Cultural Evolution and Social Ontology
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- ISBN 9781041081210
- Weight: 670g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 14 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This volume explores connections between two growing and complementary fields of research: cultural evolutionary theory and social ontology. It sheds light on the ontological aspects of cultural evolution that so far have been largely neglected and raises questions for social ontology regarding the relevance of evolutionary aspects of social phenomena.
This volume shows that cultural evolutionary theory and social ontology are complementary disciplines that, while having their own subject matter and their own research questions, illuminate each other in interesting ways. While the contributors vary in their approach to the relationship between social ontology and cultural evolution, they explore their many common themes, including power, language, agency, interaction, and social institutions and roles. The chapters are divided into thematic sections organized around meta-perspectives on cultural evolution and social ontology, the power concept in cultural evolution and social ontology, and themes of interactions and collectives in cultural and social evolution. Together, the chapters demonstrate how social ontology can provide critical tests of central assumptions in cultural evolutionary theory, and how cultural evolution can provide accounts of the origins of social entities.
Cultural Evolution and Social Ontology will appeal to researchers and graduate students working in cultural evolution, social ontology, metaphysics, social philosophy, philosophy of the social sciences, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of science, as well as those working in disciplines outside philosophy, such as anthropology and sociology.
Martina Valković is a visiting researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Thomas A.C. Reydon is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology in the Institute of Philosophy and the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS) at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and Associated Faculty in the Socially Engaged Philosophy of Science (SEPOS) group at Michigan State University, USA.
