Graphs and Networks as Explanatory Tools in Cultural Evolutionary Theory

• Applicant: Dr. Karim Baraghith
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531812763

In this project, I want to shed light on the theory of cultural evolution in terms of applied graph- and network models from a philosophy of science perspective. Cultural Evolutionary Theory attempts to understand the dynamics and diversity of culture from an evolutionary perspective. Cultural evolution is ‘Darwinian’ or has Darwinian aspects, meaning that the Darwinian principles of variation, inheritance, and reproductive fitness differences apply to the (human) social world, and can explain at least some cultural forms and changes, in particular the spread of certain cultural information units in contrast to other such units. Small-scale transmission of cultural variants results in complex population structures, trees, and networks of cultural information, and cultural change can be regarded as a process resembling genetic change. The leading idea of this project is that so far, the models of cultural evolution have typically assumed that traits are independent of one another and to some extend exchangeable. However, culture has a structure: traits bear relationships to one another that affect the transmission and selection process itself. The structure of culture is dynamic and influenced and shaped by cultural agents, especially their interactions but also by higher-level agents such as institutions or companies. Graphs and networks can represent such a dynamical structure. In the case of language formation and inheritance, for example, different kinds of networks can be distinguished, which all yield different temporal outcomes on the ‘cultural long run’. Social network analysis can benefit from the tools and methods of evolutionary graph theory to better understand the dynamics of social networks. Network- and graph approaches have already been used within the CET framework for some time. However, the approaches already available on the market make the impression of one big patchwork, rather than a unified framework. The approaches named in the proposal constitute an overview of graph-based models within CET research. Comparing them yields insight in their very different ideas on storage, acquisition, transmission and sorting of cultural traits/information in social networks. Note that most of the approaches aim at providing solutions to very specific and rather local problems. Summarizing, there is no general framework systematically relating network and graph approaches functionally, i.e., ordered by their local functions in different domains of CET research. The project aims at filling this gap by developing a general framework that conceptually relates these approaches and helps to improve our philosophical (metatheoretical) understanding how cultural traits affect the structure of social networks.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants