Sociobiology is a synthesis of scientific disciplines which attempts to explain
social behaviorIn biology, psychology and sociology social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
in animal
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
by considering the
DarwinianNeo-Darwinism is a term used today to describe the modern evolutionary synthesis of Darwinian evolution by natural selection with Mendelian genetics, the latter of which Darwin himself had been unaware, but which entails that the mechanism of inheritance in evolution involves the digital,...
advantages specific behaviors may have. It is often considered a branch of
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
and
sociologySociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...
, but also draws from
ethologyEthology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
,
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
,
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
,
zoologyZoology, also spelled zoölogy, is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. The zoologist's pronunciation of "zoology" is , though a common spelling pronunciation is .-Systems of classification:...
,
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
,
population geneticsPopulation genetics is the study of the allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes account of population subdivision and population structure in space. As such, it attempts...
and other disciplines. Within the study of human
societiesSociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
, sociobiology is closely related to the fields of
human behavioral ecologyHuman behavioral ecology or human evolutionary ecology applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimization to the study of human behavioral and cultural diversity. HBE examines the adaptive design of traits, behaviors, and life histories of humans in an ecological context. HBE overlaps...
and
evolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system,...
.
Sociobiology investigates social behaviors, such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects. Just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, it led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior.
Sociobiology has become one of the greatest scientific
controversiesControversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion, but sometimes the allegation that a matter of scientific fact is no better than opinion or even religious belief, as in the controversy between evolutionary biology and Creationism or Intelligent...
of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, especially in the context of explaining
human behaviorHuman behavior is the collection of behaviors exhibited by human beings and influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics....
. Applied to non-humans, sociobiology is uncontroversial. Criticism, most notably made by
Richard LewontinRichard Charles "Dick" Lewontin is an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he pioneered the notion of using techniques from molecular biology such as gel electrophoresis to...
and
Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum...
, centers on sociobiology's contention that
genesGênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa. It was divided into the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
play an ultimate role in human behavior and that
traitsIn psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over...
such as aggressiveness can be explained by biology rather than a person's social environment. Many sociobiologists, however, cite a complex relationship between nature and nurture. In response to the controversy, anthropologist
John ToobyJohn Tooby is an American anthropologist, who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology....
and psychologist
Leda CosmidesLeda Cosmides, is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, helped develop the field of evolutionary psychology....
launched
evolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system,...
as a branch of sociobiology made less controversial by avoiding questions of human biodiversity.
Definition
Sociobiology is based on the premise that some behaviors (both social and individual) are at least partly inherited and can be affected by
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
. It begins with the idea that behaviors have evolved over time, similar to the way that physical traits are thought to have evolved. It predicts therefore that animals will act in ways that have proven to be evolutionarily successful over time, which can among other things result in the formation of complex social processes conducive to evolutionary fitness.
The discipline seeks to explain behavior as a product of natural selection. Behavior is therefore seen as an effort to preserve one's genes in the population. Inherent in sociobiological reasoning is the idea that certain genes or gene combinations that influence particular behavioral traits can be
inheritedHeredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause a species to evolve...
from generation to generation.
Introductory examples
For example, newly dominant male lions often will kill cubs in the pride that were not sired by them. This behaviour is adaptive in evolutionary terms because killing the cubs eliminates competition for their own offspring and causes the nursing females to come into heat faster, thus allowing more of his genes to enter into the population. Sociobiologists would view this instinctual cub-killing behavior as being inherited through the genes of successfully reproducing male lions, whereas non-killing behaviour may have "died out" as those lions were less successful in reproducing.
Genetic mouse mutants have now been harnessed to illustrate the power that genes exert on behaviour. For example, the transcription factor FEV (aka Pet1) has been shown, through its role in maintaining the serotonergic system in the brain, to be required for normal aggressive and anxiety-like behavior. Thus, when FEV is genetically deleted from the mouse genome, male mice will instantly attack other males, whereas their wild-type counterparts take significantly longer to initiate violent behaviour. In addition, FEV has been shown to be required for correct maternal behaviour in mice, such that their offspring do not survive unless cross-fostered to other wild-type female mice
A genetic basis for instinctive behavioural traits among non-human species, such as in the above example, is commonly accepted among many biologists; however, attempting to use a genetic basis to explain complex behaviours in human societies has remained extremely controversial.
History
According to the OED, John Paul Scott coined the word "sociobiology" at a 1946 conference on genetics and social behaviour, and became widely used after it was popularized by
Edward O. WilsonEdward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher , theorist , naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, a branch of entomology....
in his 1975 book,
Sociobiology: The New SynthesisSociobiology: The New Synthesis is a book written by E. O. Wilson, which started the sociobiology debate, one of the great scientific controversies in biology of the 20th century...
. However, the influence of evolution on behavior has been of interest to biologists and philosophers since soon after the discovery of the evolution itself.
Peter KropotkinPeter Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a geographer, a zoologist, and one of Russia's foremost anarchists. One of the first advocates of anarchist communism, Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government. Because of his title of prince, he was known by some as "the Anarchist...
's
Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionMutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin on the subject of mutual aid, written while he was living in exile in England. It was first published by William Heinemann in London in October 1902...
, written in the early 1890s, is a popular example. Antecedents of modern sociobiological thinking can be traced to the 1960s and the work of such biologists as
Robert TriversRobert L. Trivers is an American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist, most noted for proposing the theories of reciprocal altruism , parental investment , and parent-offspring conflict...
and William D. Hamilton.
Nonetheless, it was Wilson's book that pioneered and popularized the attempt to explain the evolutionary mechanics behind social behaviors such as
altruismAltruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Sikhism, and many others. Also, altruism is a key aspect of many...
,
aggressionIn psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause pain or harm. Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species is not normally considered "aggression." Aggression takes a...
, and nurturence, primarily in ants (Wilson's own research specialty) but also in other animals. The final chapter of the book is devoted to sociobiological explanations of human behavior, and Wilson later wrote a
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
winning book,
On Human NatureOn Human Nature is a 1979 Pulitzer prize
-winning book by the Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson. The book tries to explain how different characteristics of humans and society can be explained from the point of evolution...
, that addressed human behavior specifically.
Sociobiological theory
Sociobiologists believe that
human behaviorHuman nature is the concept that there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that all 'normal' humans have in common. The branches of science associated with the study of human nature include sociology, sociobiology and psychology, particularly...
, as well as nonhuman animal behavior, can be partly explained as the outcome of natural selection. They contend that in order fully to understand behavior, it must be analyzed in terms of evolutionary considerations.
Natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
is fundamental to evolutionary theory. Variants of hereditary traits which increase an organism's ability to survive and reproduce will be more greatly represented in subsequent generations, i.e., they will be "selected for". Thus, inherited behavioral mechanisms that allowed an
organismIn biology, an organism is any living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole...
a greater chance of surviving and/or reproducing in the past are more likely to survive in present organisms. That inherited adaptive behaviors are present in nonhuman
animal speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
has been multiply demonstrated by biologists, and it has become a foundation of evolutionary biology. However, there is continued resistance by some researchers over the application of evolutionary models to humans, particularly from within the social sciences, where culture has long been assumed to be the predominant driver of behavior.
Sociobiology is based upon two fundamental premises:
- Certain behavioral traits are inherited,
- Inherited behavioral traits have been honed by natural selection. Therefore, these traits were probably "adaptive" in the species` evolutionarily evolved environment.
Sociobiology uses
Nikolaas TinbergenNikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.In the 1960s he...
's
four categories of questionsWhen asked questions of animal and human behavior such as why these creatures see, even elementary school children can answer that vision helps them find food and avoid danger. Biologists have three additional explanations: A particular series of evolutionary steps are the cause of sight, the...
and explanations of animal behavior. Two categories are at the species level; two, at the individual level. The species-level categories (often called “ultimate explanations”) are
- the function (i.e., adaptation
Adaptation is the process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology....
) that a behavior serves and
- the evolutionary process (i.e., phylogeny) that resulted in this functionality.
The individual-level categories (often called “proximate explanations”) are
- the development of the individual (i.e., ontogeny) and
- the proximate mechanism (e.g., brain anatomy and hormones).
Sociobiologists are interested in how behavior can be explained logically as a result of selective pressures in the history of a species. Thus, they are often interested in
instinctInstinct is the inborn complex behavior of a living organism that is not learned. Since the 1910 NY Times article , most scientific journals consider the term outdated although it remains popular among the general public and a number of scientists...
ive, or
intuitiveIntuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. “The word ‘intuition’ comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ‘to look inside’ or ‘to contemplate’." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily...
behavior, and in explaining the similarities, rather than the differences, between cultures. For example, mothers within many species of mammals – including humans – are very protective of their
offspringIn biology, offspring is the product of reproduction, a new organism produced by one or more parents.Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way...
. Sociobiologists reason that this protective behavior likely evolved over time because it helped those individuals which had the characteristic to survive and reproduce. Over time, individuals who exhibited such protective behaviours would have had more surviving offspring than did those who did not display such behaviours, such that this parental protection would increase in frequency in the population. In this way, the social behavior is believed to have evolved in a fashion similar to other types of nonbehavioral
adaptationAdaptation is the process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology....
s, such as (for example) fur or the sense of smell.
Individual genetic advantage often fails to explain certain social behaviors as a result of gene-centred selection, and evolution may also act upon groups. The mechanisms responsible for group selection employ paradigms and population statistics borrowed from
game theoryGame theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences, most notably in economics, as well as in biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy...
. E.O. Wilson argued that altruistic individuals must reproduce their own altruistic genetic traits for altruism to survive. When altruists lavish their resources on non-altruists at the expense of their own kind, the altruists tend to die out and the others tend to grow. In other words, altruism is more likely to survive if altruists practice the ethic that "charity begins at home."
Within sociobiology, a social behavior is first explained as a sociobiological
hypothesisA hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι - hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose." For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
by finding an
evolutionarily stable strategyIn game theory and behavioural ecology, an evolutionarily stable strategy is a strategy which, if adopted by a population of players, cannot be invaded by any alternative strategy that is initially rare...
that matches the observed behavior. Stability of a strategy can be difficult to prove, but usually, a well-formed strategy will predict gene frequencies. The hypothesis can be supported by establishing a correlation between the gene frequencies predicted by the strategy, and those expressed in a population. Measurement of genes and gene-frequencies can be problematic, however, because a simple statistical correlation can be open to charges of
circularityCircularity can mean:*Begging the question, i.e., circular logic*Circular definition*A circularity ratio as a compactness measure of a shape*An assumption of ANOVAs with repeated-measures. It denotes the homogeneity of the variances of difference values between the conditions. It is often also...
(
CircularityCircularity can mean:*Begging the question, i.e., circular logic*Circular definition*A circularity ratio as a compactness measure of a shape*An assumption of ANOVAs with repeated-measures. It denotes the homogeneity of the variances of difference values between the conditions. It is often also...
can occur if the measurement of gene frequency indirectly uses the same measurements that describe the strategy).
Altruism between social insects and littermates has been explained in such a way. Altruistic behavior in some animals has been correlated to the degree of
genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
shared between altruistic individuals. A quantitative description of
infanticideInfanticide is the practice of someone intentionally killing an infant. Often it is the mother who commits the act, but criminology recognizes various forms of non-maternal child murder. In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
by male harem-mating animals when the alpha male is displaced as well as
rodentRodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
female infanticide and fetal resorption are active areas of study. In general, females with more bearing opportunities may value offspring less, and may also arrange bearing opportunities to maximize the
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
and protection from mates.
An important concept in sociobiology is that temperamental traits within a gene pool and between gene pools exist in an ecological balance. Just as an expansion of a sheep population might encourage the expansion of a wolf population, an expansion of altruistic traits within a gene pool may also encourage the expansion of individuals with dependent traits.
Sociobiology is sometimes associated with arguments over the "genetic" basis of intelligence. While sociobiology is predicated on the observation that genes do affect behavior, it is perfectly consistent to be a sociobiologist while arguing that measured IQ variations between individuals reflect mainly cultural or economic rather than genetic factors. However, many critics point out that the usefulness of sociobiology as an explanatory tool breaks down once a trait is so variable as to no longer be exposed to selective pressures. In order to explain aspects of human intelligence as the outcome of selective pressures, it must be demonstrated that those aspects are inherited, or genetic, but this does not necessarily imply differences among individuals: a common genetic inheritance could be shared by
all humans, just as the genes responsible for number of limbs are shared by all individuals. An even more sensitive subject is
race and intelligenceThe potential correlation between race and intelligence is the subject of oftentimes controversial research and ongoing debate. Intelligence quotient tests regularly demonstrate statistically significant differences in the average scores of various racial and ethnic groups, though no consensus...
.
Researchers performing
twinTwins are two offspring resulting from the same pregnancy, usually born in close succession. They can be the same or different sex. Twins can either be monozygotic or dizygotic ....
studies have argued that differences between people on behavioral traits such as
creativityCreativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight...
, extroversion and aggressiveness are between 45% to 75% due to genetic differences, and intelligence is said by some to be about 80% genetic after one matures (discussed at Intelligence quotient#Genetics vs environment). However, critics (such as the evolutionary geneticist R. C Lewontin) have highlighted serious flaws in twin studies, such as the inability of researchers to separate environmental, genetic, and dialectic effects on twins.
CriminalityCrime is the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some governing authority, via mechanisms such as police power, may ultimately prescribe a conviction...
is actively under study, but extremely controversial. There are arguments that in some environments criminal behavior might be adaptive.
Criticism
Many critics draw an intellectual link between sociobiology and
biological determinismBiological determinism is the interpretation of humans and human life from a strictly biological point of view, and it is closely related to genetic determinism...
, the belief that most human differences can be traced to specific genes rather than differences in culture or social environments. Critics also draw parallels between biological determinism as an underlying philosophy to the
social DarwinianSocial Darwinism refers to various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas drives social evolution in human societies....
and eugenics movements of the early 20th century, and the
controversy over IQ test controversyThe potential correlation between race and intelligence is the subject of oftentimes controversial research and ongoing debate. Intelligence quotient tests regularly demonstrate statistically significant differences in the average scores of various racial and ethnic groups, though no consensus...
.
Steven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science...
argues that critics have been overly swayed by politics and a "fear" of biological determinism. However, all these critics have claimed that sociobiology fails on scientific grounds, independent of their political critiques. In particular, Lewontin, Rose & Kamin drew a detailed distinction between the politics and history of an idea and its scientific validity, as has Stephen Jay Gould.
Wilson and his supporters counter the intellectual link by denying that Wilson had a political agenda, still less a right-wing one. They pointed out that Wilson had personally adopted a number of liberal political stances and had attracted progressive sympathy for his outspoken
environmentalismEnvironmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the state of the environment...
. They argued that as scientists they had a duty to uncover the truth whether that was
politically correctPolitically Correct may refer to:*Political correctness, language, ideas, policies, or behaviour seeking to minimize offence to groups of people-See also:*Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, book by James Finn Garner, published in 1994...
or not. They argued that sociobiology does not necessarily lead to any particular political
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
as many critics implied. Many subsequent sociobiologists, including
Robert WrightRobert Wright is an American journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author of best-selling books about science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory, including The Evolution of God, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, The Moral Animal, and Three Scientists and Their Gods:...
,
Anne CampbellAnne Campbell is an English politician. She was the Labour member of Parliament for Cambridge from 1992 to 2005.-Early life:She went to Newnham College, Cambridge, taking the Maths Tripos, and gaining an MA in 1965....
,
Frans de WaalFrans B.M. de Waal, PhD , is a Dutch psychologist, primatologist and ethologist. He is the Charles Howard Candler professor of Primate Behavior in the Emory University psychology department in Atlanta, Georgia, and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center...
and
Sarah Blaffer HrdySarah Hrdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist who has made several major contributions to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology.-Early life:...
, have used sociobiology to argue quite separate points.
Noam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as...
came to the defense of sociobiology's methodology, noting that it was the same methodology he used in his work on linguistics. However, he roundly criticized the sociobiologists' actual conclusions about humans as lacking substance. He also noted that the anarchist
Peter KropotkinPeter Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a geographer, a zoologist, and one of Russia's foremost anarchists. One of the first advocates of anarchist communism, Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government. Because of his title of prince, he was known by some as "the Anarchist...
had made similar arguments in his book
Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionMutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a book by Peter Kropotkin on the subject of mutual aid, written while he was living in exile in England. It was first published by William Heinemann in London in October 1902...
, although focusing more on altruism than aggression, suggesting that anarchist societies were feasible because of an innate human tendency to cooperate.
Wilson's claims that he had never meant to imply what
ought to be, only what
is the case are supported by his writings, which are descriptive, not prescriptive. However, many critics have pointed out that the language of sociobiology often slips from "is" to "ought", leading sociobiologists to make arguments against social reform on the basis that socially progressive societies are at odds with our innermost nature. For example, some groups have supported positions of
ethnic nepotismEthnic nepotism describes a human tendency for in-group bias or in-group favouritism applied on the ethnic level. It was coined by sociologist Pierre L...
. Views such as this, however, are often criticized as examples of the
naturalistic fallacyThe naturalistic fallacy is often claimed to be a formal fallacy. It was described and named by British philosopher G. E. Moore in his 1903 book Principia Ethica...
, when reasoning jumps from descriptions about what
is to prescriptions about what
ought to be. (A common example is the justification of
militarismMilitarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
if scientific evidence showed warfare was part of human nature.) It has also been argued that opposition to stances considered anti-social, such as ethnic nepotism, are based on
moralMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
assumptions, not
bioscientificBioScience is the flagship publication of the American Institute of Biological Sciences . It is a peer-reviewed, heavily cited, monthly science journal with content written and edited for accessibility to researchers, educators, and students alike...
assumptions, meaning that it is not vulnerable to being disproved by bioscientific advances. The history of this debate, and others related to it, are covered in detail by Cronin (1992), Segerstråle (2000) and Alcock (2001). Adaptationists such as
Steven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science...
have also suggested that the debate has a strong
ad hominemAn ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem is an argument which links the validity of a premise to a characteristic or belief of a person advocating the premise....
component.
See also
Concepts:
- Cultural selection theory
Cultural selection theory is a scientific discipline that explores sociological and cultural evolution the same way that Darwinian selection theory is used to explain biological evolution....
- Dual inheritance theory
Dual Inheritance Theory , also known as Gene-Culture Coevolution, was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution...
- Ethics and evolutionary psychology
- Evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system,...
- Evolutionary developmental psychology
Evolutionary developmental psychology, , is the application of the basic principles of Darwinian evolution, particularly natural selection, to explain contemporary human development...
- Human behavioral ecology
Human behavioral ecology or human evolutionary ecology applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimization to the study of human behavioral and cultural diversity. HBE examines the adaptive design of traits, behaviors, and life histories of humans in an ecological context. HBE overlaps...
- Iterated prisoner's dilemma
- Kin selection
Some organisms tend to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives, even at a cost to their own survival and/or reproduction. The classic example is a eusocial insect colony, with sterile females acting as workers to assist their mother in the production of additional...
- Prisoner's dilemma
The prisoner's dilemma constitutes a problem in game theory. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W...
- Social evolution
Social evolution is a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that is concerned with social behaviours, i.e. those that have fitness consequences for individuals other than the actor...
- Sociophysiology
Sociophysiology is the “interplay between society and physical functioning” involving “collaboration of two neighboring sciences: physiology and sociology”...
- Evolutionary ethics
Evolutionary ethics concerns approaches to ethics based on the role of evolution in shaping human psychology and behavior. Such approaches may be based in scientific fields such as evolutionary psychology or sociobiology, with a focus on understanding and explaining observed ethical preferences...
Well-known sociobiologists:
- Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL is a British ethologist, zoologist, Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist and theorist and a popular science author....
- Edward O. Wilson
- W. D. Hamilton
William Donald Hamilton FRS aka Bill Hamilton was a British evolutionary biologist whom Richard Dawkins praised as one of the greatest evolutionary theorists of the 20th century....
- Robert Trivers
Robert L. Trivers is an American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist, most noted for proposing the theories of reciprocal altruism , parental investment , and parent-offspring conflict...
- George C. Williams
Professor George Christopher Williams is an American evolutionary biologist.Williams is a professor emeritus of biology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is best known for his vigorous critique of group selection. The work of Williams in this area, along with W. D...
- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Sarah Hrdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist who has made several major contributions to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology.-Early life:...
- Richard Machalek
Richard Machalek is a social theorist, sociobiologist, and professor of sociology.A student and colleague of sociobiologist E.O...
- Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science...
- Francois Nielsen
Books:
- Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is a book written by E. O. Wilson, which started the sociobiology debate, one of the great scientific controversies in biology of the 20th century...
by E. O. WilsonEdward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher , theorist , naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, a branch of entomology....
, 1975
- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences. Pinker argues that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations...
by Steven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science...
- The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene is a book on evolution by Richard Dawkins, published in 1976. It builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's first book Adaptation and Natural Selection...
by Richard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL is a British ethologist, zoologist, Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist and theorist and a popular science author....
- Biology, Ideology and Human Nature: Not In Our Genes
Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature is a 1984 book authored by evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, neurobiologist Steven Rose and psychologist Leon J...
by Richard LewontinRichard Charles "Dick" Lewontin is an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he pioneered the notion of using techniques from molecular biology such as gel electrophoresis to...
, Steven RoseSteven P. Rose is a Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and University of London. Rose studied biochemistry at King's College, Cambridge, and neurobiology at Cambridge and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London...
& Leon KaminLeon J. Kamin is an American psychologist who chaired Princeton University's Department of Psychology in 1968....
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