Dissertation: Conceptual Foundations of Cultural Evolution (9/2005, download PDF)
The literature on "cultural evolution" is vast and it cuts across a heterogeneous set of disciplines. There are many overlapping strands in this literature, but little agreement from author to author. The one overwhelming trend is the widespread use of certain biological concepts to describe processes of cultural change. What happens to these concepts when they are exported from their home territory and imported into the study of culture? What do we gain by doing this? In this dissertation, I critically examine the basic concepts and assumptions of a biological approach to cultural change. First, I disambiguate widely used, but poorly understood concepts such as "cultural evolution," "culture," "social learning," "cultural inheritance," and "cultural selection." Second, I investigate how these concepts relate to actual demographic, social, and psychological processes. Third, I evaluate the significance of certain biological concepts, such as the concept of a selection process, for explaining cultural change. The dissertation does not culminate in a grand thesis about cultural change, but in a methodical analysis of various evolutionary concepts and processes of interest to philosophers, social scientists, and biologists.

Influence diagram for a culturally transmitted rule (key)

Publications
· The Robust Volterra Principle with Michael Weisberg, Philosophy of Science 75:106-131, 2008.
· Can there be Stochastic Evolutionary Causes? with Patrick Forber, Philosophy of Science 74:616-627, 2007.
· Is Culture Inherited through Social Learning?, Biological Theory, 2007.
· Thinking Like a Wolf, a Sheep, or a Firefly: Learning Biology Through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories with Uri Wilensky, Cognition & Instruction, 2006.
· Manipulation and the Causes of Evolution with Patrick Forber, Philosophy of Science 72:1113-1123, 2005.
· Review of J.E.R. Staddon, Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior, Biology & Philosophy, 2003.

Courses
In the past, I have been TA for Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science (Michael Strevens), Introduction to Philosophy of Art (at U.C. Berkeley with Richard Wollheim), Introduction to Cognitive Science (Ken Taylor & James Greeno), Mind, Matter & Meaning (Krista Lawlor), and Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science (Peter Godfrey-Smith). I was also instructor for Evolution, Mind & Culture and the Honors Thesis Seminar.

Diversions
I write and record music. I also make field recordings of conversations, city sounds, and life in general. You can listen to some of my work.

Some present and past affiliations
· Pluribo Inc.
· McKinsey & Company
· Health Connexin
· Conceptual Labs
· Philosophy at Stanford University
· Biological Sciences at Stanford University
· RSSS at The Australian National University
· 826 Valencia
· Philosophy at UC Berkeley
· Computer Science at UC San Diego
· The Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling
· The Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University

Email Address:
kreisman (at) stanford.edu