How do we learn from each other? Memetics as a new view of human nature

ISSN： 1743-2790

Source： Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Vol.27, Iss.2, 2002-06, pp. : 125-130

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Abstract

Since 1859 influential attempts have been made to fit the peculiarities of the human species into a 'Darwinian' frame. The most prominent have portrayed a human nature fixed by naturally selected genes. A more recent, alternative system is based on units called 'memes', analogous to genes. Memes include concepts and practices and are described as moving directly from mind to mind, as a result of imitation. They are also said to be selfish, to reproduce themselves, and to be subject to a process similar to natural selection. In its most extreme form, memetics reduces a human being to a 'memeplex' evolved for the benefit of memes. Ideas and skills do not, however, evolve merely by competition or by a form of natural selection. Imitation does not provide an account of how we learn from each other, and still less of social change, for this often arises from dissent and originality. Memetics also ignores the complexities of language, and it conspicuously disregards the elaborate exchanges during the crucial activity of teaching. Nonetheless, memetics has made an advance by turning away from the current obsession with genes, and by provoking interdisciplinary debates about humanity as a 'political animal'. If memetics can allow that human beings are argumentative and sometimes rational, it is possible to suggest ways in which it can generate fruitful studies.