Description
Book SynopsisWhen this classic was first published in 1975, it created a new discipline and started a tumultuous round in the nature versus nurture debate. In the introduction to this edition, Wilson shows how research in human genetics and neuroscience over the past quarter of a century has strengthened the case for a biological understanding of human nature.
Trade ReviewIt is impossible to leave Wilson’s book without having one’s sense of life permanently and dramatically widened. -- Fred Hapgood * The Atlantic *
Rarely has the world been provided with such a splendid stepping stone for an exciting future of a new science. -- John Tyler Bonner * Scientific American *
This book enthralls and enchants… If you have this book… you can begin getting your mind ready for the illuminations about human society. -- Lewis Thomas * Harper’s *
Sociobiology is an excellent book, full of extraordinary insights, and replete with the beauty and poetry of the animal kingdom. * Times Literary Supplement *
Its contents do indeed provide a new synthesis, of wide perspective and great authority… Wilson’s plain uncluttered prose is a treat to read, his logic is rigorous, his arguments are lucid. -- V. C. Wymne-Edwards * Nature *
Sociobiology explores the possibility that animal social behaviour—group living, kinship, attraction and mating, reciprocity and sharing, cooperation, conflict, and cheating, to name just the most familiar—has a genetic basis and can be shaped by natural selection: genes can be shaped by natural selection: genes can code for social behaviours in the same way that they code for body parts such as hands, hooves, eyes, antlers and ears. But, in an audacious final chapter, Wilson extended the analysis to humans: biology had grabbed our kinship, cooperation, mate preferences and the rest. Some branded Wilson and his ideas fascist, others as racist or guilty of genetic determinism. They are none of these things and, two Pulitzer Prizes later, Wilson has been vindicated… Wilson’s
Sociobiology laid the foundations for a lifetime of meditations. -- Mark Pagel * Times Higher Education Supplement *
A towering theoretical achievement of exceptional elegance… Like most great books,
Sociobiology is unpedantic, lucid, and eminently accessible. -- Pierre L. van den Berghe * Contemporary Sociology *
Sociobiology, a new concept, is one with extraordinary potential value for understanding and explaining human behavior. * Practical Psychology *
This book will stand as a landmark in the comparative study of social behavior. * Quarterly Review of Biology *
It’s been 25 years since E. O. Wilson wrote
Sociobiology, naming a new science and starting it off with a bang—and a firestorm of protest. ‘Nurture!’ and ‘Nature!’ came the cries from every corner of the academic world, as the book became a
causus belli for sociologists, feminists, human geneticists, and psychologists. -- Mary Ellen Curtin * Amazon.com *
Table of Contents* Part I. Social Evolution *1. The Morality of the Gene *2. Elementary Concepts of Sociobiology *3. The Prime Movers of Social Evolution *4. The Relevant Principles of Population Biology *5. Group Selection and Altruism *6. Group Size, Reproduction, and Time-Energy Budgets * Part II. Social Mechanisms *7. The Development and Modification of Social Behavior *8. Communication: Basic Principles *9. Communication: Functions and Complex Systems *10. Communication: Origins and Evolution *11. Aggression *12. Social Spacing, Including Territory *13. Dominance Systems *14. Roles and Castes *15. Sex and Society *16. Paternal Care *17. Social Symbioses * Part III. The Social Species *18. The Four Pinnacles of Social Evolution *19. The Colonial Microorganisms and Invertebrates *20. The Social Insects *21. The Cold-Blooded Vertebrates *22. The Birds *23. Evolutionary Trends within the Mammals *24. The Ungulates and Elephants *25. The Carnivores *26. The Nonhuman Primates *27. Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology * Glossary * Bibliography * Index
