EL PELIGROSO DARWIN Y LAS CIENCIAS SOCIALES.

In assessing Darwin's historical importance, attention must be paid to the novel explanatory mechanism of natural selection, and to the coherent argument when applying it to the human species. Natural selection is a mechanism that goes beyond biological change, which can elucidate any process of design and order without a need for a designer or a final cause. Darwin sets as well the stage for a naturalistic explanation of humanity: from the continuity with other species it can be accounted for the new distinctive elements, in terms of the same general processes of change and selection. However, Darwin's influence in the social sciences still is scarce, in great part due to the caution to fall into "social Darwinism"; that is to say, to simplistically project the biological world into human society. To avoid this trap, a theoretical framework is required that can account for the complexities of human action non-reductionistically, but within the evolutionary framework. It is posit that a particular version of evolutionary psychology offers this most needed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]