Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T11:24:23.762Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The miss of the framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2024

Paul E. Smaldino Open the ORCID record for Paul E. Smaldino [Opens in a new window]
Paul E. Smaldino*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA psmaldino@ucmerced.edu https://smaldino.com/ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors rightly critique existing social sciences approaches. However, they are too quick to dismiss the criticism that their proposed paradigm is atheoretical. Social and cognitive theories are indeed incommensurate, often due to the lack of a unifying framework. Without proper integration with theoretical frameworks, their proposal may merely produce a resource-intensive veneer of thoroughness without substantive improvements to understanding.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 47 , 2024 , e59
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Mesoudi, A. (2011). Cultural evolution: How Darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences. University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nettle, D., Gibson, M. A., Lawson, D. W., & Sear, R. (2013). Human behavioral ecology: Current research and future prospects. Behavioral Ecology, 24(5), 1031–1040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, K. R. (1994). The myth of the framework: In defence of science and rationality. Routledge.Google Scholar
Smaldino, P. (2019). Better methods can't make up for mediocre theory. Nature, 575, 9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smaldino, P. E. (2023). Modeling social behavior: Mathematical and agent-based models of social dynamics and cultural evolution. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, E. A., & Winterhalder, B. (1992). Evolutionary ecology and human behavior. Routledge.Google Scholar
von Uexküll, J. (1921). Umwelt und innenwelt der tiere. Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar