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Biological Realism and Social Constructivism
Author(s) -
SABINI JOHN,
SCHULKIN JAY
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5914.1994.tb00253.x
Subject(s) - pragmatism , epistemology , constructivism (international relations) , functionalism (philosophy of mind) , sociology , realism , positivism , individualism , social science , philosophy , political science , law , politics , international relations
In this paper we attempt to reconcile two important, current intellectual traditions: Darwinism and social constructionism. We believe that these two schools have important points of contact that have been obscured because each school has feared that the other wanted to put it out of business. We try to show that both traditions have much to of offer psychology, a discipline that has often been too individualistic, too concerned with the private and the subjective. The spirit of American pragmatism can be found in both camps; like the social constructivists, pragmatists focused on social transaction rather than internal happening, and like the Darwinian they were rooted in functionalism and the biological.