Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution

Addresses today's major dilemmas in social scientific theory from the modern Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary approach.

Informationen zum Autor Marion Blute is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto at Mississauga where she teaches classical and contemporary theory and gene-culture coevolution to undergraduates. She also teaches contemporary theory in the university-wide graduate sociology programme. She has published in a wide variety of life and social science journals on evolutionary topics and has related interests in the philosophy and sociology of science. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Biological Theory and of the Editorial Board of Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science. Klappentext Addresses today's major dilemmas in social scientific theory from the modern Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary approach. Zusammenfassung Across numerous disciplines! including biology! philosophy! sociology! anthropology! archaeology! linguistics! economics and political science! some theorists are proposing the existence of a Darwinian social learning-based inheritance and evolutionary theory. This multi-disciplinary paradigm is presented here along with how it can be used to address major theoretical dilemmas in social science. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Introduction; 2. History: where did something come from?; 3. Necessity: why did it evolve?; 4. Competition, conflict and cooperation: why and how do they interact socially?; 5. The ideal and the material: the role of memes in evolutionary social science; 6. Micro and macro I: the problem of agency; 7. Micro and macro II: the problem of subjectivity; 8. Micro and macro III: the evolution of complexity and the problem of social structure; 9. Evolutionism: the old, the new and the future of the social sciences.

Résumé
Across numerous disciplines, including biology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, economics and political science, some theorists are proposing the existence of a Darwinian social learning-based inheritance and evolutionary theory. This multi-disciplinary paradigm is presented here along with how it can be used to address major theoretical dilemmas in social science.

Contenu

1. Introduction; 2. History: where did something come from?; 3. Necessity: why did it evolve?; 4. Competition, conflict and cooperation: why and how do they interact socially?; 5. The ideal and the material: the role of memes in evolutionary social science; 6. Micro and macro I: the problem of agency; 7. Micro and macro II: the problem of subjectivity; 8. Micro and macro III: the evolution of complexity and the problem of social structure; 9. Evolutionism: the old, the new and the future of the social sciences.