The Taming of Evolution: The Persistence of Nonevolutionary Views in the Study of Humans - Softcover

Greenwood, Davydd

 
9781501719882: The Taming of Evolution: The Persistence of Nonevolutionary Views in the Study of Humans
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1501719882 ISBN 13: 9781501719882
Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2018

Synopsis

The theory of evolution has clearly altered our views of the biological world, but in the study of human beings, evolutionary and preevolutionary views continue to coexist in a state of perpetual tension. The Taming of Evolution addresses the questions of how and why this is so. Davydd Greenwood offers a sustained critique of the nature/nurture debate, revealing the complexity of the relationship between science and ideology. He maintains that popular contemporary theories, most notably E. O. Wilson's human sociobiology and Marvin Harris's cultural materialism, represent pre-Darwinian notions overlaid by elaborate evolutionary terminology. Greenwood first details the humoral-environmental and Great Chain of Being theories that dominated Western thinking before Darwin. He systematically compares these ideas with those later influenced by Darwin's theories, illuminating the surprising continuities between them. Greenwood suggests that it would be neither difficult nor socially dangerous to develop a genuinely evolutionary understanding of human beings, so long as we realized that we could not derive political and moral standards from the study of biological processes.

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About the Author

Davydd J. Greenwood is Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Cornell University. He is the author of Introduction to Action Research: Social Research for Social Change.

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Publisher
Cornell University Press
Publication date
2018
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1501719882
ISBN 13 
9781501719882
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
228