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Is symbolic inheritance similar to genetic inheritance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2007

Luc Steels
Affiliation:
Computer Science Department, University of Brussels, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. [email protected] arti.vub.ac.be/~steels

Abstract

Jablonka & Lamb's (J&L's) book is refreshing in that it debunks the exclusively gene-centered approach used these days to explain almost anything about life and human behavior. The book is very accessible and most convincing when the authors discuss biological theories of genetic and epigenetic inheritance, but it does not shy away from the more slippery terrain of behavioral and symbolic inheritance, and specifically the origins of language. But is the analogy appropriate?

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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