Societies Learn and yet the World is Hard to Change

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2398554
AutoresKlaus Eder (0000-0001-8097-6414, Humboldt University, Berlin, autor de correspondencia)
Año1999
Volumen2
Número2
Páginas195-215
Fecha de publicación1999-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13684319922224400
OpenAlexW4233526727
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas42
Referencias citadas41

Evolution and learning are two analytically distinct concepts. People learn yet evolution ('change') does not necessarily take place. To clarify this problem the concept of learning is explicated. The first problem addressed is the question of who is learning. Here a shift from the single actor perspective to an interaction perspective is proposed (using Habermas and Luhmann as theoretical arguments for such a shift). Both, however, idealize the preconditions that interactants share while learning collectively. Against rationalist assumptions it is argued that in order to learn people need a narratively based shared world. What do they learn? They acquire knowledge and they learn how to learn. This still does not solve the problem why they learn. Learning, it is argued, does not guarantee evolution but provides the mutations for evolutionary processes to take place

Cognitive science · Epistemology · Sociology · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Critical Realism in Sociology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence