In The Triumph of Sociobiology, John Alcock reviews the controversy that has surrounded evolutionary studies of human social behavior following the 1975 publication of E.O. Wilson's classic, Sociobiol
This text was published in 1982, when sociobiology was experiencing the rapid expansion typical of a new subject. It did not do so without its critics, who pointed to the logical flaws and empirical problems present in many functional arguments. The authors of this book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored and needed to be developed. These contributions cover a wide array of areas within the field. In many cases they pointed the way to future improvements in practice as well as theory and the book should continue to be of fundamental interest to those involved in any way with the behavioural sciences, population biology, ecology and evolutionary studies.
View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"Harvard University Press is proud to announce the re-release of the complete original version of
This book is about animals and humans - their common features and their gradual and principle differences. It tells of democracy in baboons, prostitution in hummingbirds, bigamy in wrens, baby sitting in jackals, of chimpanzees at the computer console and of the super-ego of dogs - but it is also about the labour productivity of hunter and gatherer peoples, incest avoidance in animals and humans and of the myths about matriarchy. In a language accessible to any interested layman, Georg Breuer, gives a balanced account of the main ideas and achievements of sociobiology and the main criticisms levelled against it. According to him sociobiology has given many a valuable impetus but sometimes presents a distorted or one-sided view. In particular it has not answered or addressed the question of why man, and man only, is able to identify and feel sympathy with any other human being. The evolution of this most human of all traits confers on us the capability for charity and solidarity and for
Communication is essential for all forms of social interaction, from parental care to mate choice and cooperation. This is evident for human societies but less obvious for bacterial biofilms, ant colo
Does evolution inform the ancient debate regarding the roles that reason and instinct play in how we decide what to do? Sociobiologists adopt Darwinism as a premise from which they draw conclusions ab
Communication is essential for all forms of social interaction, from parental care to mate choice and cooperation. This is evident for human societies but less obvious for bacterial biofilms, ant colo
The book has two subjects, first the ethical theory of the economic order, and secondly the critique of sociobiology and its theory of evolution. The first part, the ethics of capitalism, analyzes the
As a theory, sociobiology is opposed to socio-ecology, a discipline hampered since its birth. The indictment of the ideological intentions of the first has obscured the notion that the growing dominat
Fully integrative approach to the socibiology of caviomorph rodents Brings together research on social systems with that on epigenetic, neurendocrine and developmental mechanisms of social behavi
The temptations of a new genetically informed eugenics and of a revived faith-based, world-wide political stance, this study of the interaction of science, religion, politics and the culture of celebr
Much of the evolutionary biology that has grabbed headlines in recent years has sprung from the efforts of sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists to explain sexual features and behavior--even
