Przemoc symboliczna albo o społecznych warunkach ewolucji memetycznej

Abstract

Although memetic attempts to consider the processes of memetic evolution such as exploration, mutation, selection and transmission of memes as independent from social contexts, in case of human beings they always constitute social facts. This must be taken into account by those who attempt to understand the mechanism of evolution of ideas. Sociology, and especially materialistic theory of symbolic capital (Pierre Bourdieau, Jean-Claud Passeron) has constructed great theoretical tools that can be useful for analyzing social conditions of memetic replication. Among them the concept of la violence symbolique and habitus are especially worth noticing. The author presents arguments that the theory of recurrent dynamic systems based on symbolic violence and the reproduction of cultural capital is a profound description of post-modernistic society, as it explores the mechanisms of copying the instruction, not only the product. This theory bridges the gap between evolutionary thought and humanistic view of culture and therefore overcomes the pitfall of biological reductionism, to which memetics, often “blind” to social context of reproduction of ideas, can be prone.