Social evolutionism : a critical history

Bibliographic Information

Social evolutionism : a critical history

Stephen K. Sanderson

(Studies in social discontinuity / general editor, Charles Tilly)

Blackwell, 1990

Available at  / 15 libraries

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Note

bibliography: p. [229]-243

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In this book Sanderson turns a critical eye on theorists from Herbert Spencer and Talcott Parsons to contemporary thinkers such as Gerhard Lenski and Marvin Harris, examining in each case the logical and epistemological foundation of the theory, and drawing essential distinctions between theories. In this examination of the history of evolutionary thought, Stephen Sanderson reveals how the global term "evolutionism" is used to describe a complex variety of specific theories, and traces in detail the distinguishing characteristics of these theories and their critics. In the process, the author develops the argument that because critics of evolutionary theory have failed to distinguish among different versions of it, their criticisms are often misdirected at theories for which they have little or no relevance.

Table of Contents

  • The nature of social evolutionism
  • classical evolutionism
  • the anti-evolutionary reaction
  • marxism as evolutionism
  • the evolutionary revival
  • sociological neo-evolutionism
  • anthropological evoutionism since 1960
  • evolutionary biology and social evolutionism
  • contemporary anti-evolutionism
  • toward a comprehensive theory of sociocultural evolution.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA11137408
  • ISBN
    • 1557860734
  • LCCN
    89018385
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge, Mass. USA
  • Pages/Volumes
    xviii, 251 p.
  • Size
    23 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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