Towards a Pricean foundation for cultural evolutionary theory

  1. Lorenzo Baravalle
  2. Víctor J. Luque Martín
Revista:
Theoria: an international journal for theory, history and foundations of science

ISSN: 0495-4548

Año de publicación: 2022

Volumen: 37

Número: 2

Páginas: 209-231

Tipo: Artículo

Otras publicaciones en: Theoria: an international journal for theory, history and foundations of science

Resumen

La ecuación de Price es actualmente considerada una de las ecuaciones fundamentales —o incluso la ecuación fundamental— de la evolución. En el presente artículo exploramos el papel de dicha ecuación dentro de la teoría de la evolución cultural. En concreto, usamos la ecuación de Price para analizar la capacidad explicativa y la estructura teórica de una versión general de la teoría de la herencia dual. En primer lugar, argumentamos que a pesar de carecer de un contenido em-pírico definido, la ecuación de Price ofrece una adecuada formalización de los procesos de evolución cultural y ofrece una poderosa herramienta heurística para el descubrimiento de las causas concretas del cambio y acumulación cultural. En segundo lugar, argumentamos que, como consecuencia de esto, una cierta versión de la ecuación de Price es la ley fundamental de la teoría de la evolución cultural. Para defender esta afirmación delineamos la estructura ideal de la teoría de la herencia dual y enfatizamos el papel unificador que la ecuación de Price juega en ella

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