Darwinian Sociocultural Evolution : Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory

Social scientists can learn a lot from evolutionary biology - from systematics and principles of evolutionary ecology to theories of social interaction including competition, conflict and cooperation, as well as niche construction, complexity, eco-evo-devo, and the role of the individual in evolutionary processes. Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary theory applies the logic of Darwinism to social-learning based cultural and social change. With a multidisciplinary approach for graduate biologists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, archaeologists, linguists, economists, political scientists and science and technology specialists, the author presents this model of evolution drawing on a number of sophisticated aspects of biological evolutionary theory. The approach brings together a broad and inclusive theoretical framework for understanding the social sciences which addresses many of the dilemmas at their forefront - the relationship between history and necessity, conflict and cooperation, the ideal and the material and the problems of agency, subjectivity and the nature of social structure. Please visit Marion Blute's blog at http://bluteblog.com Front Cover......Page 1 Title Page ......Page 5 Copyright ......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Preface: a postmodern metanarrative......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1.1 a train ride......Page 12 1.2 developmentalism......Page 14 1.3 darwinian sociocultural evolution......Page 18 1.4 two great principles......Page 22 1.5 differences in emphasis......Page 26 1.6 a roadmap......Page 28 2.1 darwins tree i think......Page 34 2.2 the us standard railroad gauge......Page 35 2.3 the rediscovery of social learning......Page 37 2.4 cultural descent in humans and other animals......Page 39 2.5 with modification in humans and other animals......Page 45 2.6 systematics revolutionized phylogenetics and the new tree of life......Page 52 2.7 applications in the social sciences......Page 56 2.8 summary and conclusions......Page 60 3.1 three approaches to selection......Page 62 3.2 basalla on extraterrestrials......Page 66 3.3 some principles of evolutionary ecology including in science......Page 68 3.4 nomothetic or idiographic?......Page 78 3.5 history and necessity......Page 81 3.6 summary and conclusions......Page 86 3.7 appendix on r and k selection theory......Page 88 4.1 competition, conflict and cooperation......Page 91 4.2 density/frequency-dependence of the ecological: trade-off between depletion and degradation......Page 92 4.3 density/frequency-dependence of the ecological versus the social as well as within the social: the affinity of conflict and......Page 96 4.4 genders: some background......Page 101 4.5 genders and gender relations......Page 105 4.6 cooperation......Page 115 4.7 summary and conclusions......Page 121 5.1 the reception of memetics......Page 124 5.2 biological genes......Page 126 5.3 linguistic memes......Page 132 5.4 the scientific usefulness of the "meme" concept......Page 137 5.5 alternative popular usage and terms in evolutionary social sciences......Page 140 5.6 memes and social learning mechanisms......Page 142 5.7 the ideal and the material......Page 145 5.8 summary and implications......Page 147 6.1 the problem of agency......Page 149 6.2 behaviourism, teleology and teleonomy......Page 150 6.3 individual learning as a selection process......Page 153 6.4 rational choice and game theory......Page 163 6.5 a brief comparison......Page 167 6.6 summary and conclusions......Page 170 7.1 social constructionism/ constructivism......Page 173 preadaptations and niche construction......Page 177 7.3 the psychological and the sociocultural......Page 180 7.4 the social construction of science......Page 182 7.5 the politics of science studies......Page 188 7.6 summary and conclusions......Page 190 8.1 introduction......Page 193 8.2 progress and ecological complexity......Page 194 8.3 individual complexity......Page 199 8.4 competitive development of new levels of replication: recursive culture......Page 202 8.5 the sociocultural: culture, social relationships and social structure......Page 205 8.6 summary and conclusion......Page 208 9.2 the biological......Page 210 9.3 the sociocultural......Page 212 culture coevolution......Page 213 9.5 individuals in the middle......Page 215 9.6 language a target?......Page 217 9.7 summary and conclusions......Page 219 References......Page 220 Index......Page 244

Social scientists can learn a lot from evolutionary biology-from systematics and principles of evolutionary ecology to theories of social interaction including competition, conflict and cooperation, as well as niche construction, complexity, eco-evo-devo, and the role of the individual in evolutionary processes. Darwinian sociocultural evolutionary theory applies the logic of Darwinism to social-learning-based cultural and social change. With a multidisciplinary approach for graduate biologists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, archaeologists, linguists, economists, political scientists and science and technology specialists, the author presents this model of evolution drawing on a number of sophisticated aspects of biological evolutionary theory. The approach brings together a broad and inclusive theoretical framework for understanding in the social sciences which addresses many of the dilemmas at their forefront-the relationship between history and necessity, conflict and cooperation, the ideal and the material and the problems of agency, subjectivity and the nature of social structure.