Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science PDF Author: Alexander Rosenberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781421435442
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controversial discipline of sociobiology. Sociobiology, Rosenberg asserts, deals in those forces governing human behavior that traditional social science has unsuccessfully attempted to slip between: neurophysiology, on the one hand, and selective forces, on the other. Unlike previous works in the two fields it straddles, Rosenberg's book brings thinking about the nature of scientific theorizing to bear on the most traditional issues in the philosophy of social science. The author finds that the subjects of conventional social science do not reflect the operation of laws that social scientists are equipped to discover. The author argues that much of the debate surrounding sociobiology is irrelevant to the issue of its ultimate success. Although largely conceptual, the book is an unequivocal defense of this new theory in the explanation of human behavior.

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science PDF Author: Alexander Rosenberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781421435442
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controversial discipline of sociobiology. Sociobiology, Rosenberg asserts, deals in those forces governing human behavior that traditional social science has unsuccessfully attempted to slip between: neurophysiology, on the one hand, and selective forces, on the other. Unlike previous works in the two fields it straddles, Rosenberg's book brings thinking about the nature of scientific theorizing to bear on the most traditional issues in the philosophy of social science. The author finds that the subjects of conventional social science do not reflect the operation of laws that social scientists are equipped to discover. The author argues that much of the debate surrounding sociobiology is irrelevant to the issue of its ultimate success. Although largely conceptual, the book is an unequivocal defense of this new theory in the explanation of human behavior.

Philosophy Of Social Science

Philosophy Of Social Science PDF Author: Alexander Rosenberg
Publisher: Westview Press
ISBN: 9780813306179
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
An introduction to the philosophical foundations of the human sciences. The author takes readers through behaviourism, naturalism, interpretativism about human action, and macro-social scientific perspectives, setting out to illuminate the motivation and strategy of each.

Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences

Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences PDF Author: Byron Kaldis
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412986893
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1195

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Book Description
The entries in this encyclopedia give readers an opportunity to explore interconnections, clarify commonalities as well as differences or comparative contrasts, discover new fields or ideas of intellectual interest, explore adjacent conceptual zones that may be found to further expand their own disciplinary domains, and also understand better their own academic areas of expertise and the historical provenance of each. -- p. xxxi.

Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory

Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory PDF Author: Gerard Delanty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135997942
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
The Handbook will address a range of issues that have emerged out of recent social and political theory. It will focus on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. Each chapter is an emerging, cutting edge topic that is of interest both to social theory and to political theory. Most topics will have a clear and substantive focus on social or political problems.

Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior

Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior PDF Author: Eric Alden Smith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351521322
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
""à required reading for anyone interested in the economy, ecology, and demography of human societies."" --American Journal of Human Biology ""This excellent book can serve both as a text1⁄4book and as a scholarly reference."" --American Scientist

Religion, Economy, and Cooperation

Religion, Economy, and Cooperation PDF Author: Ilkka Pyysiäinen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110246325
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
This volume addresses the issue of religion and economy in the evolution of human cooperation. Both religious practices and economic behavior create and sustain intra-group cooperation by providing people with common goals and values. Even if individuals are selfish maximizers of utility, in the end everybody benefits from being part of a cooperative community, the market. The rules of the market are the invisible hand which turns selfishness into cooperation. In the same way, God beliefs constrain individual selfishness and ensure cooperation within the group.

Evolutionary Theory and Human Nature

Evolutionary Theory and Human Nature PDF Author: Ron Vannelli
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461515459
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Evolutionary Theory and Human Nature is an original, highly theoretical work dealing with the transition from genes to behavior using general principles of evolution, especially those of sexual selection. It seeks to develop a seamless transition from genes to human motivations as bio-electric brain processes (emotional-cognitive processes), to human nature propensities (various constellations of emotional-cognitive forces, desires and fears) to species typical patterns of behavior. This work covers two often antagonistic fields: biology and the social sciences. It should be of strong interest to anthropologists, sociologists, sociobiologists, psychobiologists and psychologists who are interested in the question of human nature influences on social behavior.

Theories, Models and Concepts in Ancient History

Theories, Models and Concepts in Ancient History PDF Author: Neville Morley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134536097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Morley's book offers the first accessible guide for students to show how theories, models and concepts have been applied to ancient history. Showing readers how they can use theory to interpret historical evidence for themselves, as well as to evaluate the work of others, the book includes a survey of key ideas and theories on a wide range of ancient historical topics including society and economy, the environment, gender and sexuality, and myth and rationality. Also including a helpful annotated guide to further reading on all the topics covered, students will not want to miss out on this essential guide to the ancient world.

Religion and Cognition

Religion and Cognition PDF Author: D. Jason Slone
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134941943
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
The cognitive science of religion examines the mental processes that govern religious belief and behaviour. It offers a fresh and exciting approach to the scientific study of religion. 'Religion and Cognition' brings together key essays which outline the theory and illustrate this with experimental case material. The central topics in this new critical field of research are all addressed: meta-theoretical arguments for cognitive explanations of religion; theoretical models of cognition employed in the cognitive science of religion; prominent cognitive theories of religion; methods used to gather data and test theories; and experimental findings by cognitive scientists of religion.

Economic Methodology and Freedom to Choose (Routledge Revivals)

Economic Methodology and Freedom to Choose (Routledge Revivals) PDF Author: Patrick O'Sullivan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136736905
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
First published in 1987, Professor O'Sullivan's work provides an in depth philosophical examination of the foundations of method in Economics and other human sciences. The argument is unabashedly dialectical in the great Socratic-Platonic tradition, and the reissue will be very welcome to all students of methodology, in particular those students of economic methodology seeking a refreshing alternative to yet more mathematical game playing. In an age dominated and perhaps to an extent perplexed by an ultimately non-committal postmodernism the book provides a root and branch critique of the epistemological relativism which must lie at the root of the whole post-modernist approach; and in reasserting the fundamental importance not only for the methods of science but also for European civilisation of the pursuit of truth it takes a stance which is very much against the tide of the times. A heterodox perspective is also provided and defended in detail regarding the real nature of economic methodology whereby it is shown that Economics epitomises a teleological mode of explanation which is significantly different from the efficient causal modes of explanation of the natural sciences. In fact Economics is the ultimate subjectivist/interpretative discipline in the methodological sense of Max Weber and Alfred Schutz, a fact which has only been recognised (and welcomed) in the Austrian school of Economics.