Parasites of the mind. Why cultural theorists need the meme’s eye view

Abstract

Are there any such things as mind parasites? By analogy with biological parasites, such cultural items are supposed to subvert or harm the interests of their host. The hypothesis of cultural parasitism has appeared in different guises in the burgeoning field of cultural evolution. To unpack the notion of mind parasites, we first clear some conceptual ground around the concept of cultural adaptation and its relation to human agency. We then formulate Millikan's challenge: how can cultural items develop novel purposes of their own, crosscutting or subverting our own personal purposes? If this central challenge is not met, talk of cultural 'parasites' or 'selfish memes' remains vacuous. First, we discuss why other attempts to answer Millikan's challenge have failed. In particular, we put to rest the claims of panmemetics, a somewhat sinister worldview according to which human culture is nothing more than a swarm of selfish agents, plotting and scheming behind the scenes. Next, we reject a more reasonable, but still overly permissive approach to mind parasites, which equates them with biologically maladaptive culture. Finally, we present our own answer to Millikan's challenge: certain systems of misbelief can be fruitfully treated as cultural parasites, designed by cultural evolution to subvert the interests of their human hosts. As a proof of concept, we discuss witchcraft beliefs in early modern Europe, and show how the meme's eye view promises to shed new light on a mystery that historians and social scientists have been wrestling with for decades.

Epistemic Health, Epistemic Immunity and Epistemic Inoculation

“…14 Some have proposed that certain ideas or memes (in Dawkins's (1993) sense) should be understood as analogous to viruses in a more literal sense, in that they have purposes of their own, are shaped by (cultural) evolutionary processes, and their success in replicating comes at the expense of the host's interests (e.g. Boudry & Hofhuis, 2018). I'll set this question aside.…”

‘Viral’ Hunts? A Cultural Darwinian Analysis of Witch Persecutions

“…Meme-theorists propose that we should look at our culture in a similar way. Culture also spreads through us, and is beneficial in most cases -our survival also depends upon our culture -but some forms of culture may 'behave' like deleterious parasites, spreading at the expense of their human hosts (Boudry & Hofhuis, 2018).…”

Problematization of the metaphysical foundations of human personality

“…The studies of many authors have shown how the processes of globalization and fundamental changes in culture that affect the spiritual life of modern man are correlated. The idea appears in the work of S. Hofhuis [1].…”