Bringing culture back: : Towards a new social theory? – A review essay

Janky, Béla (2026) Bringing culture back: : Towards a new social theory? – A review essay. INTERSECTIONS: EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIETY AND POLITICS, 11 (4). pp. 68-85. ISSN 2416-089X

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Abstract

The starting premise of the following review essay is that recent research in cultural evolutionary theory has laid the ground for a new paradigm in social theory. The aim of the paper is to briefly present the basic tenets of this new paradigm based on some recent monographs and other related publications. Followers of this new paradigm posit that cultural evolution has been dominated by biological adaptations and individual rational optimisation in shaping individual behaviour and social structure throughout human history. This review first briefly outlines what economic theory and evolutionary psychology, perhaps the two most influential theoretical paradigms of recent decades, have to say about human nature. Then it discusses recent empirical evidence related to the assumptions of these two paradigms, and offers an introduction to the basic tenets of the culture-based social theory currently under construction. The study also presents some specific conclusions from the new paradigm that could be relevant for the interpretation of contemporary social problems, and discusses a few points of concern related to agency, direction of evolution, and the role of rationality in cultural change.

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