Marion Blute
Department of Sociology
University of Toronto at Mississauga
Mississauga, Ontario Canada
L5L 1C6
Email: marion.blute@utoronto.ca
Blog: http://bluteblog.com/
International Summer School on Evolution,
Lisbon, Portugal
http://evolutionschool.fc.ul.pt/summer/sub/pro/program.php
Research Interests
Prof. Blute's
research interest is in theory, in particular evolutionary epistemology, generalized
Darwinism or multi-process selection theory. The basic principle is that all
knowledge acquiring and utilizing processes are selection processes. These
include (gene-based) biological evolution by natural selection, (neural-based)
individual learning by reinforcement and punishment, and (social learning or
meme-based) sociocultural evolution by sociocultural selection. She is also
interested in how these processes interact including gene-culture coevolution
and has particular interests in the philosophy and sociology of science/scholarship
and genders. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Biological
Theory, of the Editorial Board of Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History
and Philosophy of Science, of the Nominations Committee of the International
Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, of the
Council of the Evolution, Biology and Society section of the American
Sociological Association and an Associate of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Her
monograph on Darwinian
Sociocultural Evolution: Solutions to Dilemmas in Cultural and Social Theory
was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010.
OTHER
PUBLICATIONS
(available on request)
“The evolution of anisogamy: More questions than answers.” Biological Theory 7(1) 2013: 3-9. DOI 10:1007/s13752-012-0060-4. “It isn’t true, it isn’t new, we knew it all along.” Review of Maria Kronfeldner, Darwinian Creativity and Memetics.” Metascience 12(2) 2012: 379-382. “Review of Lucio Vinicius, Modular Evolution: How Natural Selection Produces Biological Complexity.” Anthropos: International Review of Anthropology and Linguistics 107(1) 2012: 311-312. “Condition-dependent Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity and Gene-Culture Coevolution.” Comment on Fincher and Thornhill, Parasite-stress promotes in-group assertive sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35(2) 2012: 81. “Super Cooperators?” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26(12) 2011: 624-625. With Paul Armstrong, “The Reinvention of Grand Theories of the Scientific/Scholarly Process.”Perspectives on Science 19(4) 2011: 391-425. “Evolution’s First Law?” Review essay on D. W. McShea and R. N. Brandon, Biology’s First Law: The Tendency for Diversity and Complexity to Increase in Evolution.” Biological Theory 5(2) 2010: 194-197. “Review of Martin Carrier, Don Howard and Janet Kourany (Ed’s.). “The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice: Science and Values Revisited.” Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32(4) 2010: 545-547. With Paul Armstrong, “Reports of the Death of the Sociology of Science Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.” Canadian Review of Sociology 47(4) 2010:431-444. “Review of W. G. Runciman, The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Canadian Journal of Sociology
35(4) 2010: 645-647. http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/CJS/index
Dupré and O’Malley’s ‘Varieties of
Living Things: Life at the Intersection of Lineages and Metabolism’.” Guest
Blog Post, Jan. 16, 2010. Philosophy & Theory in Biology. http://philosophyandtheoryinbiology.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html
“Reflections on Trees of
Knowledge.” Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and
Philosophy of Science, 3(1) Dec. 2009. http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/SpontaneousGenerations/issue/view/829
“Review of
“Review of Kevin N. Laland and
Bennett G. Galef, eds. The Question of Animal Culture.” Newsletter of the
Evolution, Biology and Society Section, American Sociological Association,
Fall 2009. http://www2.asanet.org/sectionevol/newsletter/
“Is it time for an updated ‘eco-evo-devo’ definition of evolution by natural selection?” Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science. 2(1) 2008: 1-5. http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/SpontaneousGenerations/issue/view/217 “Concluding Statement: Some Issues That Might be Worth Discussing.” Open Semiotics Resource Centre, Virtual Symposium: Memory, Social Networks and Language: Probing the Meme Hypothesis II. May 2008. http://www.semioticon.com/virtuals/memes2/index.html “The Evolution of Replication.” Biological Theory 2(1) 2007:10-22. “Cultural Ecology.” In D. M. Pearsall, ed. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Academic Press, New York “The Role of Memes in Cultural Evolution: Memes if Necessary but not Necessarily Memes.” Open Semiotics Resource Centre, Virtual Symposium. Imitation, Memory and Cultural Change: Probing the Meme Hypothesis. May 2007. Abstract and Video athttp://www.semioticon.com/virtuals/imitation/mblute.html
“Review of Robert K. Merton & Elinor Barber, The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 28(2) 2006: 291-292. “Review of Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale: A Journey to the Dawn of Life.” The Quarterly Review of Biology, 81(Dec. 2006): 394-395. “Origins and the Eco-Evo-Devo Problem.” Biological Theory, 1(2) 2006: 116-118. “The Evolutionary Socioecology of Gestural Communication.”Gesture. 6(2), Nov.- Dec., 2006: 177-188.
“Gene-Culture Coevolutionary Games.” Social Forces, 85(1), September 2006: 151-166.
(With Saleema Saioud.) "Some Empirical Trends in Theory." Perspectives, (Theory section of the American Sociological Association), 28(3) February 2006: 12-14. “If the Genome Isn’t a God-like Ghost in the Machine,
Then What Is It?” Biology and Philosophy, 20(2-3), 2005: 401-407.
Review of Gerhard Lenski, Ecological-Evolutionary Theory: Principles and Applications.” Canadian Journal of Sociology Online, September - October 2005.
“Memetics and Evolutionary Social Science.” Journal of Memetics, 9(1) 2005: 4 SsPp. http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2005/vol9/blute_m.html
“Review of Alexander J. Field, Altruistically Inclined? The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity.” Canadian Journal of Sociology,
29(3) September 2004.
“The Evolutionary Ecology of Science.” Journal of Memetics, 7(1) 2003: 21SsPp. http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2003/vol7/blute_m.html
“Review of Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature.” The Quarterly Review of Biology, 78(1) March 2003: 129-30.
“Remembering Lewis Feuer.” Sociology News, Dept.
of Sociology,
“Review of Niklas Luhmann, Theories of Distinction: Redescribing the Descriptions of Modernity.” Edited with an introduction by William Rasch.”
Canadian Journal of Sociology Online Nov. – Dec., 2002.
“Learning Theory and the Evolutionary Analogy.” 1979, 2002, 71pp. Cogprints.
“A Single-Process Learning Theory.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(3) June, 2001: 529-31.
“Social Learning by Observation is Analogue, Instruction is Digital.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(2) April 2001: 327.
“History Versus Science: The Evolutionary Solution.” Canadian Journal of Sociology, 22(3) Summer 1997: 345-364.
“Review of John Maynard Smith & Eors Szathmary, The Major Transitions in Evolution.” Politics and the Life Sciences, 15(2) September 1996: 347-9.
“Review of Richard Dawkins, River Out of
“Biologists on Sociocultural Evolution: A Critical Analysis.” Sociological Theory, 5(2) Fall 1987: 185-93.
"Comment on Findlay & Lumsden, The Creative Mind: Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Discovery and Innovation.” Journal of Social and Biological Structures,
11(1) January 1988: 65-67. Reprinted in book of same title, Academic Press, 1988.
“Chapter I, What is Sociology?” with James T. Teevan In W.E. Hewitt, J. White & J. J. Teevan (Eds.) Introduction to Sociology: A Canadian Focus.
Pearson Education Canada., 2nd (1986) through 10th (2010) revised editions.
“The Sociobiology of Sex and Sexes Today.” Current Anthropology, 25(2) 1984: 193-212.
"Selfish DNA and Differential Parental Investment: Some Implications for Sex Chromosomes.” Journal of Theoretical Biology, 102(4) 1983: 603-610.
“Review of Karen E. and Jeffrey M. Paige, The Politics of Reproductive Ritual.” The Quarterly Review of Biology, 57(3) September 1982: 361-362.
"Evolutionary and Ecological Processes in Marketing: The Product Life Cycle.” in Ronald F. Bush and Shelby D. Hunt (eds.), Marketing Theory: Philosophy of Science Perspectives.
Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1982: 71-74.
"Learning, Social Learning, and Sociocultural Evolutionism: A Comment on Langton.” American Journal of Sociology, 86(6) 1981: 1401-1406.
"Sociocultural Evolutionism: An Untried Theory.” Behavioral Science, 24(1) 1979: 46-59.
“Darwinian Analogues and the Naturalistic Explanation of
Purposivism in Biology, Psychology and the Sociocultural Sciences.” Ph.D.
Thesis,
"Review Symposium on Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology.” Contemporary Sociology, 5(6) November, 1976: 727-731.
“The Growth of Science and Economic Development.” American. Sociological Review, 37(4) August 1972: 455-464.
Last updated May 7, 2013.