Summary: Speaker(s): Professor Tim Lewens, Dr Alex Mesoudi, Professor Christina Toren | A growing number of researchers are applying Darwinian ideas to explain aspects of human society, but this work has long been controversial. Is a Darwinian theory of culture possible? If so, what should such a theory look like? In what ways should it differ from a theory of biological evolution? Does the “meme” concept have any value? How should we think about cultural inheritance, if not in terms of memes? In this interdisciplinary discussion, philosopher Tim Lewens, social anthropologist Christina Toren and cultural evolution theorist Alex Mesoudi debate these and other questions concerning Darwinism and the social sciences. Tim Lewens is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Alex Mesoudi (@amesoudi) is Associate Professor in Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter. Christina Toren is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews. Andrew Buskell (@AndrewBuskell) is a Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.
