Toward a Biosocial Science

Towards a Biosocial Science is a critical introduction to the history and conceptual concerns of sociology that incorporates the immense and revolutionary contributions evolutionary biology, behavioral genetics, and neuroscience are making to the study of human behavior and social organization.

Alexander Riley, Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University, USA, has read and written extensively in social theory and the history of the social sciences over the past 20 years. His work on the nature and legacy of the Durkheimian tradition is internationally recognized. Riley is the author of several previous books, including Angel Patriots: The Crash of United Flight 93 and the Myth of America, and Godless Intellectuals? The Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred Reinvented.

Preface: The Dismal Science of Human Nature Part 1. The Problem with Sociology and its Solution 1. What's Wrong with Sociology? 2. The Basics for an Evolutionary Sociology 3. Why and How are Humans Social? 4. Morality in a Biosocial Context Part 2. Basic Categories of Human Differentiation 5. The Sex Difference in Homo sapiens 6. Stratification, Status, and Inequality in Homo sapiens 7. Racial Identity and Difference in Homo sapiens 8. Culture in Homo sapiens Epilogue: The Evolutionary End of Sociology?