Gerhard Vowinckel, Hamburg:
Biologische, psychologische und soziologische Verhaltenserklärungen und wie sie zusammenhängen am Beispiel der Sexualität
In sexology like anywhere else nativists and culturalists have for decades been in a dispute as sterile as superfluous. The paper differentiates the levels of analysis to which biologists, social scientist and moreover psychologists relate with their respective theories and it shows that seemingly contradictory explanations can be arranged into a consistent and meaningful whole.
About the Author:
He studied sociology, political economy, psychology, and biology at Hamburg university. After his graduation (Dipl.-Soz. 1973) he was part of the team conducting a scientific accompanying study for "Sesame Street". He obtained his Ph. D. in 1978 by developing a "relationship test" as as a pre-language diagnostic instrument for pre-school age children. Since 1976 he worked in various functions at the University of the Armed Forces in Hamburg. His "habilitation" (German post-doctoral university teaching qualification) dealt with the civilization of emotions and their physical expression, combining historic-sociological analysis with approaches of biology and development psychology. In 1983 he was appointed "Privatdozent", in 1998 Associate Professor at Hamburg University. Along this line of biological, psychological, and sociological approaches in analyzing phenomena of social and cultural history he has published extensively on educational ideas, on forms of military organisation, on the evolution of moral concepts, etc. In „Verwandtschaft, Freundschaft und die Gesellschaft der Fremden“ (Kinship, Friendship, and the Society of Strangers, Darmstadt 1995) he systematically ties theories of modern socio-biology to sociological theories and research results. In „Gesinnungstäter und Strategen. Politisch-moralische Denkformen und soziale Lebensräume“ (Acts of Conscience vs. Strategies. Politico-Moral Categories and Social Lebensraum, Konstanz 1996) he takes moral typologies of development psychology (Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg) as starting points for a socio-oecological analysis of political-moral thinking. Verwandtschaft, Freundschaft und die Gesellschaft der Fremden. Grundlagen menschlichen Zusammenlebens. (Kinship, friendship and the society of strangers. Foundations of human social life) Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1995. Gesinnungstäter und Strategen. Politisch-moralische Denkformen und soziale Lebensräume. (The ingenuous and the politics. Moral-political modes of thinking and social environments.) Konstanz: Universitäts-Verlag Konstanz 1996. Biotische, psychische und soziokulturelle Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit und wie sie zusammenhängen. (Biotic, psychic, and socio-cultural construction of reality and how they interrelate.) In Peter M. Hejl (Hg.): „Universalien und Konstruktivismus“. Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp 2001, 257-78 Biotische und kulturelle Evolution: Eigengesetzlichkeit und Interdependenz. (Biotic and cultural evolution: autonomy and interdependence.) In Tamas Meleghy/ Heinz-Jürgen Niedenzu (Hg.): Die Evolutionstheorie und die Sozialwissenschaften. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie Sonderband 7, Westdeutscher V. 2003
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