Overview

Works such as The Bell Curve imply that any biosocial approach to social science is necessarily Social Darwinist or reactionary. Toward a Biocritical Sociology suggests the opposite: a biosocial sociology stressing species commonalities opens a site for a distinctively critical social science discourse. Neuhaus shows the relevance of current research in ethology, sociobiology, and evolutionary ethics for the development of a critical biosocial sociology. In developing his own biocritical approach, Neuhaus argues that debates over social problems, as well as controversies surrounding the communitarian analyses of Robert Bellah, Amitai Etzioni and Alasdair MacIntyre, may be helpfully analyzed and conceptually unpacked by making use of a critical biosocial perspective.

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9780820430812

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Reviews

'Toward a Biocritical Sociology' is a well-written and innovative book that engages the reader with a timely question: Should sociology continue to ignore human biology? Or, should we begin to expand the boundaries of sociology by adopting an evolutionary-based sociology? Currently, most sociologists typically ignore or outright dismiss 'human nature' as irrelevant for understanding humans or human society even though the accumulating evidence suggests that this rejection can no longer be sustained on empirical grounds. In this highly readable and provocative book, John Neuhaus avers that it is time for sociology to re-examine some of its 'taken for granted' social facts that have forged an artificial separation between 'nature' and 'nurture'. A biosocial orientation, he argues, would help to break down this simplistic binary division that forces scholars to cast aside biological reasoning, despite major developments in such fields as genetics, psychology, primatology, and biology. To provide a much needed corrective to some common misconceptions, this work undertakes a valuable examination of the theoretical and practical utility of a biological perspective, which will enable the reader to assess the 'face validity' of an empirically based evolutionary sociology. For anyone who cares to think about human nature, this book is engaging and likely to convince sociologists to start thinking in new directions. (Alexandra Maryanski, University of California, Riverside)

Author Information

The Author: John William Neuhaus received his M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Western Michigan University. He has taught sociology at Western Michigan and Cottey College. He is currently pursuing research on the implications of a biocritical sociology for controversies over immigration and ethnicity.

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