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Constraints on the Sociobiologists’ Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Stuart A. Kauffman
Stuart A. Kauffman*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

Sociobiology is a relatively recent effort at the synthesis of the fields of anthropology, ethology, and evolutionary biology. The structure of the present commentary is to present briefly the aim of Sociobiology in its own view, and to state how it formulates and attempts to solve its own designated problems. Then I attempt to characterize the adequacy of the presuppositions which a narrow form of Sociobiology seems to make, and the consequences of abandoning those presuppositions. Further, I shall try to characterize the core difficulties in assessing the ways in which genes determine behavior, for, as will soon emerge, this is central to the Sociobiologist's program. An analysis of those difficulties helps counter cavalier criticisms of Sociobiology, and begins to suggest some of the means to surmount the methodological difficulties which impede this important scientific effort.

Type
Part I. Sociobiology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1976 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1976 , 1976 , pp. 32 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

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