The role of population thinking in dual inheritance theory

Abstract

Dual inheritance theory is possibly the most promising research programme nowadays available about cultural evolution. However, many misunderstandings still surround its goals and the means to achieve them. In this article, I shall discuss the explicit engagement with population thinking displayed by many supporters of this programme. This, supposedly innocent, engagement actually hides an ambiguity with respect to a set of metaphysical and explanatory commitments. I shall show, by taking into account the two most common interpretations of population thinking – those of Mayr and Sober –, that they lead to two substantially different approaches to many topics, like the causal structure of populations and the best way to model it. The compatibility between both interpretations and dual inheritance theory reveals that there exist, in it, two distinct explanatory projects, whose difference is rarely stressed.