and Boyd. The evolutionary economics models of Nelson and Winter are used to illustrate and analyse biased variation, and the prospects of evolutionary ideas in the social sciences more generally are briefly considered.
