The Sociobiological Imagination

Edited by Mary Maxwell

Subjects: Philosophy And Biology
Series: SUNY series in Philosophy and Biology
Paperback : 9780791407684, 386 pages, September 1991
Hardcover : 9780791407677, 386 pages, September 1991

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction and Glossary

1. Psychiatry
Randolph M. Nesse

2. Law
John H. Beckstrom

3. Management Theory
J. Gary Bernhard and Kalman Glantz

4. Anthropology
William Irons

5. Economics
Robert H. Frank

6. Primatology
Biruté Galdikas and Paul Vasey

7. History
Laura Betzig

8. Political Science
Roger D. Masters

9. Ethical Philosophy
John Chandler

10. Cognitive Psychology
Douglas Kenrick and Robert Hogan

11. Epistemology
Michael Ruse

12. Socioecology of Religion
Vernon Reynolds

13. Studies of Conflict
Johan M. G. van der Dennen

14. Marxist Thought
Regina Karpinskaya

15. Aesthetics
Charles J. Lumsden

16. Sociology
Pierre L. van den Berghe

17. Linguistics
James R. Hutford

18. Psychology
Charles Crawford

About the Contributors

Bibliography

Index

Description

This book presents reports on the uses of sociobiology and general evolutionary theory by members of diverse disciplines: psychiatry, law, management theory, anthropology, economics, primatology, history, political science, ethical philosophy, cognitive psychology, epistemology, socioecology of religion, studies of conflict, Marxist thought, aesthetics, sociology, linguistics, and psychology.

The purpose of the book is threefold — to acknowledge the remarkably wide influence of a central idea; to demonstrate that the research of human sociobiology takes place in disparate fields; and to introduce the major principles of sociobiology. There are many surprises to be found in these pages, not least the psychiatrist's new look at anxiety, the management theorist's explanation for the success of Japanese firms, the Soviet philosopher's report on sociobiology in the U. S. S. R. , the explanation given for the keeping of harems in ancient kingdoms, and the economist's view as to why people care if a bargain price is really a fair price — all cast in sociobiological terms.

Mary Maxwell is the author of Morality among Nations, also published by SUNY Press, and Human Evolution: A Philosophical Anthropology.