ABSTRACT
This chapter elucidates the nature of these peculiarities and their implications for both the understanding and the application of the findings of the (human) social sciences. The second word in the title of this first chapter is crucial. There are fundamental differences between the natural and the human sciences, the latter including the (human) social sciences. These fundamental differences are consequences of the essential peculiarities of that peculiar species of which we are all members: homo sapiens. It is extremely important to get and to keep a firm hold upon the three ideas of agency, choice, and physical necessity. Anyone wondering what these philosophical distinguishings have to do with biology in general and sociobiology in particular may be reminded of the fact that both Darwin and Wallace recorded that it was their reading of Malthus that provided the directive stimulus to their theory construction.
