Moc narrativum : idee biologii we współczesnym dyskursie humanistycznym

Abstract

The so far abiding natural history paradigm has been expanded of yet. Nowadays, its core constitutes information, whereas its investigation has led biological sciences to neo-evolutionary solutions and theories under a common label of the “third culture” . The book presents these changes, looking at their consequences for the humanistic sciences. The author also formulates a thesis and proves that a new culture theory, close to the diagnosis of the postmodernist philosophy and sociology of culture (Baudrilliard, Foucault, Lyotard) has been created within natural history, especially due to the theory of Richard Dawkin’s selfish gene, and its extrapolation through memetics. The theory rests on the conception of memo and evolution of the postgenetic information, shaping an idiosphere, i.e. a stage of evolution in the Earth following a biosphere. The author outlines her own memetics research programme, criticising its achievements so far, and drawing conclusions from a comparison of memetics with other theories of the “third culture” , especially with the chaos theory. The assumptions of this very thoery, and a synthesis of culturological investigations conducted in the area of the natural history discourses, has led the author of the work to a narrativum hypothesis — an attractor of an idiosphere’s universal phase space, a basin of attracting thoughts, speech and ideas. Memetics, rebuilt according to the research proposal presented in the book, reveals, at the same time, new research possibilities as an interdisciplinary theory, as well as a potentially new methodology of humanistic sciences, including narratology and media studies. The evidence of its efficiency and usefulness in research on life and forms of ideas in an idiosphere belongs to the near past which can totally change our understanding of culture.