Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science

Originally published in 1981. Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controver...

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Main Author: Rosenberg, Alexander
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:ONIX_20220715_9781421435442_704
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author Rosenberg, Alexander
author_browse Rosenberg, Alexander
author_facet Rosenberg, Alexander
author_sort Rosenberg, Alexander
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Originally published in 1981. Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controversial discipline of sociobiology. Sociobiology, Rosenberg asserts, deals in those forces governing human behavior that traditional social science has unsuccessfully attempted to slip between: neurophysiology, on the one hand, and selective forces, on the other. Unlike previous works in the two fields it straddles, Rosenberg's book brings thinking about the nature of scientific theorizing to bear on the most traditional issues in the philosophy of social science. The author finds that the subjects of conventional social science do not reflect the operation of laws that social scientists are equipped to discover. The author argues that much of the debate surrounding sociobiology is irrelevant to the issue of its ultimate success. Although largely conceptual, the book is an unequivocal defense of this new theory in the explanation of human behavior.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-889572024-04-04T19:18:32Z Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science Rosenberg, Alexander Philosophy of science thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science Originally published in 1981. Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controversial discipline of sociobiology. Sociobiology, Rosenberg asserts, deals in those forces governing human behavior that traditional social science has unsuccessfully attempted to slip between: neurophysiology, on the one hand, and selective forces, on the other. Unlike previous works in the two fields it straddles, Rosenberg's book brings thinking about the nature of scientific theorizing to bear on the most traditional issues in the philosophy of social science. The author finds that the subjects of conventional social science do not reflect the operation of laws that social scientists are equipped to discover. The author argues that much of the debate surrounding sociobiology is irrelevant to the issue of its ultimate success. Although largely conceptual, the book is an unequivocal defense of this new theory in the explanation of human behavior. 2022-07-15T15:17:07Z 2022-07-15T15:17:07Z 2019 book ONIX_20220715_9781421435442_704 9781421435442 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/88957 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/70844 Johns Hopkins University Press 10.1353/book.70844 10.1353/book.70844 1f9b1002-ec35-4fcf-94be-32cfd0a1dfd3 9781421435442 242 open access
spellingShingle Philosophy of science
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
Rosenberg, Alexander
Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title_full Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title_fullStr Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title_full_unstemmed Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title_short Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science
title_sort sociobiology and the preemption of social science
topic Philosophy of science
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
topic_facet Philosophy of science
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
url ONIX_20220715_9781421435442_704
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