The Return of Science: Evolution, History, and TheoryPhilip Pomper, David Gary Shaw Social scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians have adapted evolutionary theory for use in a variety of disciplines for several decades, but until now historians have lagged behind. In The Return of Science, several distinguished historians join prominent scholars from a wide range of disciplines to debate the applications of evolutionary theory to cultural, social, economic, and political phenomena. The contributors offer original theoretical approaches and deal with issues such as the benefits, limits, and dangers of using evolutionary theory in the social sciences, the problem of defining units of evolution, the use of mathematics in historical study, and the appropriateness of chaos theory in historical study. Originally published as part of the journal History and Theory, these revised and updated essays are a valuable resource for historiographers. |
Contents
An Interdisciplinary Paradigm Shift | 1 |
History and the Scientific Worldview | 13 |
A Brief History of Evolution | 27 |
Evolving toward History | 55 |
Human Nature and History | 73 |
Evolutionary Theory and Group Selection The Question of Warfare | 97 |
Evolutionary Theory of History | 123 |
Darwinizing History The Evolution of Power in Russia | 145 |
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action adaptive animal Anthropology biological evolution Bonneuil Brain Cavalli-Sforza century cognitive complex cultural evolution Darwin Darwinian differential dynamics E. O. Wilson emergence Empire environment equations evolutionary history evolutionary psychology evolutionary theory evolved example explain fitness space genes genetic Genome group selection historians hominids human evolution human history human nature human societies ideas identities imperial project individual interaction John Tooby language laws Leda Cosmides Lenin liberation projects life-cycle setup means mechanisms memes mentemes mind natural selection niches Noël Bonneuil notion organisms Origin Oxford University Press phenotype physical political population possible power elites predict Princeton problem psychology replication reproduction Richerson Russian scientific scientists Selfish Gene sexual skills social Darwinism social power social sciences sociobiology sociocultural evolution Soviet species Stalin strategies structure Stuart-Fox survival symbols theories of cultural tion tionary traits transformational ture units variation warfare worldview York