Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition

By Edward O. Wilson

Book Overview

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 Sociobiology: The New Synthesis--now available in paperback for the first time. When this classic work was first published in 1975, it created a new discipline and started a tumultuous round in the age-old nature versus nurture debate. Although voted by officers and fellows of the international Animal Behavior Society the most important book on animal behavior of all time, Sociobiology is probably more widely known as the object of bitter attacks by social scientists and other scholars who opposed its claim that human social behavior, indeed human nature, has a biological foundation. The controversy surrounding the publication of the book reverberates to the present day.In the introduction to this Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition, Edward O. Wilson shows how research in human genetics and neuroscience has strengthened the case for a biological understanding of human nature. Human sociobiology, now often called evolutionary psychology, has in the last quarter of a century emerged as its own field of study, drawing on theory and data from both biology and the social sciences.For its still fresh and beautifully illustrated descriptions of animal societies, and its importance as a crucial step forward in the understanding of human beings, this anniversary edition of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis will be welcomed by a new generation of students and scholars in all branches of learning.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674000897
• ISBN13: 9780674000896
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
• Length: 720 Pages
• Weight: 4.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

As good as science can be

This book caused a lot of controversy in the 70's because it states that humans are animals and that their societies can be investigated and understood by biology. Apparently since Darwin called humans animals no other scientist had caused such anger among the ones who "think" of themselves as the reason for the existence of the Universe.

Impressive

Wilson really is one of the "twentieth centuries greatest thinkers." This is a dense and demanding publication requiring a scientifically literate audience. It covers basic concepts from altruism, selfishness, and spite; including communication, aggression, social roles, sex, and parenting from "invertebrates" to vertebrates. Now, in 2007, this is really more of a 'classic'. For intro students, I'd first recommend getting your footing with "Animal Behavior" by Alcock, and *then progressing into more technically written publications like this one.

a classic!

I rated it a 5, so theres not much left to say. Its a classic and if you are involved anywhere in the biological sciences you should have this book on your shelf (especially if you want to understand the new papers coming out on biodiversity such as those that challenge the ideas of island biography).

A Welcome Return

This is a classic by the most famous "bugman" in the world, a naturalist in the twentieth century who drew conclusions from the observed behaviour of insects. The original hardcover version was quite expensive, and the abridged version in paperback lacked the full text. This is not a short read, but is absorbing and a "must" for the "everyman" who wishes to learn from the thoughts of a master. I have the original hardcover but am glad that the book will be more widely available and is sure to be something that readers of Wilson's popular books will want to have in their libraries. Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning "On Human Nature" is another book well worth reading for an overview by one of the best American minds of the latter 20th century.