The Return of Science
Author | : Philip Pomper |
Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | : 324 |
Release | : 2002 |
ISBN-10 | : 0742521613 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780742521612 |
Rating | : 4/5 (13 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, historians discuss the applications of evolutionary theory to cultural, social, economic and political phenomena. William H. McNeill presents a magisterial statement about the convergence of the sciences toward an evolutionary worldview. Several contributors offer support for this thesis. Anthropologist Donald Brown and archaeologist Albert Naccache bring together the realms of biology and culture in examinations of evolved human features and modes of evolution. Demographer Noel Bonneuil and neuroscientist Alonso Pena apply mathematics to historical evolutionary processes such as the decision-making of human agents and cultural diffusion.