Evolutionary Sociology

Bibliographic Data

ID7078032
AuthorsSeth Abrutyn (0000-0001-6220-3362, University of British Columbia), Kevin Mccaffree (0000-0002-5422-6190)
Year2018
Pages1-10
Publication date2018-12-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781405165518.wbeose093.pub2
OpenAlexW4234537536
ISBN9781405165518
LanguageEN
References cited36

The emergence of sociology in the nineteenth century was predicated, in part, on evolutionary principles. The effort to make sense of the various societies Europeans had come into contact with through colonization accelerated the effort to establish a science of societies. Though crudely Eurocentric and rooted on poorly conceived ideas about progressive evolutionism, the idea that selection might work on culture and culture might be adaptive for individuals and/or groups remained a part of sociology; even after evolution was marginalized because of its association with social Darwinism and, worse, eugenics. Following the 1960s, evolutionary sociology began a slow but steady resurgence. Though evolutionary sociology remains an eclectic subfield, many of the threads have eschewed the questionable assumptions of nineteenth‐century paradigms and offer promising new directions for the merger of sociology and biology

Biology · Darwinism · Epistemology · Eugenics · Evolutionary theory · Evolutionism · Microevolution · Political science · Social Darwinism · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Demography · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Law · Philosophy

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