The Biosociology of the Social Self

Abstract

In sociology today, a consensus exists that the human self is exclusively socially determined. Many sociologists maintain that any considerations of the biological basis of human behavior are irrelevant. The arguments which are made today in favor of the social determination of the human personality use the theoretical insights of the Pragmatists and Symbolic Interactionists as their source of reference and proof. All of the various Pragmatic and Symbolic Interactionist theories use a number of assumptions about the biologically innate nature of human nature. To show that the theories which have presented a social deterministic view of man are themselves deeply immersed in biological assumptions demonstrates that the irrelevance of biological factors as determinants of the human self has not been convincingly proved yet. Also it suggests the possibility that theories dealing with man's social nature and those concerned with innate species-specific characteristics may not necessarily be mutually exclusive.