Evolutionary Approaches in the Behavioral Sciences: Toward a Better Understanding of Human Nature / Edition 1

by Steven A. Peterson, Albert Somit

Overview

"Evolutionary Approaches in the Behavioral Sciences" examines perhaps the single most important post-World War II development in the Behavioral Sciences - the emergence of a group of practitioners who advocate 'a more biologically oriented' approach to their discipline's subject matter. This contention directly challenges the basic tenets underlying the long-dominant standard social science model. Advocates of this model believe that human behavior is not meaningfully influenced by our evolutionary background, but is instead learned. Consequently, the possibility that our behavior is genetically influenced is often ignored.The advocates of a 'more biologically oriented' approach are attempting, in effect, an intellectual revolution. Part I of this ground breaking volume examines, discipline by discipline, the history of the evolutionary thrust, leading figures and key literature, the degree of acceptance (or rejection) within each discipline, and the likely future prospects. Part II discusses the biobehavioral approach on a geographic basis, with experts assessing the status of evolutionary behavioral science across a number of countries and regions. The contributing authors are social scientists who have personally played an important role in the developments that they discuss.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762307692
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:	04/18/2001
Series:	Research in Biopolitics , #8
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword (John C. Wahlke)Anthropology: Anthropology and the Evolutionary Study of Human Behavior (Lee Cronk)Economics: Economics as an Evolutionary Science (Paul Zak and Arthur T. Denzau)History: History and Evolutionary Theory (Carl Degler)International Relations: Evolution in International Relations? From Social Darwinism to Evolutionary Theory in the Study of International Relations (Vincent Falger)Law: The Evolution of Law and Biology (Monika Gruter Morhenn and Margaret Gruter)Philosophy: Darwinism and Philosophy (Michael Ruse and Jean Lachapelle)Political Philosophy: Evolutionary Theory and Political Thought(Joseph Losco)Political Science: Biopolitics in the Year 2000 (Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson)Psychology: Is Psychology Undergoing a Paradigm Shift? Past, Present, and Future Roles of Evolutionary Psychology (Irwin Silverman and Maryanne L. Fisher)Psychiatry: Neo-Darwinian Theory and Psychiatry (Russell Gardner)Sociology: Darwin and Sociology: Oil and Water (Allan Mazur) 'Biopolitics? Never Heard of It': A Report from Australia (Hiram Caton)A Paradigm Ignored: Biopolitics and Political Science in Eastern Europe (Jerzy Wiatr)The Reception of Sociobiology in German Psychology and Anthropology (Harald A. Euler and Eckart Voland)Personal Observations on the Sociobiology Controversy (Edward O. Wilson)Postlude (Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson)