文化进化的模因视角及其哲学意蕴

The Meme’s-Eye on Cultural Evolution and Its Philosophical Implications

模因概念已经被广泛用于文化研究和社会科学领域,但对其依然缺乏公认一致的看法。基于对几种代表性观点的梳理和分析,模因被界定为由人类心智系统所创生和复制的文化信息单元。通过与普适达尔文主义相结合,对模因的运用可以作为解释文化进化机制的必要和有效的进路。而且,在学理上,模因与基因共享一种基于信息—计算的本体论,这对研究文化进化与生物进化之间的关系具有重要意义。

There are divergent viewpoints about the definition of meme in contemporary cultural studies andsocial sciences.In this paper,based on the analysis of several typical definitions,a meme is defined as a culturalinformation unit created and replicated by the human mental system.In favor of extending Darwin’s theory of evolution to the study of cultural evolution,we argue that the meme’s-eye is a necessary and effective approachto explain the mechanism of cultural evolution.Memes and genes share an informational-computational ontology,which is important to do research on the relationship between cultural evolution and biological evolution.