What is it about?
Darwin's theory of evolution had a profound influence on early sociology in the 19th century. But its use by sociologists such as Spencer and Sumner to explain the 'struggle for existence' in industrializing societies discredited Darwin in the eyes of later sociologists. The rift deepened when the role of random causation and an indeterminate evolutionary history in Darwin's theory clashed with the growth of sociological positivism and rationalism in the 20th century. Misunderstandings continue to burden the relationship between the two fields.
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Why is it important?
The challenge for evolutionists and sociologists is to find a natural explanation of social behaviour. That was already Darwin's objective. He argued that there was no fundamental ontological discontinuity between non-human and human evolution.
Perspectives
If we want to close the gap between evolutionary and sociological theory the most significant problem is to find an evolutionary explanation for the complexity and variability of human culture and its many adaptively redundant or harmful traits. This is the topic of my recent book (Origins of Inequality in Human Societies, Routledge 2017) which offers a new evolutionary analysis of one of the most persistent, variable and conflict-prone structures in human history.
Professor Bernd Baldus
University of Toronto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Darwin und die Soziologie / Darwin and Sociology, Zeitschrift für Soziologie, January 2002, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/zfsoz-2002-0404.
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