Evolutionism and its critics : deconstructing and reconstructing an evolutionary interpretation of human society / Stephen K. Sanderson.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Sanderson, Stephen K.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Social evolution.

Physical Description:

x, 374 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boulder : Paradigm Publishers, [2007]

Summary:

Evolutionism and Its Critics is a critical history of evolutionary theories in the social sciences and a defense of them against their many critics. Sanderson deconstructs not only the wide array of social evolutionary theories, but the criticisms of the antievolutionists. Deconstructing evolutionary theories means laying bare their fundamental epistemological, methodological, conceptual, and theoretical assumptions and principles. Deconstructing antievolutionism means showing just where and how the critics have, for the most part, gone wrong. But Evolutionism and Its Critics aims to reconstruct as well as deconstruct and does this by building, on the shoulders of past giants of evolutionary theorizing, a comprehensive evolutionary interpretation of human society based on abundant scientific and historical evidence.

Contents:

• The nature of social evolutionism
• Classical evolutionism: I
• The antievolutionary reaction
• Marxism as evolutionism
• Classical evolutionism: II
• The evolutionary revival
• Sociological evolutionism: I
• Anthropological evolutionism since 1960
• Sociological evolutionism: II
• Evolutionary biology and social evolutionism
• Contemporary antievolutionism
• Evolutionary materialism: a general theory of social evolution.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-353) and index.

ISBN:

• 1594513015
• 9781594513015

OCLC:

70668622

Publisher Number:

9781594513015