To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Political science. Evolution (Biology).
Journal articles on the topic 'Political science. Evolution (Biology)'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 journal articles for your research on the topic 'Political science. Evolution (Biology).'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse journal articles on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Alford, C. Fred. "Politics and Biology." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 549–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592713000182.
Full textAbstract:
Man Is by Nature a Political Animal: Evolution, Biology, and Politics. Edited by Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 352p. $80.00 cloth, $27.50 paper.Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott's Man Is by Nature a Political Animal brings together some of the most important social scientists working at the intersection of political science, psychology, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. Given recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and given the proliferation of work in political science that draws on these advances, we have decided to invite a range of political scientists to comment on the promise and the limits of this line of inquiry. What can scientific developments in psychology, biology, and neuroscience tell us about “human nature”? Can these discourses reckon with the variation in time and space that has traditionally been at the heart of political science, perhaps even going back to the classic text from which Hatemi and McDermott derive their title, Aristotle's Politics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
2
Gunnell, John G. "Politics and Biology." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 562–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592713000194.
Full textAbstract:
Man Is by Nature a Political Animal: Evolution, Biology, and Politics. Edited by Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 352p. $80.00 cloth, $27.50 paper.Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott's Man Is by Nature a Political Animal brings together some of the most important social scientists working at the intersection of political science, psychology, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. Given recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and given the proliferation of work in political science that draws on these advances, we have decided to invite a range of political scientists to comment on the promise and the limits of this line of inquiry. What can scientific developments in psychology, biology, and neuroscience tell us about “human nature”? Can these discourses reckon with the variation in time and space that has traditionally been at the heart of political science, perhaps even going back to the classic text from which Hatemi and McDermott derive their title, Aristotle's Politics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
3
Thiele, Leslie Paul. "Politics and Biology." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 555–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592713000200.
Full textAbstract:
Man Is by Nature a Political Animal: Evolution, Biology, and Politics. Edited by Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 352p. $80.00 cloth, $27.50 paper.Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott's Man Is by Nature a Political Animal brings together some of the most important social scientists working at the intersection of political science, psychology, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. Given recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and given the proliferation of work in political science that draws on these advances, we have decided to invite a range of political scientists to comment on the promise and the limits of this line of inquiry. What can scientific developments in psychology, biology, and neuroscience tell us about “human nature”? Can these discourses reckon with the variation in time and space that has traditionally been at the heart of political science, perhaps even going back to the classic text from which Hatemi and McDermott derive their title, Aristotle's Politics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
4
Rasmussen, Claire. "Politics and Biology." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 552–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s153759271300042x.
Full textAbstract:
Man Is by Nature a Political Animal: Evolution, Biology, and Politics.Edited by Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 352p. $80.00 cloth, $27.50 paper.Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott'sMan Is by Nature a Political Animalbrings together some of the most important social scientists working at the intersection of political science, psychology, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. Given recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and given the proliferation of work in political science that draws on these advances, we have decided to invite a range of political scientists to comment on the promise and the limits of this line of inquiry. What can scientific developments in psychology, biology, and neuroscience tell us about “human nature”? Can these discourses reckon with the variation in time and space that has traditionally been at the heart of political science, perhaps even going back to the classic text from which Hatemi and McDermott derive their title, Aristotle'sPolitics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
5
Charney, Evan. "Politics and Biology." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 558–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592713000893.
Full textAbstract:
Man Is by Nature a Political Animal: Evolution, Biology, and Politics. Edited by Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. 352p. $80.00 cloth, $27.50 paper.Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott's Man Is by Nature a Political Animal brings together some of the most important social scientists working at the intersection of political science, psychology, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. Given recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and given the proliferation of work in political science that draws on these advances, we have decided to invite a range of political scientists to comment on the promise and the limits of this line of inquiry. What can scientific developments in psychology, biology, and neuroscience tell us about “human nature”? Can these discourses reckon with the variation in time and space that has traditionally been at the heart of political science, perhaps even going back to the classic text from which Hatemi and McDermott derive their title, Aristotle's Politics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor
6
Long, David E. "Science ideals and science careers in a university biology department." Learning and Teaching 7, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 29–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/latiss.2014.070103.
Full textAbstract:
In an ethnographic study set within a biology department of a public university in the United States, incongruity between the ideals and practice of science education are investigated. Against the background of religious conservative students' complaints about evolution in the curriculum, biology faculty describe their political intents for fostering science literacy. This article examines differences that emerge between the department's rhetorical commitment to improve science understanding amongst their students and the realities of course staffing and anxieties about promotion and tenure. Because tenure-track faculty are motivated to focus their careers on research productivity and teaching biology majors, other biology courses are staffed with adjunct instructors who are less equipped to negotiate complex pedagogies of science and religion. In practice, faculty avoid risky conversations about evolution versus creationism with religiously conservative students. I argue that such faculty are complicit, through their silence, in failing to equip their students with the science literacy which their own profession avows is crucial for a well-informed citizenry in a democracy.
7
Bateson, Patrick. "The Evolution of Evolutionary Theory." European Review 18, no. 3 (July 2010): 287–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1062798710000049.
Full textAbstract:
Charles Darwin has had an extraordinary impact on many aspects of human affairs apart from revolutionizing biology. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Cambridge Darwin Festival in July 2009 celebrated these contributions to the humanities, philosophy and religion and the approach to medicine, economics and the social sciences. He is a man to revere. It is no discredit to him that the science of evolutionary biology should continue to evolve. In this article I shall consider some of the ways in which this has happened since his day.
8
Machalek, Richard, and Michael W. Martin. "Evolution, Biology, and Society." Teaching Sociology 38, no. 1 (January 2010): 35–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0092055x09354078.
Full text
9
GREGORY, FREDERICK. "GERMAN POST-DARWINIAN BIOLOGY REASSESSED." Modern Intellectual History 8, no. 1 (March 3, 2011): 227–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1479244311000138.
Full textAbstract:
It is hard to imagine two more engaging and thoroughly researched works on German science than the two here under review. This is especially rewarding because in the period covered—the second half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth—it is often the physical sciences that command the attention of historians. This was the time when Helmholtz was at the peak of his profession and Einstein was emerging onto the scene. Richards and Nyhart are among those historians of science who are reexamining assumptions about the sciences of life in Germany from the beginning of the nineteenth century on. In particular, as scholars of Germany they refuse to concede to any other country or individual (including Darwin) the undisputed center of attention where biological science and even the subject of evolution are concerned. Both works are much more than straightforward narrative histories. Nyhart and Richards have each taken on difficult historiographical challenges in the course of presenting the results of their research.
10
Corning, Peter A. "Holistic Darwinism: The new evolutionary paradigm and some implications for political science." Politics and the Life Sciences 27, no. 1 (March 2008): 22–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2990/27_1_22.
Full textAbstract:
Holistic Darwinism is a candidate name for a major paradigm shift that is currently underway in evolutionary biology and related disciplines. Important developments include (1) a growing appreciation for the fact that evolution is a multilevel process, from genes to ecosystems, and that interdependent coevolution is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature; (2) a revitalization of group selection theory, which was banned (prematurely) from evolutionary biology over 30 years ago (groups may in fact be important evolutionary units); (3) a growing respect for the fact that the genome is not a “bean bag” (in biologist Ernst Mayr's caricature), much less a gladiatorial arena for competing selfish genes, but a complex, interdependent, cooperating system; (4) an increased recognition that symbiosis is an important phenomenon in nature and that symbiogenesis is a major source of innovation in evolution; (5) an array of new, more advanced game theory models, which support the growing evidence that cooperation is commonplace in nature and not a rare exception; (6) new research and theoretical work that stresses the role of nurture in evolution, including developmental processes, phenotypic plasticity, social information transfer (culture), and especially the role of behavioral innovations as pacemakers of evolutionary change (e.g., niche construction theory, which is concerned with the active role of organisms in shaping the evolutionary process, and gene-culture coevolution theory, which relates especially to the dynamics of human evolution); (7) and, not least, a broad effort to account for the evolution of biological complexity — from major transition theory to the “Synergism Hypothesis.” Here I will briefly review these developments and will present a case for the proposition that this paradigm shift has profound implications for the social sciences, including specifically political theory, economic theory, and political science as a discipline. Interdependent superorganisms, it turns out, have played a major role in evolution — from eukaryotes to complex human societies.
11
Freeman, Patricia K., and David J. Houston. "The Biology Battle: Public Opinion and the Origins of Life." Politics and Religion 2, no. 1 (March 16, 2009): 54–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1755048309000030.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractIs the origins of life debate occurring in the United States an illustration of the culture wars? To address this question we examine attitudes toward evolution using data from the 2006 General Social Survey. Multinomial logistic regression models indicate that attitudes about whether humans today evolved from earlier species of life are more fully explained by orthodox Christian doctrine, not religious tradition, as the culture wars thesis suggests. However, an isomorphism between orthodox Christine doctrine and conservative political ideology has not occurred. While a liberal political ideology is strongly related to acceptance of evolution, these data suggest that only a certain group of political conservatives, those who accept orthodox Christian doctrine, reject evolution as sound scientific theory. Additionally, respondents who “don't know” if evolution is “true” or “false” differ from both the believers and skeptics in that they appear to lack the exposure to either science or orthodox Christian doctrine that would give them clear guidance about what to think in regards to evolution.
12
Bukin, K. A., and M. I. Levin. "A model of preferences evolution." Voprosy Ekonomiki, no. 8 (August 3, 2020): 82–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-8-82-94.
Full textAbstract:
The paper examines the evolution of individual political preferences under the influence of the parties and political groups of which they are members. Individual preferences are considered in terms of proximity to political doctrines of the political institutions in question. The change in political views can be considered as a combination of a steady trend with the imposition of random change, and in this sense it is similar to mutations in biology. The paper shows that stationary distributions of individuals on the political spectrum scale are defined by their utility functions and initial numbers. While the initial distribution was generated by membership of the central party and two groups conventionally called “left” and “right”, the stationary distribution has the form of three narrow peaks, the maximums of which are at the points characterizing political doctrines on the political spectrum scale. In addition, it is shown that in the stationary mode, the relative number of members of the “center” party will increase as compared to the initial period, and vice versa, the total share of “left” and “right” will decrease.
13
Wilson, Timothy, and Attila Krizsán. "Politics in science." Journal of Language and Politics 16, no. 6 (June 12, 2017): 849–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16013.wil.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract Intelligent design is a pseudoscientific concept conceived in an attempt to bring religion-based teaching into the classroom. As such, it is involved in a constant struggle for dialogic space with the dominant scientific discourse of the theory of evolution. Here, we use a corpus linguistic approach to study how intelligent design discourse uses engagement to forward its creationistic propositions and at the same time limit the propositions of the theory of evolution. The results suggest that intelligent design discourse employs engagement far more frequently than evolutionary biology discourse, mainly to counter opposing propositions and to entertain its own proposition in their stead. The underdog position of ID obligates it to highly modulated engagement in order forward its position, which is ultimately aimed at changing the political decision-making related to the teaching of science.
14
Poston, Dudley L. "The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, and Society." Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 48, no. 5 (September 2019): 546–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0094306119867060t.
Full text
15
Schutt, Russell K. "Sociology and evolutionary biology: A troubled past, a promising future." International Sociology 35, no. 2 (March 2020): 138–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0268580920906682.
Full textAbstract:
The New Evolutionary Sociology offers a comprehensive review of the history of evolutionary analysis in sociology that demonstrates its present value ‘once old biases and prejudices are mitigated and, eventually, eliminated’ (p. 14). In the book’s first part, the authors highlight the prominence of evolution in the theorizing of sociology’s founders and the reaction against this approach when it was used to support ethnocentrism, racism, and fascism. The second part describes non-sociologists’ attempts to reconnect evolutionary biology and social science through sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The book’s last part presents new evolutionary approaches within sociology, focusing primarily on comparative research with primates and a neurosociological explanation of the evolution of the human brain.
16
Zavarzin, G. A. "Does evolution make the essence of biology?" Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences 76, no. 3 (May 2006): 292–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/s101933160603004x.
Full text
17
Connolly, William E. "Biology, Politics, Creativity." Perspectives on Politics 11, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 508–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1537592713000935.
Full textAbstract:
I share the view that biocultural connections should become more central to political inquiry. And I appreciate some of the themes Hibbing develops. The approach considered in this response is one in which variable degrees of agency are pushed deeply into simple organisms, into processes of embryological unfolding, and into subliminal elements of cultural relations. Such an approach appreciates the creative element in evolution as well as in subliminal processes in play within and between us. Several practitioners of complexity theory in biology have been exploring such routes. They may contribute to a more layered set of interfaces between biology and cultural interpretation that are even less reductionist in character. And they may carry import for explorations of how the media work on the visceral register of intersubjectivity, still to be developed.
18
Quinlan, Catherine L. "Expanding the Science Capital in K–12 Science Textbooks: A Notable Doctor's Insights into Biology & Other Accomplishments of African American Scientists." American Biology Teacher 82, no. 6 (August 1, 2020): 381–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/abt.2020.82.6.381.
Full textAbstract:
This article explores the need to include the science capital and cultural capital of African Americans in science teaching and offers practical exemplars for inclusion in the K–12 science curriculum. The author discusses ideas in the evolution of culture that contribute to the science content and perspectives of current textbooks and their supporting educative curriculum materials. The exemplars provided shed light on the scientific concepts and ideas indicated by the scientific accomplishments and narratives of African American scientists and a notable doctor, Charles R. Drew. The practical considerations described have implications for the disciplinary core ideas in the Next Generation Science Standards, and for understanding the cultural, social, and political values inherent in the nature of science.
19
Bonney, Kevin M. "Fake News with Real Consequences: The Effect of Cultural Identity on the Perception of Science." American Biology Teacher 80, no. 9 (November 1, 2018): 686–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/abt.2018.80.9.686.
Full textAbstract:
Fake news and alternative science are increasingly popular topics of conversation in the public sphere and the classroom due to increasingly far-reaching social media and a shifting political climate. Promoting scientific literacy by providing opportunities for students to evaluate reports of contentious scientific issues and analyze the underlying factors that influence public perception of science is necessary for the development of an informed citizenry. This article describes a three-part learning activity useful for engaging biology students in evaluating the accuracy of science-related news reports, and reflecting upon the ways that social cues, religion, and political ideologies shape perception of science. These activities are appropriate for teaching about climate change, evolution, vaccines, and other important contemporary scientific issues in upper-level high school and undergraduate science courses.
20
Smuts, Barbara. "The Evolution and Human Behavior Program at the University of Michigan." Politics and the Life Sciences 11, no. 2 (August 1992): 261–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0730938400015264.
Full textAbstract:
In the Late 1960s and early 1970s, a revolution occurred in evolutionary biology when several investigators, including most notably W. D. Hamilton, R. L. Trivers, and G. C. Williams, began to apply Darwin's theory of natural selection to the social behavior of animals. This new approach to behavior, which came to be known as “sociobiology” after the title of E. O. Wilson's influential 1975 book, was rapidly applied to human, as well as nonhuman, animal behavior. These applications often represented a serious challenge to the theories of the social and behavioral sciences, many of which rested on the assumption that behavior could be profitably analyzed in terms of its effects on the group or species. Sociobiologists, in contrast, argued that an adequate understanding of animal, including human, societies can be gained only by viewing selection as operating at the level of the individual (and sometimes at the level of the gene) rather than at the group level. The resultant controversies continue to this day, and sociobiological approaches to human behavior have had an important impact on anthropology, psychology, and other behavioral sciences, including political science.
21
Levit, Georgy S., and Uwe Hossfeld. "Evolutionary theories and the philosophy of science." Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies 37, no. 2 (2021): 229–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2021.204.
Full textAbstract:
Philosophical theories proceeding from the history of physical-mathematical sciences are hardly applicable to the analysis of biosciences and evolutionary theory, in particular. This article briefly reconstructs the history of evolutionary theory beginning with its roots in the 19th century and up to the ultracontemporary concepts. Our objective is to outline the dynamics of Darwinism and anti-Darwinism from the perspective of the philosophy of science. We begin with the arguments of E. Mayr against the applicability of T. Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions to the history of biology. Mayr emphasized that Darwin’s publication of the Origin of Species in 1859 caused a genuine scientific revolution in biology, but it was not a Kuhnian revolution. Darwin coined several theories comprising a complex theoretical system. Mayr defined five most crucial of these theories: evolution as such, common descent of all organisms including man, gradualism, the multiplication of species explaining organic diversity, and, finally, the theory of natural selection. Distinguishing these theories is of great significance because their destiny in the history of biology substantially differed. The acceptance of one theory by the majority of the scientific community does not necessarily mean the acceptance of others. Another argument by Mayr proved that Darwin caused two scientific revolutions in biology, which Mayr referred to as the First and Second Darwinian Revolutions. The Second Darwinian Revolution happened already in the 20th century and Mayr himself was its active participant. Both revolutions followed Darwin’s concept of natural selection. The period between these two revolutions can be in no way described as “normal science” in Kuhnian terms. Our reconstruction of the history of evolutionary theory support Mayr’s anti-Kuhnian arguments. Furthermore, we claim that the “evolution of evolutionary theory” can be interpreted in terms of the modified research programmes theory by Imre Lakatos, though not in their “purity”, but rather modified and combined with certain aspects of Marxian-Hegelian dialectics.
22
Quilley, Stephen. "Integrative levels and ‘the Great Evolution’: Organicist biology and the sociology of Norbert Elias." Journal of Classical Sociology 10, no. 4 (November 2010): 391–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468795x10385179.
Full text
23
Berkman, Michael B., and Eric Plutzer. "Scientific Expertise and the Culture War: Public Opinion and the Teaching of Evolution in the American States." Perspectives on Politics 7, no. 3 (August 19, 2009): 485–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s153759270999082x.
Full textAbstract:
The teaching of evolution in public schools has been a central element in the nation's “culture wars” since the 1920s and remains a contentious issue today. Content standards for the teaching of biology have been flashpoints for conflict, with well publicized battles occurring in state governments, in federal courts, and in local school districts. We show that a full understanding of evolution politics at the state level must simultaneously account for three important features. First, cultural politics typically includes an important role for public opinion. Second, scientists and their professional organizations have actively sought a monopoly on defining what is and is not science by marginalizing their uncredentialled opponents and by erecting boundaries that buffer science policy from the influence of politics and public opinion. Third, in the American federal system courts rarely settle cultural issues but merely narrow the space within which politics can operate. In accounting for these features, we explain why court victories for science have had only limited impacts and provide a model for understanding other issues—such as sex education, stem cell research, and global warming—in which moral and ideological arguments may conflict with scientific consensus.
24
Suárez Díaz, Edna. "The Rhetoric of Informational Molecules: Authority and Promises in the Early Study of Molecular Evolution." Science in Context 20, no. 4 (November 9, 2007): 649–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0269889707001482.
Full textAbstract:
ArgumentThis paper explores the connection between the epistemic and the “political” dimensions of the metaphor of information during the early days of the study of Molecular Evolution. While preserving some of the meanings already documented in the history of molecular biology, the metaphor acquired a new, powerful use as a substitute for “history.” A rhetorical analysis of Emilé Zuckerkandl's paper, “Molecules as Documents of Evolutionary History,” highlights the ways in which epistemic claims on the validity and superiority of molecular evidence for evolution were intimately connected with authority issues in evolutionary biology. The debate is situated within the framework of the battle for resources between traditional evolutionists and molecular biologists at the beginning of the 1960s. The architects of evolutionary synthesis questioned the idea that molecular characters constitute “cleaner” and “more direct” evidence of evolution. Nevertheless, the information discourse constituted a productive space for the development of a new research program that, paradoxically, has made explicit the limitations of the information metaphor in reconstructing life's history.
25
Talas, Laszlo, Roland J. Baddeley, and Innes C. Cuthill. "Cultural evolution of military camouflage." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372, no. 1724 (May 22, 2017): 20160351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0351.
Full textAbstract:
While one has evolved and the other been consciously created, animal and military camouflage are expected to show many similar design principles. Using a unique database of calibrated photographs of camouflage uniform patterns, processed using texture and colour analysis methods from computer vision, we show that the parallels with biology are deeper than design for effective concealment. Using two case studies we show that, like many animal colour patterns, military camouflage can serve multiple functions. Following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, countries that became more Western-facing in political terms converged on NATO patterns in camouflage texture and colour. Following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the resulting states diverged in design, becoming more similar to neighbouring countries than the ancestral design. None of these insights would have been obtained using extant military approaches to camouflage design, which focus solely on concealment. Moreover, our computational techniques for quantifying pattern offer new tools for comparative biologists studying animal coloration. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application'.
26
Gray, Russell D., and Joseph Watts. "Cultural macroevolution matters." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 30 (July 24, 2017): 7846–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1620746114.
Full textAbstract:
Evolutionary thinking can be applied to both cultural microevolution and macroevolution. However, much of the current literature focuses on cultural microevolution. In this article, we argue that the growing availability of large cross-cultural datasets facilitates the use of computational methods derived from evolutionary biology to answer broad-scale questions about the major transitions in human social organization. Biological methods can be extended to human cultural evolution. We illustrate this argument with examples drawn from our recent work on the roles of Big Gods and ritual human sacrifice in the evolution of large, stratified societies. These analyses show that, although the presence of Big Gods is correlated with the evolution of political complexity, in Austronesian cultures at least, they do not play a causal role in ratcheting up political complexity. In contrast, ritual human sacrifice does play a causal role in promoting and sustaining the evolution of stratified societies by maintaining and legitimizing the power of elites. We briefly discuss some common objections to the application of phylogenetic modeling to cultural evolution and argue that the use of these methods does not require a commitment to either gene-like cultural inheritance or to the view that cultures are like vertebrate species. We conclude that the careful application of these methods can substantially enhance the prospects of an evolutionary science of human history.
27
deJong-Lambert, William. "Szczepan Pieniążek, Edmund Malinowski, and Lysenkoism in Poland." East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 21, no. 3 (August 2007): 403–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0888325407303783.
Full textAbstract:
This article's title describes the propagation of T. D. Lysenko's Michurinist doctrine, in terms of its impact on the careers of two members of the community of Polish biologists. Michurinism was introduced at a conference in Warsaw in 1949 and served as the official scientific theory of evolution in Polish biology until 1956. Szczepan Pieniążek was among the foremost supporters of Lysenko in Poland and directed an institute in Skierniewice that was the center of Michurinist research in Poland. Meanwhile, the career of Edmund Malinowski, one of the foremost figures in Polish biology, suffered for his refusal to adhere in his research to the Michurinist doctrine.
28
Ingold, Tim. "Beyond biology and culture. The meaning of evolution in a relational world." Social Anthropology 12, no. 2 (January 19, 2007): 209–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2004.tb00102.x.
Full text
29
INGOLD, TIM. "Beyond biology and culture. The meaning of evolution in a relational world." Social Anthropology 12, no. 2 (June 2004): 209–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0964028204000291.
Full text
30
Danielmeyer, H. G., and Thomas Martinetz. "The Biologic Stability of the Industrial Evolution." European Review 18, no. 02 (April 1, 2010): 263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s106279870999041x.
Full text
31
Turner, Jonathan H., and Alexandra Maryanski. "The deep origins of society: An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis." International Sociology 34, no. 5 (September 2019): 536–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0268580919870454.
Full textAbstract:
E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinian selection and reveals a bias toward seeing selection for groups as a result of selection on individuals (as is the case for insects), perhaps entangled with selection on groups. The effort to conceive of human societies as an example of eusocieties of social insects ignores most of the sociological works on human and societal evolution; and as a result, the book is not convincing in its argument. Despite the pleasant writing style, Wilson and other biologists writing about human societies need to engage the almost 200 years of sociological work devoted to understanding the evolution of human societies.
32
Schwach, Vera. "A sea change: Johan Hjort and the natural fluctuations in the fish stocks." ICES Journal of Marine Science 71, no. 8 (June 25, 2014): 1993–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsu108.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract That recruitment of juveniles to the stocks of fish is subject to natural variations is considered a scientific truth, if not a truism, in marine science. However, in 1914, when the zoologist Johan Hjort (1869–1948) published the notion, it meant a basic change in the understanding of the biology of the sea fish. A century later, his insight is a topic still at the centre of interest in fish biology. Hjort based his concept largely on investigations of herring (Clupea harengus) and cod (Gadus morhua) in the North Atlantic. He was the mastermind, but worked with a small group at the Directorate of Fisheries in Bergen, Norway, and in cooperation with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The theory of natural fluctuations prompted an important step from migration thinking to population thinking, and gave the emerging fish biology and multidisciplinary marine science a theoretical basis. The article aims to explore the set of important facts and reasoned ideas intended to explain the causes for variations in year classes, and in this the fluctuations in the recruitment to the stocks. It argues that in addition to scientific factors, economic and political circumstances had an important say in the shaping of the understanding of stock fluctuations. The mere existence of a theory does not alone account for a breakthrough, and the article draws attention to the acceptance of scientific results.
33
Hughey, Matthew W., and W. Carson Byrd. "Beautiful Melodies Telling Me Terrible Things." ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 661, no. 1 (August 10, 2015): 238–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716215591477.
Full textAbstract:
To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief history of scientific racism and the extent to which it resonates with the public. We then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall prey to the seduction of biological determinism and racial essentialism: (1) the DNA mystique, (2) scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts, (3) the ethno-politics of genetics, (4) dismissals of social science as “soft,” (5) the defense of biology against reactionary dismissals, and (6) the aura of “objectivity” surrounding genetics. Last, we point to a way forward that may help scholars and the public avoid a return to old and debunked theories: (1) engagement with interdisciplinary fields and science and technology studies, (2) involvement of knowledgeable scholars and policy experts in government and higher education, (3) revision of the current additive funding model used by federal agencies, and (4) evolution in the training of future and current scholars and policy-makers toward mitigating inequality.
34
Heyes, Cecilia. "New thinking: the evolution of human cognition." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367, no. 1599 (August 5, 2012): 2091–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0111.
Full textAbstract:
Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives. In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation. Research on the evolution of human cognition asks what types of thinking make us such peculiar animals, and how they have been generated by evolutionary processes. New research in this field looks deeper into the evolutionary history of human cognition, and adopts a more multi-disciplinary approach than earlier ‘Evolutionary Psychology’. It is informed by comparisons between humans and a range of primate and non-primate species, and integrates findings from anthropology, archaeology, economics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. Using these methods, recent research reveals profound commonalities, as well striking differences, between human and non-human minds, and suggests that the evolution of human cognition has been much more gradual and incremental than previously assumed. It accords crucial roles to cultural evolution, techno-social co-evolution and gene–culture co-evolution. These have produced domain-general developmental processes with extraordinary power—power that makes human cognition, and human lives, unique.
35
Turner, Jonathan H., and Seth Abrutyn. "Returning the “Social” to Evolutionary Sociology: Reconsidering Spencer, Durkheim, and Marx’s Models of “Natural” Selection." Sociological Perspectives 60, no. 3 (April 11, 2016): 529–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0731121416641936.
Full textAbstract:
Sociology can no longer avoid engagement with biological ideas, but it can incorporate them where they are useful. Most biologically inspired explanations of sociological processes from outside the discipline are simple and, moreover, too reliant on biological rather than sociological models of social processes. Yet, it is possible to engage these efforts by developing sociological concepts and theories that meet those using evolutionary theory from biology. This paper argues that the heavy reliance on Darwinian natural selection limits sociological explanations, although this approach can help sociologists understand the evolved behavioral propensities of humans as evolved apes. These behavioral propensities cannot, however, explain the evolution and dynamics of the layers of sociocultural phenomena studied by sociologists, and efforts to do so with Darwinian notions of natural selection on individual organisms will always be inadequate. As an alternative, we propose that there are other types of natural selection inherent in the organization of what Herbert Spencer termed superorganisms. We label these Durkheimian, Spencerian, and Marxian selection, and they explain what Darwinian selection cannot: the dynamics and evolution of sociocultural phenomena.
36
Lindenfors, Patrik, Fredrik Jansson, and Mikael Sandberg. "The Cultural Evolution of Democracy: Saltational Changes in A Political Regime Landscape." PLoS ONE 6, no. 11 (November 30, 2011): e28270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028270.
Full text
37
Currie, Thomas E., and Ruth Mace. "Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling ‘Darwinian’ and ‘Spencerian’ evolutionary approaches in anthropology." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366, no. 1567 (April 12, 2011): 1108–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0318.
Full textAbstract:
Traditional investigations of the evolution of human social and political institutions trace their ancestry back to nineteenth century social scientists such as Herbert Spencer, and have concentrated on the increase in socio-political complexity over time. More recent studies of cultural evolution have been explicitly informed by Darwinian evolutionary theory and focus on the transmission of cultural traits between individuals. These two approaches to investigating cultural change are often seen as incompatible. However, we argue that many of the defining features and assumptions of ‘Spencerian’ cultural evolutionary theory represent testable hypotheses that can and should be tackled within a broader ‘Darwinian’ framework. In this paper we apply phylogenetic comparative techniques to data from Austronesian-speaking societies of Island South-East Asia and the Pacific to test hypotheses about the mode and tempo of human socio-political evolution. We find support for three ideas often associated with Spencerian cultural evolutionary theory: (i) political organization has evolved through a regular sequence of forms, (ii) increases in hierarchical political complexity have been more common than decreases, and (iii) political organization has co-evolved with the wider presence of hereditary social stratification.
38
BONCINELLI, EDOARDO. "Brain and mind." European Review 9, no. 4 (October 2001): 389–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1062798701000369.
Full textAbstract:
We are beginning to understand how the brain is organized and works, how it evolved in the remote past and how it continually forms during the embryonic development of individual organisms. The study of the brain and its activity has recently advanced at an accelerating pace thanks to the convergence of a number of research strategies. At least three research lines occupy a particular position among these strategies: genetics and the molecular biology of neural cells and the central nervous system; cognitive science; and brain imaging. If the brain is the subject of biological studies at the cellular, intercellular and circuitry levels, the approach to the study of mind should be more subtle. Nonetheless, science has progressed a long way in this direction. Some recent advances in this field are briefly reviewed here, with particular emphasis on brain evolution and development, the role of sensory organs, coding and the processing of sensorial information, memory, rationality, meaning and consciousness.
39
Heuveline, Patrick. "Sociology and Biology: Can’t We Just Be Friends?Animal Traditions: Behavioural Inheritance in Evolution. By Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 432p.+xiv." American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 6 (May 2004): 1500–1506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/421567.
Full text
40
Tubert-Oklander, Juan. "Beyond psychoanalysis and group analysis. The urgent need for a new paradigm of the human being." Group Analysis 52, no. 4 (August 5, 2019): 409–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0533316419863037.
Full textAbstract:
Freud’s momentous discovery that the largest part of mental life, both individual and collective is unknown to us and out of our control, brought about a major revolution in epistemology and our conception of the human being, but such evolution was stalled by Freud’s adherence to several assumptions that were an essential part of his Weltanschauung or ‘Conception of the World’. These were the individualistic paradigm and the misguided attempt to turn the discipline he had created into a positivistic science, framed in the model of the natural sciences. Orthodox psychoanalysis has since focused on the intrapsychic, leaving out the interpersonal and social dimensions. Group analysis, as introduced by Foulkes has been a bold attempt to transcend the limitations of psychoanalysis and integrate the dimensions it has ignored or denied. Nonetheless, the development of Foulkes’ revolutionary contributions was encumbered by his adherence to Freudian theory, just like the latter was by his creator’s subservience to positivistic natural science. Psychoanalysis and group analysis are two aspects of the wider field of analysis, but they are still impeded by a series of assumptions held by both science and common sense. These are: i) materialistic metaphysics, ii) the Cartesian subject, iii) deterministic positivism, iv) neutral objectivism, and v) rejection of teleology. Hence, the need to go beyond psychoanalysis and group analysis and formulate a new paradigm of the human being. This is a work in progress, being tackled by many people from different fields of human knowledge and practice, such as physical science, biology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, group analysis, sociology, political science, philosophy, theology, hermeneutics, and the Humanities, among many others. It is an interdisciplinary enterprise, to which analysis may and should contribute, but only through an open dialogue with its peers in the field of human thought.
41
Dikötter, Frank. "Biology and Revolution in Twentieth-Century China. By Laurence Schneider. [Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003. xi +305 pp. ISBN 0-7425-2696-8.]." China Quarterly 180 (December 2004): 1114–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305741004340762.
Full textAbstract:
Readers who expect a comprehensive analysis of biological science in modern China, as the blurb on the jacket promises, may be disappointed: this book specifically contrasts the small community of followers of T. H. Morgan in Republican China with the state-sponsored rise of Lysenkoism after 1949. The first part follows the development of genetics and evolutionary theory in three universities in China, namely National Central University in Nanjing; the missionary school of Yanjing University in Beijing, linked to the Rockefeller Foundation's Peking Union Medical College; and Nanjing University, an American missionary school closely tied to Cornell. The author shows that training in biology and genetics developed in these three schools, thanks to substantial philanthropic involvement from the United States, as a “transfer” of knowledge took place between Chinese life scientists and major American institutions.While the author presents valuable biographies of a small number of scientists such as Chen Zhen, Tan Jiazhen and Tang Peisong, and succeeds in recreating the political and institutional context within which these three geneticists operated, his work is insufficiently grounded in primary sources. The literature produced by biologists in Republican China is never invoked in any systematic way, the first chapter being largely based on Chen Zhen's biology textbook to create the impression of a neat “transfer” of knowledge from the United States. However, incompatible theories in biology were often invoked, contradictory ideas about evolution were bandied around, and vague phrases on “struggle for survival” were widespread in dozens of biology textbooks, many far more popular than Chen Zhen's work: neo-Lamarckism and Mendel-Morganism were never tidily organized into two “schools,” and they could even overlap, as very different writers from complex backgrounds struggled to make sense of an ever-growing global repertoire of biological theories. In Europe and the United States too, biologists disagreed over the relative importance of nurture versus nature, and China was no exception: diversity, elided by the author in favour of a fairly simplistic notion of an American success in Republican China before the failure of Lysenkoism under Soviet influence, is precisely what makes pre-1949 biology such a fascinating field.
42
Phillips, Claude S. "Cultural Explanations are Necessary Also." Politics and the Life Sciences 6, no. 1 (August 1987): 97–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0730938400002847.
Full textAbstract:
If this study were designed merely to prove that part of the explanation for despotism and differential reproduction exists in the genetic propensity of men to compete, to use power to serve their own interests, and to express that interest by seeking a variety of sexual partners, there would be little need for comment. Such a book could have been written in half the pages used. An inordinate amount of space, however, is used by the author in (1) rejecting any basis except biology to explain despotism; (2) castigating any possible use of culture in explaining differentials in male reproduction; (3) apologizing for her findings that evolution has led to inequality in both production and reproduction, a condition the author deplores; and (4) insisting that equality can be effected if humans simply decide to satisfy genetic propensities differently (which surely is a cultural matter since only humans can perceive the concept of evolution and attempt to change society's use of it).
43
Ma’ruf, A. Muhammad. "Towards An Islamic Critique of Anthropological Evolutionism." American Journal of Islam and Society 3, no. 1 (September 1, 1986): 89–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v3i1.2905.
Full textAbstract:
I. THE BIOLOGY-CULTURE CONNECTION IN THE HISTORYOF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHTThe story of modem anthropology is a story of the Euro-American attemptto discover the other than Euro-American human being. Within thatstory is the story of the intellectual self-discovery of the Euro-American;within that is the story of the discovery of racism; within that is the storyof political and ideological pressures on the processes of such discoveries;within that the amazing and wonderful story of the scientific discovery ofthe worldly nature of the human being - conceptualized generally: acrossall space and time, all colors and languages; and within that story is a storyof the social and natural sciences: of their methods, results, potentialities,and pitfalls.If there is a central theme that runs through all these stories within thestory, it is the story of the impact of Darwinian and post-Darwinian biologyon the social and human sciences. Modem anthropology is not much morethan an evolutionist form of humanism. Evolutionism is to be found in mosttypes of contemporary anthropological studies, as a central position or animplicit assumption. It is clearly axiomatic to thought, analysis, and interpretationin the discipline. As such it is a fundamental issue in the considerationof modem anthropology for inclusion in, and recasting for, Islamic educationalpurposes. The aim of this presentation is to consider briefly how theimpact of Darwin, and of biology after Darwin, on recent anthropologicalthought may be measured as a step toward developing an Islamic methodologyfor anthropological research and teaching.Since its publication in 1859 by Charles Darwin (and Alfred Russell),evolutionary theory has been refined and developed by virturally all life sciencedisciplines and a few other disciplines such as anthropology. Anthropdogyis rooted partly in the life sciences and partly in the social sciences. Humanevolutionary theory developed by anthropologists has gained wide acceptancein all sectors of the Western scientific establishment. Adherence to, and propagationof, an evolutionist world-view has become a symbol of the liberalistmission of Western science in the face of periodic opposition to it comingfrom conservative, evangelist, Christian fundamentalists, and politicians whorepresent them. A few of the anti-evolutionists are also scientists (Williams,1983). They have given leadership to the most recent form of antievolutionism,called scientific creationism. Within the scientific and educationalcommunity their view is at present a minority view; the dominant viewbeing the pro-evolutionary one. Among the Judeo-Christian population atlarge, in the United States, surveys indicate that about half of the people givecredence to the evolutionary view. The others either do not or do not care.An effect of post-Darwinian natural science on social science was to bringhuman evolution into focus as incorporating psychological, social, and culturalaspects in addition to the biological (see e.g. in Eiseley, 1958; Freeman, 1974;Harris, 1968; Opler, 1964; Reed, 1961; Stocking, 1968). The historical relationshipof bio-evolutionary theory to the social sciences in general andspecifically to anthropology, is complex. Nowadays it is one of the dependenceof the latter on the former. It has been argued, however, that in its formativeyears, Darwinian evolutionary theory was in fact an application of socialscience concepts to biology. Darwin himself acknowledged that the Malthusianstatement of the principle that human population, when unchecked, increasesin geometrical ratio while subsistence increases only in arithmeticalratio, influenced his idea of natural selection. The subsequent acceptance ofMendelian genetics, on which the modem form of evolutionism rests, quicklytransformed even the fundamental social science principles of the study ofhuman races and variation. The continuing success of the biological sciences ...
44
Steklis, Horst D., and Alex Walter. "Culture, biology, and human behavior." Human Nature 2, no. 2 (June 1991): 137–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02692185.
Full text
45
Watts, Joseph, Simon J. Greenhill, Quentin D. Atkinson, Thomas E. Currie, Joseph Bulbulia, and Russell D. Gray. "Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282, no. 1804 (April 7, 2015): 20142556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2556.
Full textAbstract:
Supernatural belief presents an explanatory challenge to evolutionary theorists—it is both costly and prevalent. One influential functional explanation claims that the imagined threat of supernatural punishment can suppress selfishness and enhance cooperation. Specifically, morally concerned supreme deities or ‘moralizing high gods' have been argued to reduce free-riding in large social groups, enabling believers to build the kind of complex societies that define modern humanity. Previous cross-cultural studies claiming to support the MHG hypothesis rely on correlational analyses only and do not correct for the statistical non-independence of sampled cultures. Here we use a Bayesian phylogenetic approach with a sample of 96 Austronesian cultures to test the MHG hypothesis as well as an alternative supernatural punishment hypothesis that allows punishment by a broad range of moralizing agents. We find evidence that broad supernatural punishment drives political complexity, whereas MHGs follow political complexity. We suggest that the concept of MHGs diffused as part of a suite of traits arising from cultural exchange between complex societies. Our results show the power of phylogenetic methods to address long-standing debates about the origins and functions of religion in human society.
46
Vostroknutov, Alexander. "Social Norms in Experimental Economics: Towards a Unified Theory of Normative Decision Making." Analyse & Kritik 42, no. 1 (May 1, 2020): 3–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/auk-2020-0002.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractEven though standard economic theory traditionally ignored any motives that may drive incentivized social decision making except for the maximization of personal consumption utility, the idea that ‘preferences for fairness’ (following social norms) might have an economically tangible impact appeared relatively early. I trace the evolution of these ideas from the first experiments on bargaining to the tests of the hypothesis that pro-sociality in general is driven by the desire to adhere to social norms. I show how a recent synthesis of economics approach with psychology, sociology, and evolutionary human biology can give rise to a mathematically rigorous, psychologically plausible, and falsifiable theory of social norms. Such a theory can predictwhich norms should emerge in each specific (social) context and is capable of organizing diverse observations in economics and other disciplines. It provides the first glimpse at how a unified theory of normative decision making might look like.
47
Paquin, Pierre, Nadine Dupérré, James C. Cokendolpher, Kemble White, and Marshal Hedin. "The fundamental importance of taxonomy in conservation biology: the case of the eyeless Cicurina bandida (Araneae:Dictynidae) of central Texas, including new synonyms and the description of the male of the species." Invertebrate Systematics 22, no. 2 (2008): 139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/is07044.
Full textAbstract:
Three eyeless species belonging to the spider genus Cicurina Menge are known from five caves located south of Austin, Travis County (Texas, United States). Because adult female cave-dwelling Cicurina are not common, and adult males rarely collected, these species were described from a very small sample of individuals (nine females). Recent collections have allowed the examination of a larger series of specimens, providing an opportunity to assess intraspecific variability. This has resulted in the synonymy of C. cueva Gertsch and C. reyesi Gertsch with Cicurina bandida Gertsch. The synonymy is supported by both female and male morphology; the male of the species is described for the first time. Cicurina bandida is now known from ~20 caves, restricted to a 10 km × 30 km area. Cicurina cueva was proposed to be listed as an endangered species. Because of the special conservation status of troglobitic Cicurina, modifications of the original species hypothesis are fertile grounds for confrontation between conservationists and proponents of development. Taxonomy is a dynamic science that progresses by proposing new scientific hypotheses and this conflicts with conservation principles that are embedded in a static framework. The criteria used to assign species a particular conservation status should be based on the best available evidence, and not limited by political considerations. Long-term conservation goals can only be achieved when based on a robust taxonomy, which is still largely unavailable for most Texas cave arthropods.
48
Gruenwald, Oskar. "The Dystopian Imagination." Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 25, no. 1 (2013): 1–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/jis2013251/21.
Full textAbstract:
This essay seeks to exploe the nature and effects of the new Post-Industrial Revolution as epitomized by the digital universe, the fusion of synthetic biology and cybenetics, and the promise of genetics, engendering new hopes of a techno-utopian future of material abundance, new virtual worids, human-like robots, and the ultimate conquest of nature. Central to this prefect is the quest for transcending human limitattons by changing human nature itself, consciously directing evolution toward a posthuman or transhuman stage. Less well understood is the utopia-dystopia syndrome illuminated by ttw dystopian imagination refracted in science-fiction literature in such famous twentieth-century dysopias as Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and George Orwell's 1984, cautioning that utopias may lead to their opposite: dystopia, totalitarianism, dictatorship. The thrall of techno-utopia based on technology as a prosthetic god may lead to universal tyranny by those who wield political power. The essay concludes that what humanity needs is not some unattainable Utopia but rather to cherish and nurture its God-given gifts of reason, free will, conscience, moral responsibility, an immortal soul, and the remarkable capacity of compasston to become fully human.
49
Poeschl, Gabrielle. "A hundred years of debates on sex differences: Developing research for social change." Journal of Social and Political Psychology 9, no. 1 (June 7, 2021): 221–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6399.
Full textAbstract:
After women secured the right to vote some hundred years ago, the assertions about their innate inferiority gradually began to vanish, giving way to theories about the countless aspects which apparently differentiated them from men. In this paper, we follow the evolution of research on sex differences, starting with the work of the first female psychologists who questioned the theories that justified women’s subordinate positions in society. We trace the main developments of the studies on sex differences, their relationship with social roles, gender stereotypes, and gender identity, and describe the strategies used to highlight the role of society rather than of biology in shaping men and women’s personalities and behaviors. We describe the controversies this area of research gave rise to, the debates over its political implications, and the changes observed over time in women’s social positions and within research perspectives. Finally, we discuss the mutually reinforcing effects of social organization and lay conceptions of gender and reflect on how the field of research on sex differences has contributed to building a fairer society.
50
Mir, Ashiq Hussain. "QUR’AN AND SCIENCE: A STUDY OF THE COMPATIBILITY OF QUR’ANIC VERSES WITH MODERN SCIENTIFIC THEORIES." al-Afkar, Journal For Islamic Studies 4, no. 1 (July 11, 2019): 42–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.31943/afkar_journal.v4i1.53.
Full textAbstract:
Qur’an is the infallible Word of God and since its inception in the world of Space and Time its immutability has been proven time and again. In all the fields of Knowledge it proved to be a miracle of the Divine. Its literary quality is unparalleled and its teachings are the ultimate remedy for the ailments of mankind. Though it’s not a book of empirical sciences, we still can find much compatibility of its contents with the modern established scientific theories. Some verses of the Qur’an are much similar to the observational theories of cosmology and biology that the likeness deems it impossible to be a work of any man of the 7th century. In this paper I have tried to compare some Qur’anic verses with some of the important theories of modern Cosmology like the Big Bang theory and expansion of the Universe. I have also brought the modern observational knowledge of embryology as being compatible with many verses dealing with same subject of the evolution of embryo into fetus and the stages of a baby inside a mother’s womb. Qur’an is a fascinating book which at the one hand satisfies the spiritual quest of the mystically inclined and on the other hand gives rational satisfaction to a scientifically minded rationalist. It is for a common layman and for a philosopher as well. It is the guideline for the social, economic and political endeavors of man and a complete religious treatise as well. We can rightly assume that the precise scientific hints in the Holy Qur’an is a part of much studies ‘Ijaz ul Qur’an and there is no harm in making science as a tool in presenting and sharing Islam with Humanity. It is a part of argumentative polemics and a defense of Faith and many scholars use this methodology in Da’wah work all over the world. It is also important because scientific method is the most dominant method in the present world and this method can be used to combat the philosophical materialism and atheistic ideologies.