Presentist Social Functionalism: Bringing Contemporary Evolutionary Biology to the Social Sciences

This open access book presents and defends a new approach towards social functionalism: Presentist Social Functionalism. This approach draws on recent developments in evolutionary biology and philosophy of biology to provide a more compelling theoretical foundation for functionalist social analysis. Functionalist approaches to the social scienceswhich aim at using facts about what social institutions are for to provide a fulcrum with which to understand, evaluate, and respond to social realityare about as old as the subject itself, but have also been the subject of much criticism. In particular, a widespread concern for the functionalist tradition in the social sciences is that functional ascriptions often lack a plausible theoretical grounding, and that where such a theoretical grounding can be provided, the empirical presuppositions of this grounding often fail to be met. However, recent developments in evolutionary biology and the philosophy of biology promise to change this situation: they show that functional ascription can be compellingly made in an ahistorical, non-reproduction-based, and non-normative manner, which makes it possible to develop a new account of social functionalism that can fulfil the latter's theoretical and empirical desiderata. To show this, the book begins by laying out the major existing accounts of social functionalism and detailing their challenges. It then develops the new, alternative account of Presentist Social Functionalism. Given its interdisciplinary nature and application-focused approach, the book is of interest to researchers in a variety of fields, from evolutionary biology to the social sciences and philosophy.

Defends a new account of social functionalism: Presentist Social Functionalism Combines cutting-edge work in the biological and social sciences Uses a new account of social functionalism to develop new theories concerning contemporary social issues This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Autorentext
Armin Schulz is an interdisciplinary researcher investigating what we can learn from linking evolutionary biology and the cognitive and social sciences. His particular focus is on the evolutionary pressures on representational decision-making, both with a view towards cognitive psychology and economics.He earned a BSc and MPhil in economics and philosophy from the London School of Economics, and received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (under the supervision of Elliott Sober). After that, he returned to the LSE as an assistant professor, where he spent a further three and a half years before joining the philosophy department at the University of Kansas, where is currently a professor. He is the author of two books ("Structure, Evidence, and Heuristic: Evolutionary Biology, Economics, and the Philosophy of Their Relationship," Routledge, 2020, and "Efficient Cognition: The Evolution of Representational Decision Making," MIT Press, 2018) as well as over30 papers in the leading journals in the field. He has presented his research in many parts of the world and has experience in engaging with non-professional audiences through interviews at National Public Radio and articles in Aeon magazine (among others). He regularly teaches classes in cognitive science, philosophy of social science, and philosophy of science.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. The Theoretical BackboneSocial Institutions, Functionalism, and Social Science.- Chapter 2. Missing Mechanisms, Arbitrary Assignments, and Counterfactual ConundrumsExisting Accounts of Social Functionalism and Their Problems.- Chapter 3. Presentist Social FunctionalismThe Foundations.- Chapter 4. Presentist Social Functionalism and the Function of Corporations.- Chapter 5. Institutional CorruptionThe Presentist Social Functionalist Account.- Chapter 6. ArtifactsA Presentist Social Functionalist Account (co-written with Clint Hurshman).- Chapter 7. Conclusion.