Evolutionary Social Sciences—An Interdisciplinary Fringe Project or a Small Revolution?
(2025) p.1-10- Abstract
In many research fields of the social sciences, attempts have been and are being made to integrate Darwinian evolutionary theory into their own work. The motivation and benefits of integration can vary from field to field and range from considering biological foundations for social phenomena to the application of methods and study designs from outside the field. Furthermore, Darwinian evolutionary theory offers itself to the interdisciplinary-oriented social sciences as a meta-theory. Thus, it creates a common basis for exchange between the disciplines. This applies to both the theoretical structure and the technical vocabulary. One of the original aims of this book was to present a first low-threshold overview in German that hints at... (More)
In many research fields of the social sciences, attempts have been and are being made to integrate Darwinian evolutionary theory into their own work. The motivation and benefits of integration can vary from field to field and range from considering biological foundations for social phenomena to the application of methods and study designs from outside the field. Furthermore, Darwinian evolutionary theory offers itself to the interdisciplinary-oriented social sciences as a meta-theory. Thus, it creates a common basis for exchange between the disciplines. This applies to both the theoretical structure and the technical vocabulary. One of the original aims of this book was to present a first low-threshold overview in German that hints at the wide range of applications of evolutionary approaches in the social sciences, which was translated to English to increase the audience. In this introductory chapter, we also discuss the various contributions and relate them to each other to illustrate that the evolutionary social sciences, despite their heterogeneity, are a coherent field of research. This field of research is gaining increasing relevance, so we hope that this book can support this trend.
(Less)
- author
- Willführ, Kai P. LU ; Schwarz, Sascha and Hammerl, Manfred
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-01
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Biosocial vs. evolutionary, Evolutionary social sciences, Evolutionary theory, Metatheory, Ultimate vs. proximate
- host publication
- Evolutionary Social Sciences : A Tour - A Tour
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105023358395
- ISBN
- 9783658480288
- 9783658480271
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-658-48028-8_1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 35eb0fab-6caf-4457-a882-780aae7e1da5
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-03 17:17:42
- date last changed
- 2026-10-02 14:10:43
@inbook{35eb0fab-6caf-4457-a882-780aae7e1da5,
abstract = {{<p>In many research fields of the social sciences, attempts have been and are being made to integrate Darwinian evolutionary theory into their own work. The motivation and benefits of integration can vary from field to field and range from considering biological foundations for social phenomena to the application of methods and study designs from outside the field. Furthermore, Darwinian evolutionary theory offers itself to the interdisciplinary-oriented social sciences as a meta-theory. Thus, it creates a common basis for exchange between the disciplines. This applies to both the theoretical structure and the technical vocabulary. One of the original aims of this book was to present a first low-threshold overview in German that hints at the wide range of applications of evolutionary approaches in the social sciences, which was translated to English to increase the audience. In this introductory chapter, we also discuss the various contributions and relate them to each other to illustrate that the evolutionary social sciences, despite their heterogeneity, are a coherent field of research. This field of research is gaining increasing relevance, so we hope that this book can support this trend.</p>}},
author = {{Willführ, Kai P. and Schwarz, Sascha and Hammerl, Manfred}},
booktitle = {{Evolutionary Social Sciences : A Tour}},
isbn = {{9783658480288}},
keywords = {{Biosocial vs. evolutionary; Evolutionary social sciences; Evolutionary theory; Metatheory; Ultimate vs. proximate}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{1--10}},
publisher = {{Springer Science and Business Media B.V.}},
title = {{Evolutionary Social Sciences—An Interdisciplinary Fringe Project or a Small Revolution?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-48028-8_1}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-658-48028-8_1}},
year = {{2025}},
}