The sociobiology muddle

Simon argues that much of the debate between Edward O. Wilson (On Human Nature) and his critics obscures the implications of sociobiology for ethics and social policy. Drawing upon the work of Wilson, Michael Ruse, Daniel G. Freedman and others, the author evaluates some of the criticisms of Wilson's theories on sociobiology and ethics, genetic determinism, ideology, biological diversity, and human equality. He concludes that sociobiology's detractors must formulate their charges more rigorously to be effective, and that its proponents have not been completely successful in applying their theories to human behavior.     

The sociobiology of bereavement: a reply to Littlefield and Rushton

This article offers a critique of Littlefield and Rushton's (1986) application of sociobiological principles to bereavement following the death of a child. The following general issues are considered: (a) whether behavior is always adaptive and (b) the distinction between proximate and ultimate explanations. It is argued that grief is a maladaptive by-product of another, adaptive feature and that hypotheses about the severity of grief are best derived from proximate considerations rather than genetic relatedness. The use of a single-item rating scale to measure grief is questioned, and it is noted that interspouse reliabilities reported in the article were low, a problem not solved (as claimed) by aggregation. Criticisms are made of the specific hypotheses, notably in terms of their origins in sociobiological theory. It is argued that functional hypotheses are not alternatives to proximate mechanisms, but enable some proximate mechanisms to be viewed from the perspective of evolutionary biology.     

Differential K theory: The sociobiology of individual and group differences

Differential K Theory is proposed to help systematize individual and group differences in life histories, social behaviour and physiological functioning. K refers to one end of a continuum of reproductive strategies organisms can adopt, characterized by the production of very few offspring with a large investment of energy in each. At the opposite extreme is the r-strategy in which organisms produce a large number of offspring but invest little energy in any one. Between-species comparisons demonstrate that these reproductive strategies correlate with a variety of life history traits including: litter size, birth-spacing, parental care, infant mortality, developmental precocity, life span, intelligence, social organization and altruism. As a species, humans are at the K end of the continuum. Some people, however, are postulated to be more K than others. The more K a person is, the more likely he or she is to come from a smaller sized family, with a greater spacing of births, a lower incidence of DZ twinning, and more intensive parental care. Moreover, he or she will tend to be intelligent, altruistic, law-abiding, behaviourally restrained, maturationally delayed, lower in sex drive and longer lived. Thus diverse organismic characteristics, not otherwise relatable, are presumed to covary along the K dimension. Group differences are also hypothesized, such that, in terms of K: higher socio-economic > lower socio-economic; and Mongoloids > Caucasoids > Negroids.     

The sociology of knowledge and its enemies

My objective in the following study is to present and analyze the objections to the ‘classical argument’ in the sociology of knowledge raised by Leo Strauss and Karl Popper. Building on this expository account, I will attempt to demonstrate (1) that the opposition of Strauss and Popper is more apparent and polemical than real, (2) that the position taken by Strauss and Popper on the viability of a sociology of knowledge is essentially no different from that taken by the discipline's founders: Max Scheler, Karl Mannheim, and Georg Lukács, (3) that whatever the merits of Strauss and Popper's contentions, they become relevant only in the context of a radicalized version of the sociology of knowledge which developed subsequent to their formulation, and (4) that the sociology of knowledge has needlessly and deplorably become the battleground for meta‐theoretical disputes that are irrelevant to its practice.     

The influences of evolutionary theory on Pareto's sociology

This paper argues that the influence of evolutionary theory on the sociology of Vilfredo Pareto has been generally misunderstood or overlooked, largely on account of Pareto's own contemptuous rejection of “finalist” Darwinian evolution. But the sources of Pareto's evolutionary ideas were French, not English. Neo-Lamarckian notions of inheritance and the related concept of degeneration helped support Pareto's explanation of social evolution, especially as it is developed in his early sociological works. Understanding these influences helps explain Pareto's peculiarly pessimistic account of the mechanism of social change in modern society.     

When a child dies: the sociobiology of bereavement

According to modern evolutionary theory, the fitness of individuals consists of both their personal reproductive success and the reproductive success of those with whom they share genes in common. It follows that one of the most biologically costly events possible is the death of a child. This study investigated the grief intensity of bereaved parents and their immediate families using ratings made by 263 bereaved parents. Predictions were derived from sociobiological tenets relating to parental investment, paternal uncertainty, and the propagation potential of both parents and children. Consequently, it was found that mothers grieved more than fathers, healthy children were grieved for more than unhealthy children; male children were grieved for more than female children; health of child and sex of child interacted such that the pattern of grief intensity obtained was healthy male greater than healthy female = unhealthy female = unhealthy male; similar children were grieved for more than dissimilar children; maternal grandmothers grieved more than either maternal grandfathers or paternal grandmothers, who in turn grieved more than paternal grandfathers; and mothers' siblings grieved more than fathers' siblings.     

Animal sociobiology and comparative psychology: A review

The implications of sociobiology for comparative psychology are discussed. First, the following preliminary topics are considered: (a) the historical origins of sociobiology, and (b) the general criticisms leveled at this field. Second, the characteristics of the evolutionary functional approach to animal behavior are outlined: (a) the individual focus of natural selection, with its associated implications for the evolution of altruism, and (b) the use of mathematical models, notably optimality and games theory models. Third, it is suggested that the evolutionary functional approach can enrich the study of comparative psychology in the following ways: (a) by providing a broad framework for interspecific comparisons based on the principle of natural selection, and (b) by aiding the study of motivation and learning mechanisms through focusing attention on the function of such mechanisms.     

A happy medium: The sociology of Charles Horton Cooley

The career, teaching, and writing of Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929), sociologist at the University of Michigan, show that a middle ground between broadly integrative, general knowledge and specialized knowledge prevailed well into the early twentieth century, both at the level of professional social science and within the modern university curriculum. Cooley's social science rested upon introspection and the study of art and literature, and he eschewed the drift of social science toward behaviorism and quantification. As a university professor, he conceived of specialized knowledge within the context of general culture, not in opposition to it.     

The definition of sociology and the sociology of definition: Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method and high school philosophy in France

Despite his attempts to break with philosophy and found a science of society, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) was involved with philosophy throughout his career. Academic philosophy in France was a highly centralized institution that produced professors capable of teaching a standard curriculum. These professors made up a significant portion of the audience whose support Durkheim hoped to win for his sociological project. The concepts of Pierre Bourdieu and the literature on the rhetoric of the human sciences can help reconstruct the field of academic philosophy, Durkheim's relationship with it, and the ways in which he drew upon it to formulate his method and to persuade his philosophical colleagues. Durkheim's definition of the social fact in The Rules of Sociological Method can only be understood in the context of French academic philosophy. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.