Suchergebnisse

"One of the most remarkable epochs in the history of human thought is that through which we have passed in the last half of the nineteenth century. One after the other we have seen the lower sciences revivified, reconstructed, transformed by the new knowledge. The sciences dealing with man in society have naturally been the last to be affected, but now that the movement has reached them the changes therein promise to be even more startling in character. History, economics, the science of politics, and, last but not least important, the attitude of science to the religious life and the religious phenomena of mankind, promise to be profoundly influenced. The whole plan of life is, in short, being slowly revealed to us in a new light, and we are beginning to perceive that it presents a single majestic unity, throughout every part of which the conditions of law and orderly progress reign supreme. Nothing is more remarkable in this period of reconstruction than the change which is almost imperceptibly taking place in the minds of the rising generation respecting the great social and religious problem of our time. We have lived through a period when the very foundations of human thought have been rebuilt. That the moral law is the unchanging law of progress in human society is the lesson which appears to be written over all things. No school of theology has ever sought to enforce this teaching with the directness and emphasis which it appears that evolutionary science will in the future be justified in doing. In the silent and strenuous rivalry in which every section of the race is of necessity continually engaged, permanent success appears to be invariably associated with the ethical and moral conditions favourable to the maintenance of a high standard of social efficiency, and with those conditions only. No one who engages in a serious study of the period of transition through which our Western civilisation is passing at the present time can resist the conclusion that we are rapidly approaching a time when we shall be face to face with social and political problems, graver in character and more far-reaching in extent than any which have been hitherto encountered. These problems are not peculiar to any nationality included in our civilisation. But in the method of their solution, the social efficiency of the various sections of the Western peoples will probably be put to a severer test than any which it has yet had to undergo. Those who realise, however dimly, the immense part which the English-speaking peoples--if true to their own traditions--are not improbably destined to play in the immediate future of the world, will feel how great a gain any advance may be which enables us through the methods of modern science to obtain a clear perception of the stern, immutable conditions of moral fitness and uprightness through which alone a people can long continue to play a great part on the stage of the world. No other race has ever looked out upon such an opportunity as presents itself before these peoples in the twentieth century"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Der Verfasser formuliert eine Kritik der Modernisierungstheorie. Für ihn sind Differenzierung und Rationalisierung Elemente des Modernisierungsprozesses, keine Variablen, die die Modernisierung erklären können. Der Verfasser schlägt eine alternative Sichtweise vor, die gesellschaftliche Widersprüche als Generatoren sozialer Entwicklung und sozialen Wandels begreift. Damit wird der Modernisierungsprozess nicht mehr als unidirektionaler Entwicklungspfad oder als Ausdruck einer eigenständigen Kraft (Rationalisierung) begriffen. Der Verfasser schlägt eine theoretische Perspektive vor, die zwei Schwerpunkte aufweist: kollektive Lernprozesse und Klassenkämpfe. Er zeigt, welchen Beitrag das Konzept der gesellschaftlichen Produktion der Moderne zu einer systematischen Rekonstruktion der Entwicklungsprozesse der Moderne zu leisten vermag. Im Mittelpunkt steht hier die Rolle der "Aufklärungsgesellschaften" in der Frühen Neuzeit. Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Gesellschaft kann so evolutionstheoretische als Ergebnis von Lernprozessen und Klassenkonflikten beschrieben werden, das von Differenzierung und Rationalisierung reproduziert wird. (ICE)

I. Foundations. Conceptualizing social behaviour -- Hamilton's rule as an organizing framework -- The rule under attack : tautology, prediction, and casuality -- Kin selection and group selection -- II. Extensions. Gene mobility and the concept of relatedness -- The multicellular organism as a social phenomenon -- Cultural relatedness and human social evolution.

From mitochondria to meerkats, the natural world is full of spectacular examples of social behaviour. Jonathan Birch explores how the three key explanatory ideas of social evolution theory - Hamilton's rule, kin selection, and inclusive fitness - can illuminate our understanding of the social world