Reductionism and Cultural Being: A Philosophical Critique of Sociobiological Reductionism and Physicalist Scientific Unificationism

ISBN-13: 9789024728848 / Angielski / Twarda / 1984 / 387 str.

Joseph Wayne Smith; J. W. Smith

Spis treści

1 Statement of the argument: Philosophical orientation and the theoretical framework for critique.- 1 Introduction: The statement of the overall argument.- 2 Rebuttal of the methodological criticism of the argumentative structure of the work.- 2 Philosophico-methodological reductionism: The alleged case against Culturology.- 1 Introductory statement of the argument: Culturology and the idea of a philosophico-methodological reduction.- 2 Systematizing the critique.- 3 Monistic-Systemic Perspectivism and the “crisis of Sociology”.- 4 A response to the Ellis—Skinner critique of the fundamental assumption of Culturology.- 5 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- 3 Theoretical reductionism and physicalist scientific unificationism: The case against.- 1 Introductory statement of the argument.- 2 The Weltanschauung of Physicalist Scientific Unificationism.- 3 Systematizing the argument: Sociobiology and PSU.- 4 Culturology, sociobiology and theoretical reduction.- 5 Unification without reduction; Philosophy without physicalism.- 6 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- 4 Causal-explanatory reductionism I: A philosophico-biological critique of Sociobiology.- 1 Introductory state of the argument.- 2 The theoretical foundations of the neo-Darwinist synthesis and an explanation of the theoretical structure of sociobiology.- 3 Towards a critique of Sociobiology.- 4 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- 5 Causal-explanatory reductionism II: The metaphysics of the selfish gene.- 1 Introductory state of the argument.- 2 The nature of the gene: Mendelian genetics, quantitative genetics and molecular biology.- 3 Beyond neo-Darwinism: The search for a new science of life.- 4 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- 6 Causal-explanatory reductionism III: Neuroendocrinological reductionism and the rationality of the foundations of feminist social theory.- 1 Introductory state of the argument.- 2 Initial outline of the (NECER) positions.- 3 The conceptual and biological background.- 4 A critique of the positions.- 5 Scepticism about sex-related cognitive differences.- 6 General conclusion: The state of the argument.- 7 Causal-explanatory reductionism IV: Ecological Sociobiology and cultural materialism.- 1 Introductory statement of the argument.- 2 Central theoretical presuppositions of Emlen’s Ecological Sociobiology.- 3 A critique of Ecological Sociobiology.- 4 Harris’ cultural materialism: An exposition.- 5 The case against Cultural Materialism.- 6 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- 8 Reductionism and cultural being: Beings, agents, mentalities, persons and societies in the universe.- 1 Introductory state of the argument.- 2 Culturology and models of human nature.- 3 Culturology, innateness and the human essence.- 4 Culturology defined and defended: Beings, agents, mentalities, persons and societies in the universe.- 5 Conclusion: The state of the argument.- Conclusion: The state of the overall argument of the work.- Appendix 1: Sociobiology and ideology.- Appendix 2: A critique of Alexander Rosenberg’s Sociobiology and the preemption of social science.- Notes.