What Is the Relationship of Spencerian, Durkheimian and Marxian Natural Selections to Darwinian Natural Selection and How Can We Formalize Their Mutual Interaction?
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
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| Description | Jonathan H. Turner argues that to explain why religion became institutionalized in early human societies and how it subsequently evolved over the last ten thousand years, we need to turn to forms of natural selections different than Darwinian natural selection. These natural selection mechanisms which the author terms Spencerian, Durkheimian and Marxian, do not, according to Turner, obviate Darwinian natural selection on the human brain but need to be added on top of it to make our explanations of the process more complete. I agree with author’s point that we need extra theoretical frameworks beyond Darwinian natural selection to tackle the problem of why and how religion became institutionalized and how it subsequently evolved, as I do not dispute that explaining it in terms of biologically driven cognitive and behavioural propensities can only get us so far. I also applaud the essentially interdisciplinary effort to go through theories and methodological tools of other disciplines (in this case evolutionary biology) to see if they could help us find the best possible solutions for the problem. However, I remain unconvinced that the application of the theory of natural selection as suggested by Turner will bring the desired results. |
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