In his new book, Wired for Culture, Mark Pagel — a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading — argues that social structures and culture are vital components in human evolution. Human beings are altruistic, helpful, and cooperative in ways that other mammals are not. Pagel says our facility for culture is the key to our success as a species. Without a propensity for culture, the traits that make us stand above other mammals — in Darwinian terms — such as: consciousness, language and intelligence, would not exist.
He spoke to The Spectator about the idea of “the self” as an illusion, how most human behaviour is a form of copying, and why religions have been beneficial to humanity.
What is the thesis of your new book?
That humans invented this new kind of evolution called ideas evolution, which we pass from one generation to the next. It is held in our minds, rather than just in our genes.
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