<![CDATA[Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition]]>

false <![CDATA[Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172521072m/183819.jpg 183819 5 E.O. Wilson defines sociobiology as "the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior," the central theoretical problem of which is the question of how behaviors that seemingly contradict the principles of natural selection, such as altruism, can develop. Sociobiology: A New Synthesis, Wilson's first attempt to outline the new field of study, was first published in 1975 and called for a fairly revolutionary update to the so-called Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. Sociobiology as a new field of study demanded the active inclusion of sociology, the social sciences, and the humanities in evolutionary theory. Often criticized for its apparent message of "biological destiny," Sociobiology set the stage for such controversial works as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene and Wilson's own Consilience. Sociobiology defines such concepts as society, individual, population, communication, and regulation. It attempts to explain, biologically, why groups of animals behave the way they do when finding food or shelter, confronting enemies, or getting along with one another. Wilson seeks to explain how group selection, altruism, hierarchies, and sexual selection work in populations of animals, and to identify evolutionary trends and sociobiological characteristics of all animal groups, up to and including man. The insect sections of the books are particularly interesting, given Wilson's status as the world's most famous entomologist. <blockquote>It is fair to say that as an ecological strategy eusociality has been overwhelmingly successful. It is useful to think of an insect colony as a diffuse organism, weighing anywhere from less than a gram to as much as a kilogram and possessing from about a hundred to a million or more tiny mouths.</blockquote> It's when Wilson starts talking about human beings that the furor starts. Feminists have been among the strongest critics of the work, arguing that humans are not slaves to a biological destiny, forever locked in "primitive" behavior patterns without the ability to reason past our biochemical nature. Like The Origin of Species, Sociobiology has forced many biologists and social scientists to reassess their most cherished notions of how life works. --Therese Littleton 177649 1975 Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition total:57|5:18|4:25|3:10|2:4|1:0| 57 228 153 8 4 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 18 06:59:12 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 11 10:12:52 -0700 2009
I imagine that this book is to modern animal beha...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Oct 26 06:23:10 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 06:24:07 -0700 2009 Consilience The Unity of Knowledge instead for the same conclusions though less data]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jan 12 19:39:26 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 12 19:43:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Aug 17 14:27:38 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 14:27:46 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Wed May 21 10:19:42 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 10:44:53 -0700 2008 Lord of the Ants program on NOVA.]]> 0 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1993 Fri Aug 10 11:27:51 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 11:27:51 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Tue Jun 26 18:48:52 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 26 18:48:52 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Mar 15 14:01:40 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 15 14:07:51 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Fri Nov 20 02:46:24 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 02:46:25 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Nov 01 06:09:59 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 06:09:59 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 15:11:20 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 15:11:20 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Oct 19 10:56:06 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 10:56:06 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 10 13:23:20 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 13:23:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 06 14:38:12 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 14:38:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 03 09:42:56 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 09:43:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 02 07:22:44 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 07:22:44 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Sep 12 09:01:06 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 09:01:06 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Sep 10 18:10:42 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 18:10:42 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 26 06:14:59 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 03:48:53 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 19 22:08:50 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 22:08:50 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=183819