On Social Evolution:

Phenomenon & Paradigm

 

 

 

To Norbert Elias, the first theorist of social evolution

and in memory of David Hull

 

 

Shiping Tang

Fudan University, Shanghai, China

 

 

“One hundred [fifty] years without Darwinism are enough.”--Hermann. J. Muller, 1959

 

“Give Darwin his due.” --Philip Kitcher, 2003

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Preface

 

Introduction

I. Key Definitions

II. Plan of the Book

 

Chapter One: Why (not) Social Evolutionary Social Sciences?

I. Getting the Challenge Posed by Change Right: Or why do we need evolutionary thinking in social sciences?

II. Why haven’t Social Sciences been Evolutionary Sciences?

1. Group Ego: aren’t we the Homo sapiens different?
2. Desire for Timeless Laws
3. Parochial Interest: My theory is better than evolution
4. Polemic Deployment of Evolutionary Thinking

III. Lack of Systematic Statement on Social Evolution

1. Dismissal based on Ignorance
2. Revulsion against Misguided Applications of Evolutionary Thinking
3. False Choice: Cultural (Social) versus (Social) Evolutionary

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Two: From Biological Evolution to Social Evolution

Introduction

I. A Brief History of Evolutionary Thinking

II. Sorting out the Various Notions of “Evolution”

A.   Biological Evolution versus Social Evolution

B.   Cultural Evolution versus Social Evolution

III. Biological Evolution: the modern understanding

A. Evolution: Essential Conditions

B. Neo-Darwinism: the Principles of Biological Evolution

i. The Central Mechanism: Variation-Selection-Inheritance

ii. The Molecular Foundation of Natural Evolution

C. The Nature and Power of Evolutionary Theory

IV. Common Misunderstanding about Biological Evolution

1. Evolutionary Theory is a Theory, thus Evolution is not a Fact
2. Evolution Means “Survival of the Fittest”
3. Forms of Bad Adaptationism: Intentional and Directional
4. Evolution is Complexity/Destiny Unfolding, Progressively
5. “Self-organization” Can Replace or Subsume Evolution
6. “Neo-Darwinism Needs Major Corrections” or “There Must be Some Exceptions”

V. Applying Evolution to Human Society: False Starts

1. Herbert Spencer’s Long and Wide Shadow
2. 1. Destiny/Design Unfolding toward Higher Stages
   2. Functionalism: Society as Organism and Social Change as Developmental Integration
   3. Social Spenceriansm/Darwinism to Racism, Geopolitics, and Nazism
3. The Expansionist Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

VI. Applying Evolution to Human Society: Real but Incomplete

Concluding Remarks: The Task Ahead

 

Chapter Three: On Social Evolution as a Phenomenon

Introduction

I. Ideational Forces and Social Evolution as a New Phenomenon

A.     Genes and Phenotypes in Social Evolution

B.     Mutations in Social Evolution: Random versus Directed

C.     Selection in Social Evolution: A Complex Picture

i.        Natural versus Artificial; Material versus Ideational

ii.      Levels of Selection: Gene, Phenotype, Individual, and Group

D.    Mechanism of Inheritance

i.        Darwinian Inheritance in the Biological Dimension

ii.      Neo-Lamarckian Inheritance in the Ideational Dimension

E. Adaptation in the Ideational Dimension of Social Evolution

II. The New Phenomenon: Further Elaborations

A. An Interactive rather than Dichotomous Picture

B. Progressiveness in Social Evolution: Physical versus Moral

C. Stages and Directionality of Human Society

D. Dynamics of Social Evolution I: The Speed or Basal Line Problem

E. Dynamics of Social Evolution II: Slow and Dramatic Changes

F. Multiple Levels of Evolution in Social Evolution

G. Some Minor but Necessary Clarifications

1. History versus Social Evolution

2. Irreversibility of Social Evolution

3. Prime-mover and Determinant of Social Evolution?

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Four: On Social Evolution as a Paradigm

Introduction

I.       SEP: Ontological and Epistemological Principles

II.    SEP: Operational Principles on the Four Levels

III.SEP: Theorizing the Reaches of the Social System

IV.What Is Not a Social Evolutionary Approach?

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Five: A Critique of Existing Evolutionary Social Sciences

Introduction

I.                   Evolutionary Theorizing of Human Society: False Starts

A.      The Long Shadow of Herbert Spencer

B.       Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

C.       False Starts: Other Notable Cases

II.                Evolutionary Theorizing of Human Society: Real but Incomplete

A.      Archaeological Anthropology

B.       Toward Generalized Darwinism?

C.       Real but Incomplete: Other Notable Contributions

Concluding Remarks

 

Chapter Six: What Social Evolution Paradigm Can Do

I.       Explaining Institutional Change and Human Progress (Tang 2011)

II.    Explaining Systemic Transformation of International Politics (Tang 2013)

III.Explaining States’ Foreign Policies (Tang 2008; Tang and Long 2011/2012)

IV.Explaining Social Transformation: micro and macro (Elias 1939[1994])

V.    Fields in which SEP Can Have a Transformational Impact

A. From Social Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology to Social Evolutionary Psychology

B. Neo-modernity as a Social Evolutionary and New Meta-theory of Knowledge and Society 

C. A Social Evolutionary Defense of Liberty and other Moral Principles

Concluding Remarks

 

In Lieu of Conclusion

 

Appendix I: Sociobiology Redux: Genoeconomics, Genopolitics, and Genosociology