Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:20:20.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Herd as a Means

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

David L. Hull
David L. Hull*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1886 Friedrich Nietzsche noted the following basic error in the philosophies of his day, ”…to place the goal in the herd and not in single individuals! The herd is a means, no more! But now one is attempting to understand the herd as an individual and to ascribe to it a higher rank than to the individual—profound misunderstanding!!! Also to characterize that which makes herdlike, sympathy, as the more valuable side to our nature!” (Nietzsche 1901, p. 403).

The recent flap over sociobiology has stemmed largely from the fear that biology is being used to justify a Nietzschean view of human societies, as if the chief good in human relations must be basically selfish, as if apparently altruistic behavior is fundamentally hypocritical. From Darwin to the present, biologists have blithely attributed the presence and persistence of all sorts of traits, including behavioral traits, to the “good of the species”.

Type
Part II. Unity of Science— Group Selection and Sociobiology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 73 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

The research for this paper was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1980-1981. I wish to thank Elliott Sober and William Wimsatt for commenting on an early draft of this paper.

References

Alexander, R. D. (1979). Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Allen, L., et. al. (1976). “Sociobiology—Another Biological Determinism.” Bioscience 26: 133-149.Google Scholar
Barash, D. P. (1976). “What Does Sex Really Cost?” The American Naturalist 110: 894-896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blute, Marion. (1979). “Sociocultural Evolutionism: An Untried Theory.” Behavioral Science 24: 46-59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D. T. (1972). “On the Genetics of Altruism and the Counter Hedonic Components in Human Culture.” Journal of Social Issues 28: 21-35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, A. (1980). “Have Species Become Declassé?” In PSA 1980, Volume 1. Edited by Asquith, P. D. and Giere, R. N.. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 71-82.Google Scholar
Commoner, B. (1961). “In Defense of Biology.” Science 133: 1745-1748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1978). “Replicator Selection and the Extended Phenotype” Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 47: 61-76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, R. (1979). “Defining Sociobiology.” Nature 280: 427-428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eldredge, N. and Gould, S. J. (1972). “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism.” In Models in Paleobiology. Edited by Schopf, T.J M.. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper & Company. Pages 82-115.Google Scholar
Ghiselin, M. (1974). “A Radical Solution to the Species Problem.” Systematic Zoology 23: 536-544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J. (1980). “The Promise of Paleobiology as a Nomothetic, Evolutionary Discipline.” Paleobiology 6: 96-118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behavior.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7: 1-52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. L. (1976). “Are Species Really Individuals?” Systematic Zoology 25: 174-191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. L. (1978). “A Matter of Individuality.” Philosophy of Science 45: 335-360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. L.(1980). “Individuality and Selection.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311-332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. (1974). The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, J. and Williams, G.C. (1976). “Reply to Barash.” The American Naturalist 110: 897.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1942). Systematics and the Origin of Species. New York: Columbia University Press; 1964 edition, New York: Dover Publications , Inc.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1963). Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1969). Principles of Systematic Zoology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1975). “The Unity of the Genotype.” Biologisches Zentralblatt 94: 377-388.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. (1901). Der Wille zur Macht. In Nachgelassene Werke, Vol. 15. Leipzig: C.G. Naumann. (As Reprinted in The Will to Power. (1967). (trans.) Kaufmann, Walter and Hollingdale, R.J.. New York: Random House.)Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. and Ross, L. (1980). Human Inference Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1980). Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Roughgarden, J. (1979). Theory of Population Genetics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1981). “Holism, Individualism, and the Units of Selection.” In PSA 1980, Volume 2. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Giere, R. N. . East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 93-121.Google Scholar
Stampe, J. A. and Metcalf, R. A. (1980). “Parent-Offspring Conflict.” In Sociobiology: Beyond Nature/Nurture? Edited by Barlow, G. W. and Silverberg, J. . Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Pages 589-618.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. L. (1971). “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 46: 35-57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. J. and Grosse, D. J. (1980). “Trophic Differentiation in Ilyodon, A Genus of Stream-dwelling Goodeid Fishes: Speciation versus Ecological Polymorphism.” Evolution 34: 259-270.Google ScholarPubMed
Wade, M. J. (1978). “A Critical Review of the Models of Group Selection.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 53: 101-114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West Eberhard, M.J., (1975). “The Evolution of Social Behavior by Kin Selection.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 50: 1-33.Google Scholar
Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. L. (1980). The Natural Selection of Populations and Communities. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.O.. (1971). The Insect Societies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.O. (1975). SociobioloRy: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, W. (1980). “Reductionistic Research Strategies and their Bases in the Units of Selection Controversy” In Scientific Discovery: Case Studies. Edited by T., Nickles. Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel. Pages 213-259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimsatt, W. (1981). “Units of Selection and the Structure of the Multi-level Genome.” In PSA 1980, Volume 2. Edited by Asquith, P. D. and Giere, R. N.. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 122-183.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, V. C. (1962). Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior. Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, V. C. (1963). “Intergroup Selection in the Evolution of Social Systems.” Nature 200: 623-626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar