Dear All, A reminder that the second of our Nature and Culture seminars will take place tomorrow (Tue 5th May) from 1pm to 2.30pm in Seminar Room 1 of the HPS Department. Heidi Colleran (IAS Toulouse) will speak on "The Cultural Evolution of Fertility Decline":
Abstract: Cultural evolutionists have long been interested in the question of why fertility declines as populations develop. Foundational texts in the field (e.g. Boyd & Richerson 1985; Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman 1981) cite fertility decline as a canonical example of how cultural transmission can maintain behavioural outcomes that do not maximise genetic fitness. By outlining plausible mechanistic links between individual decision-making and broader cultural evolutionary dynamics, these offer a promising new approach for integrating micro and macro level understandings of reproductive behaviour. However, only a modest number of theoretical models have been published and there are extremely few empirical tests of their assumptions and predictions. In this talk I will briefly review the existing cultural evolutionary literature on demographic transition, and outline its unique contributions to our understanding of human reproductive behaviour. Using examples from fieldwork in rural Poland, I will show how a cultural evolutionary approach provides added value in the understanding of fertility decline, but also why cultural evolutionary theory remains difficult to test in real-world conditions. All welcome, Best wishes, Tim -- Tim Lewens University of Cambridge Professor of Philosophy of Science, Department of History and Philosophy of Science Deputy Director, Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Principal Investigator, 'A Science of Human Nature?' http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk http://www.humannature.hps.cam.ac.uk New Books: _The Biological Foundations of Bioethics_ (OUP, January 2015) http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198712657.do# _Cultural Evolution: Conceptual Challenges_ (OUP, August 2015) http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199674183.do _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
