| Phi 109 Spring 2016 |
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Section 6 discusses interactions among the three ideas mentioned in the second paragraph:
(i) the transmission pattern (vertical, oblique and discrete, or oblique but diffuse)—Sterelny will sometimes use the italicized terms as shorthand for the two forms of oblique transmission,
(ii) the selective environment (individual or group selection), and
(iii) the learning mode (social learning, trial-and-error learning, or hybrid learning, which mixes the two).
He will summarize his main points about these interactions in the last two paragraphs of the section (pp. 156f). Along the way (pp. 154f), he introduces the idea of niche construction and elaborates one example of it. (Notice also his use of the term “scaffolding” for various sorts of support for transmission, especially vertical transmission.)
Section 7 is Sterelny’s most clearly structured exposition. The three factors listed at the end of the first paragraph are discussed in turn (on pp. 157–159, 159(2nd full ¶)–160, and 160(1st full ¶)–161) before a final concluding paragraph. Many of the ideas in the discussions of the first two appeared earlier in the article (though notice the appearance of one of Sugden’s “exhibits,” the ultimatum game, in the first), but the discussion of the third factor is largely new.
As you think of the limits on successful adaptation that Sterelny notes, think back to Dore’s suggestion that one way the function of an institution might explain its existence would be by increasing the society’s adaptive fitness. Dore seemed to doubt that such an explanation would often be available. Does Sterelny’s discussion suggest a more optomistic or a more pessimistic view of such explanation?