Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
eBook - ePub

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

About this book

Originally published in 1981. 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.

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Yes, you can access Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science by Alexander Rosenberg in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Philosophy & Ethics in Science. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. 1. Introduction
  8. 2. Metaphysics, Epistemology, and the Philosophy of Social Science
  9. 3. Common Assumptions
  10. 4. Empiricism about Reasons
  11. 5. Actions, Reasons, and Natural Kinds
  12. 6. Human Kind and Biological Kinds
  13. 7. Human Science and Biological Science
  14. 8. Using and Abusing Sociobiology
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index