The Social Conquest of Earth Author: Edward O. Wilson | Language: English | ISBN:
0871403633 | Format: EPUB
The Social Conquest of Earth Description
New York Times Bestseller
From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson's legendary career.
Sparking vigorous debate in the sciences, The Social Conquest of Earth upends “the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover). Refashioning the story of human evolution, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to demonstrate that group selection, not kin selection, is the premier driving force of human evolution. In a work that James D. Watson calls “a monumental exploration of the biological origins of the human condition,” Wilson explains how our innate drive to belong to a group is both a “great blessing and a terrible curse” (Smithsonian). Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, the renowned Harvard University biologist presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth’s biosphere. 90 illustrations
- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Liveright; 1 edition (April 15, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0871403633
- ISBN-13: 978-0871403636
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
*A full summary of this book is available here: An Executive Summary of Edward O. Wilson's 'The Social Conquest of Earth'
The main argument: Since the dawn of self-awareness we human beings have struggled to understand ourselves. This struggle has found form in religion, philosophy, art and, most recently, science. The most pivotal turning point in science's quest to understand humanity came with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in the mid 19th century. While the application of this theory to understand human behaviour has taken time (and engendered a great deal of controversy), enough progress has now been made to outline the story in full, and to fill in several of the details. It is just this task that legendary biologist E.O. Wilson takes up in his new book `The Social Conquest of Earth'.
For Wilson, understanding humanity must begin with an understanding of how we came to be the ultrasocial species that we are. Drawing upon evidence from other eusocial species (such as bees, wasps, termites and ants--the latter of which Wilson has spent much of his career studying), as well as numerous sciences focused in on humanity and its past, Wilson recreates this story. According to the author, the story reaches its first major turning point when our ancestors began establishing home-bases at which they raised their young, and near which they foraged and scavenged for food.
Wilson offers articulate sober insights into the human condition. We must digest these kinds of observations about ourselves, collectively and pan-culturally, to the point where we are actually empowered by the self-knowledge to do something about them; this seems our only hope to avoid escalating calamities for civilization and the biosphere.
However, Wilson's "revolutionary" views on how we evolved to our current condition are very suspect. This matters: not accurately understanding the basis of our condition in terms of its historical (evolutionary) causes may lessen our ability to navigate toward a real solution.
Therefore, anyone reading this book who is interested in its purported "revolutionary" scientific content, specifically, Wilson's claims that we are better off abandoning William Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory as an important basis for understanding the design of the human psyche, should have easy access to the responses of Dr. Wilson's peers. So, here you go. There are five pieces in the journal Nature, collected under the heading, "Brief Communications Arising,"
Nature v471, issue 7339, pp. E1-E9 (24 March 2011).
These articles are brief and very readable. These pages also include a response by Wilson and his coauthors that, as far as I can see, just ignores all the specific criticisms.
Nature Publishing Group should make the full text of these comments freely available to the public in electronic form, via Nature.com, in my opinion. (I would put up links to the full pdf's myself, but Amazon would probably have to tear them down due to the copyright violation. My server would probably crash too.
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