Biosociology

The Biosoziologie is that part of the field of education sociology , which deals with the social shaping - the " institutionalization " - the social-reflexive malleable human-transition field animal concerned souvenirs of man from the empirically and theoretically.

Occasionally the term has also been used in a non- sociological sense.

Biosociology and Sociobiology

The distinction between biosociology and sociobiology is controversial, and the debate is sometimes fraught with reciprocal ideology allegations.

The concept of sociobiology, initially coined by Edward O. Wilson , assumed a strong biological influence on social behavior in humans as well. This assumption was welcome in scientific brain research , but met with great resistance , especially in the humanities and social sciences . The concept of the meme, introduced by Richard Dawkins , and an independent cultural evolution associated with it, was intended to create a common basis for discussion, but is rarely discussed seriously by humanities and social scientists. Similar to Dawkins, biosociology does not assume purely biological advantages of social behavior, but also assumes an independent development of culture from the genotype of humans.

The social sciences, however, have a different system of terms compared to biology . According to biosociology, it is not social behavior (the term is dependent on cultural ideas), but social behavior that should be biologically fixed. Central here is the term “ institution ”, which primarily means social rules and the associated enforcement mechanisms.

Instinct building principles

Arnold Gehlen had already made the philosophical-anthropological sentence that “man” (with Friedrich Nietzsche ) was “the undetected animal”, namely an animal without instincts that could keep him in fixed reaction paths. That is why he lacks - as a deficient being - the security of behavior (instinctively inherent in animals). However, and that is his human peculiarity, he was able to develop “institutions” instead of instincts. Institutions would also give him security, but not uniformly for all people, but - depending on the social characteristics of the institutions - different from society to society. In this respect, a biological instinct is not enough for him.

Deepening has Dieter Claessens believed that man this side of the "animal-human transition field" has lost its instinct not completely, but that even "instinct stumps", d. H. Instinct building principles are preserved. Through the special human gift, not instinctively whipped z. B. having to flee or attack, but stopping at what he is doing (delaying it according to his own judgment) and looking at it ( reflecting on it ), he can make certain choices. From these the first institutions emerge (e.g. “narration”), which could then, in turn, solidify biologically and anthropologically, so that the instinct again functions like instincts and can probably no longer be reversed (parable of the point of no return ).

Range of the new properties

Claessens suspected in 1980 (in “The Concrete and the Abstract”) that this secondary security of action acquired by early humans only extended as far as the challenges of a hunter's and gatherer life . The overwhelming amount of abstractions that have evolved since then; H. since the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry , humans are far more insecure to act.

Interpretations of " action "

What 'really' may have emerged from “pausing” (from the momentary liberation from behavioral constraints) has (for example) been philosophically examined or postulated many times. Whether this is a genesis of the “ will ” or the “reflection” or the “ conscience ” or the “ essence ” or even the (or a) “ soul ” is disputed. In sociology of social action is axiomatic often assumed that the reflection (see. Eg. As the theory of rational decision ( rational choice theory ) and the Frankfurt School ), rarely the "will" (see. Eg. As Ferdinand Tonnies ) or on the genesis of morality (see e.g. Zygmunt Bauman ).

literature

Dieter Claessens : instinct, psyche, validity. 1967
Dieter Claessens: The concrete and the abstract. First in 1980; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt ²1993
Peter Koslowski : Evolution and Society , 1984
P. Mayer: Sociobiology and Sociology. 1982
Adolf Portmann : Biology and Mind. 1956

Individual evidence

↑ In biology, “ biosociology ” means the study of animal and plant societies ( animal sociology , plant sociology ). See also Ernst Furrer, report on the international symposium for biosociology in Stolzenau / Weser from April 20-22 , 1960 , in: Plant Ecology , vol. 10, 1960, pp. 149–159. These questions are not dealt with in sociology.

[1] In biology, “ biosociology ” means the study of animal and plant societies ( animal sociology , plant sociology ). See also Ernst Furrer, report on the international symposium for biosociology in Stolzenau / Weser from April 20-22 , 1960 , in: Plant Ecology , vol. 10, 1960, pp. 149–159. These questions are not dealt with in sociology.