...another excerpt from The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson. Copyright 1012 by Edward O. Wilson.
“The elementary drive to form and take deep pleasure from in-group membership easily translates at a higher level into tribalism. People are prone to ethnocentrism. It is an uncomfortable fact that even when given a guilt-free choice, individuals prefer the company of others of the same race, nation, clan, and religion. They trust them more, relax with them better in business and social events, and prefer them more often than not as marriage partners. They are quicker to anger at evidence that an out-group is behaving unfairly or receiving undeserved rewards. And they grow hostile to any out-group encroaching upon the territory or resources of their in-group.”
1 comment:
Wilson, a biologist whose specialization was the study of social insects, specifically ants and termites, decided that he could explain all of human social behavior based upon what he learned from of these insects. This is a rather marked example of what is epistemologically known as a reductionist fallacy. In Wilson's hands, it very often seems to be say that he has rendered the social sciences irrelevant, their findings easily subsusmable under the findings of bug research. I think what is most interesting in his endeavor is that he is dismissing the greatest part of human behavior than indeed make us both human and humane. It is good that he is making his money writing pop social science; his works have not been well-received in the peer-reviewed academic literature of the social sciences.
RB
Post a Comment