Simple Models of Complex Phenomena: The Case of Cultural Evolution

Peter J. Richerson

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Language and cultural evolution Philosophy and History of Science Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Abstract

Abstract A great deal of the progress in evolutionary biology has resulted from the deployment of relatively simple theoretical models. Staddon’s, Smith’s, and Maynard Smith’s contributions illustrate this point. Despite their success, simple models have been subjected to a steady stream of criticism. The complexity of real social and biological phenomena is compared to the toy like quality of the simple models used to analyze them and their users charged with unwarranted reductionism or plain simplemindedness.

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