Reclaiming Evolution
by William M. Dugger, Howard J. Sherman
This is the title of a new study on evolution, a first on the left
challenging and simply walking away from sociobiology Sherman has another
well known work on Marxism.
My review at Amazon.
The title says it all as this cogent work opens with a declaration of
independence from sociobiology, and proceeds to a reexamination of social
evolutionary thinking, the idea of 'evolution' in free fall. Ay there's the
rub, what does the free floating concept of (social) evolution really mean,
and what is its true relation with organismic evolution? This question has
never found an answer, because even the theory of organismic evolution is
incomplete. To escape the clutches of E.O. Wilson is not to escape those of
S. J. Gould, and the assumptions of basic Darwinism still bedevil analysis
even as the banishment of all ideas of progress simply compounds the
confusion. For the idea of progress in the docket of ideology, in addition to
its excision from all discussion of random evolution, leaves all in
confusion. We should a more complex theory to explain progression in one
form, as macroevolution, and the individual's actions, as freedom,in another,
as a sort of microevolution. In any case, we are still 'looking for the
answer',without the gimmicks of sociobiological reductionism and this book
explores a host of interesting avenues in a liberating, though eclectic mix
of themes from Veblen to Marx. Very stimulating work, and some real
nose-thumbing at the Social Darwinist plot thickener from the right wing
Darwin gang. Still, one is left with the question, where is the theory? A
more universal history might give us the clue to an answer.
John Landon
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website on eonic effect
http://eonix.8m.com
http://www.eonica.net
