The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521606271)

Culture is a unique and fascinating aspect of the human species. How did it emerge and how does it develop? Richard Dawkins has suggested that culture evolves and that memes are the cultural replicators, subject to variation and selection in the same way as genes function in the biological world. In this sense human culture is the product of a mindless evolutionary algorithm. Does this imply that we are mere meme machines and that the conscious self is an illusion? Kate Distin extends and strengthens Dawkins's theory and presents a fully developed and workable concept of cultural DNA. She argues that culture's development can be seen both as the result of memetic evolution and as the product of human creativity. Memetic evolution is therefore compatible with the view of humans as conscious and intelligent.

Author: Kate Distin,Distin Kate
ISBN-10: 0521606276
ISBN-13: 9780521606271
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/20/2004
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.32w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2006 pg. 160