CONJECTURES AND CONFRONTATIONS
     Science, Evolution, Social Concern

Hardback: 212 pages; ISBN:1-56000-286-7

Publisher: Transaction Publishers / Buy on Amazon.com

This is a book of essays that I was asked to write from time to time to illustrate my "biosocial" approach to social issues (bureaucracy, nationalism, innovation, sexual conflict in the epic), or the state of the art in the social sciences (humanism and science, self-interest and social concern, ideology and archaeology, the moral sense.) These are nestled between two parts of a longish interview about my life in the social sciences, and divided by a TV interview on Political Correctness (Richard Heffner on The Open Mind), and all ending with a long poem called "What the Shaman Saw: Incident at Lascaux, circa 15,000 BP". All meant as much for the general reader as the expert (if not more so.)

Contents:

     Introduction: The Biosocial Orientation
     Interview: An Accidental Life I
1.  Why Bureaucracy Fails
2.  Nationalism: Hymns Ancient and Modern
3.  How Innovative Are We?
4.  Sexual Conflict in Epic Narrative
     Interview: Political Correctness
5.  Moral Sense and Utopian Sensibility
6.  Left Ideology and Right Archaeology
7.  Self Interest and Social Concern
8.  Scientific Humanism and Humanistic Science
     Interview: An Accidental Life II
     Epilogue: What the Shaman Saw

Comments:

"A new book by Robin Fox is always an intellectual treat, and this one, which is written with his usual verve, wide learning, wit and theoretical sophistication, is no exception. In the current post-modern Zeitgeist, this book is especially welcome for its vigorous, but balanced, defense of reason, science, and the Western Enlightenment tradition." Melford E. Spiro, professor emeritus of anthropology, UCSD, author of, Children of The Kibbutz; Anthropological Other or Burmese Brother, etc.

"For over a generation, Robin Fox has illuminated human behavior and social theory with a steady flow of original and insightful writing. This collection of his essays is particularly welcome now that reflexive ideological hostility to evolutionary approaches in the social sciences has begun to wane. Such thoughtful and enriching insights as his probing analyses of why bureaucracies fail and national entities flourish, will enrich all those willing to integrate perspectives from cultural anthropology and philosophy to neuroscience and behavioral ecology." Roger Masters, Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government, Dartmouth College, author of Machiavelli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power; Fortune is a River, etc.

"This book of essays offers a fascinating perspective on Robin Fox himself – an anthropologist who anticipated and helped to develop todays robust merger of biology and the behavioral sciences. The topical essays are, as always, polished and insightful; there is the literary flair of Levi-Strauss, yet, refreshingly, the responsibility of the scientist who is true to his facts and careful about them. Some gems in this collection include a discussion of the perils of bureaucracy – delivered not to fellow academicians but to federal bureaucrats in Washington, and a valiant attempt to make some sense of the enduring debate about moral universals. Robin Fox is not afraid of controversy… This work helps to sum up what has been, so far, an extraordinary intellectual career." Christopher Boehm, Director, The Jane Goodall Research Center, University of Southern California.