#198 Stephen Sanderson: Sociology, Darwinian Conflict Theory, And Religion
Dr. Stephen K. Sanderson is an American sociologist. He was a professor of sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Since 2007 he has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California, Riverside. His areas of focus include comparative sociology, historical sociology, sociological theory and sociocultural evolution. He is a specialist in sociological theory and comparative and historical sociology and is one of the leading sociologists to develop a Darwinian understanding of human society. He has written or edited ten books, including “The Evolution of Human Sociality: A Darwinian Conflict Perspective”, “Evolutionism and Its Critics”, “Human Nature and the Evolution of Society”, and “Religious Evolution and the Axial Age”.
In this episode, we cover a lot of ground in Sociology and the Social Sciences. We start by talking about traditional approaches to sociology, the limitations of sociocultural accounts of human behavior, the importance of fields like sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, and the criteria to determine that a behavioral trait has a biological basis. We also discuss how to think about culture, and the relationship between culture and biology, and then Dr. Sanderson gives an overview of his Darwinian conflict theory, that tries to integrate evolutionary theory with Weberian conflict theory (with bits of Marx in there). Finally, we talk about Dr. Sanderson’s work on religion, and three different types of religion – shamanic, polytheistic (pagan), and monotheistic (world transcendent).
Time Links:
Problems with traditional Sociology approaches (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, the postmodernists, and others), and the Standard Social Science Model
Early 19th century biological approaches to human society (Westermarck, Galton, Spencer, Huxley)
The influence of Boas and Mead
How to properly think about cultural variation, and the modularity of mind approach
Criteria to determine that human behavior has a biological basis
We would also need biology to explain environmental determinism
What is culture really about? And the biological bases of culture
Darwinian conflict theory (integrating Darwin and Weber (Marx))
Dr. Sanderson’s work on the evolution of religion (shamanic, polytheistic and monotheistic religions)
Rodney Stark’s hypothesis for the success of Christianity
Follow Dr. Sanderson’s work!
Follow Dr. Sanderson’s work:
Personal website: https://bit.ly/2H0NLie
Some articles on Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2vI0NvN
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2VTsQXI
Relevant books/articles:
Evolutionism and Its Critics: https://amzn.to/2DS94So
The Evolution of Human Sociality: https://amzn.to/2H2wUeU
Human Nature and the Evolution of Society: https://amzn.to/2DQtXNK
Religious Evolution and the Axial Age: https://amzn.to/2UD7NFh
Darwinian Conflict Theory: A Unified Evolutionary Theory of Human Society: https://bit.ly/2H27LkB
From Paganism to World Transcendence: Religious Attachment Theory and the Evolution of the World Religions: https://bit.ly/2V3fofG