Juan, Salvador
Utilitarianism of Sociobiology and Somatic Individualism of Utilitarianism
- 2020.
14
In 1976, Marshall Sahlins showed the utilitarian lineage that founded sociobiology, as well as the great cultural movement of anthropomorphic rapprochement between animality and humanity, while denouncing the language analogies proposed by Wilson; it is obvious that, from the 1990s to today, the future has given him ample reason. As he already wrote at that time, the anthropomorphic tendency of sociobiology involves the use of terms such as castes, slaves, despots, cultural innovations, agriculture, taxes, etc., to describe animal practices. The current reality goes far beyond his prophecies; this is precisely what seems interesting for us to show in this article. After a brief reminder of the status of nature and animals among the founders of utilitarianism and the authors that this paradigm will influence, we present various current works which, according to Sahlins' highly relevant formula, transmute social altruism into genetic egoism. Finally, we plunge into the recent controversies that individualism raises in opposition to the Durkheimian and Bourdieusian approaches, while showing its support for a neo-naturalist perspective.