Publisher's Synopsis
A starting point of this book is Catton and Dunlap's plea for a new ecological paradigm for a post exuberant sociology. What has happened is that a dominant Western worldview has been well established, one which builds on ancient assumptions that people are superior to other species. This assumption was further reinforced during the creation of the social and natural sciences in the 19th century. This dominant Western worldview has four main features. People are seen as fundamentally distinct from all other creatures on earth. Furthermore, they have dominion over these other species. People are masters of their own destiny. They can choose their goals and learn to do whatever is necessary to achieve them. The world and its resources is vast. This provides unlimited opportunities for humans.;The history of humanity is one of progress. For every perceived problem there is a solution. Such progress will never cease.;The basis of Catton and Dunlap's argument is that all these assumptions are fundamentally unecological. Chapter one of this book largely confirms the new ecological paradigm. In doing so it raises an uncomfortable issue for social theory. Can sociology respond to contemporary environmental problems in its present state?;Chapter two suggests that one of the major reasons why a paradigm of the kind Catton and Dunlap suggest has not been created is that early sociology modelled many of its concepts on biological science.;Chapter three outlines a starting-point for a new form of social theory which starts to overcome some of these problems. It is in fact a survey of a type of theory under development by Marx and Engels in the mid 19th century, to the effect that people are a species which, like all other living organisms, have needs like any other species and needs which are specific to human beings.;Chapter four argues that, after a number of uncertain starts and misleading developments of Darwinism, there are now real and exciting signs that biological science is developing concepts which are very much in line with the paradigm first outlined by Marx in the 1840s. In particular, the abolition of a rigid distinction between organism and environment is a feature of this new paradigm.;Chapter five addresses the central question of culture and human beings' distinct capacities in this regard. Chapter six draws some of the earlier themes from biology and psychology and combines them with one aspect of contemporary social theory in an attempt to develop a science more sensitive to environmental issues.;Chapter seven draws on previously unpublished work in Sussex University's Mass Observation Archive to illustrate some of this book's main themes. Chapter eight discusses how the arguments of this book relate to recent debates within this philosophy of science.
