Endeavour. 2005 Mar;29(1):43-7.
The rise, fall and resurrection of group selection.
Borrello ME.
The changing fate of group selection theory illustrates nicely the importance of studying the history of science. It was Charles Darwin that first used something like group selection to explain how natural selection could give rise to altruistic behavior and moral instinct. These instincts could be accommodated by his theory of evolution, he argued, if they had evolved 'for the good of the community'. By the 1960s, group selection had a new and vocal advocate in V.C. Wynne-Edwards. But this gave critics of the theory that selection might act on groups, rather than at the level of individuals or genes, a definable target, and from the mid-1960s to the 1980s group selection was considered the archetypal example of flawed evolutionary thinking. However, at the end of the 20th century ideas of group selection re-emerged as an important component of a multilevel theory of evolution.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN 55108, USA. borrello@umn.edu
Ann Hum Biol. 2000 May-Jun;27(3):221-37.
Biological adaptation and social behaviour.
Crognier E.
In 1930, both Fisher and Wright identified Darwin's initial concept of adaptive evolution in the light of the genetical theory with intergenerational variation in allelic frequencies brought about by the action of natural selection through differential reproduction. They emphasized that selection only works at the level of the individual and that its only consequence is to increase fitness. One genetical evolution not easy to explain on these bases was that of social behaviour because any altruistic gene disadvantageous for its carriers in an antisocial environment would have been opposed by selection. In the 1950s, ethologists focusing on what appeared to be evolved collective behaviours, hypothesized that selection could operate at group level. Though the controversy between group selectionists and evolutionary geneticists ended by the rejection of the evolutionary role of group selection, it has remained a subject of investigation until now. Kin selection, proposed by Hamilton, offered a solution to the problem of the evolution of altruism and gave the impetus to the trend of adaptive explanations of basic behaviours, which was to become the core of human sociobiology. The intrusion of behaviour into the process of adaptive evolution was an invitation to investigate culture as an evolutive process. The first sociobiological interpretations of culture as a derivative of genetic processes were followed by other ideas in which culture, though channelled by evolved predispositions, was essentially free from biological determinism. It is concluded that as we have come to better understand human adaptation, its complexities have been further revealed, a development already implicit in Darwin's notion.
UMR 6578, CNRS and Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine Secteur Centre, Marseille, France.
Nature. 1978 Aug 31;274(5674):849-55.
Selfish genes, evolutionary games, and the adaptiveness of behaviour.
Parker GA.
The science of sociobiology, which began in principle with the work of Fisher and Haldane and has more recently been developed by Hamilton, Maynard Smith, Trivers, Wilson and others, has been the centre of both scientific and political controversy. Dr Parker discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and illustrates that behaviour can be adapted in a complex way in conformity with sociobiological theory.
The rise, fall and resurrection of group selection.
Borrello ME.
The changing fate of group selection theory illustrates nicely the importance of studying the history of science. It was Charles Darwin that first used something like group selection to explain how natural selection could give rise to altruistic behavior and moral instinct. These instincts could be accommodated by his theory of evolution, he argued, if they had evolved 'for the good of the community'. By the 1960s, group selection had a new and vocal advocate in V.C. Wynne-Edwards. But this gave critics of the theory that selection might act on groups, rather than at the level of individuals or genes, a definable target, and from the mid-1960s to the 1980s group selection was considered the archetypal example of flawed evolutionary thinking. However, at the end of the 20th century ideas of group selection re-emerged as an important component of a multilevel theory of evolution.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN 55108, USA. borrello@umn.edu
Ann Hum Biol. 2000 May-Jun;27(3):221-37.
Biological adaptation and social behaviour.
Crognier E.
In 1930, both Fisher and Wright identified Darwin's initial concept of adaptive evolution in the light of the genetical theory with intergenerational variation in allelic frequencies brought about by the action of natural selection through differential reproduction. They emphasized that selection only works at the level of the individual and that its only consequence is to increase fitness. One genetical evolution not easy to explain on these bases was that of social behaviour because any altruistic gene disadvantageous for its carriers in an antisocial environment would have been opposed by selection. In the 1950s, ethologists focusing on what appeared to be evolved collective behaviours, hypothesized that selection could operate at group level. Though the controversy between group selectionists and evolutionary geneticists ended by the rejection of the evolutionary role of group selection, it has remained a subject of investigation until now. Kin selection, proposed by Hamilton, offered a solution to the problem of the evolution of altruism and gave the impetus to the trend of adaptive explanations of basic behaviours, which was to become the core of human sociobiology. The intrusion of behaviour into the process of adaptive evolution was an invitation to investigate culture as an evolutive process. The first sociobiological interpretations of culture as a derivative of genetic processes were followed by other ideas in which culture, though channelled by evolved predispositions, was essentially free from biological determinism. It is concluded that as we have come to better understand human adaptation, its complexities have been further revealed, a development already implicit in Darwin's notion.
UMR 6578, CNRS and Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine Secteur Centre, Marseille, France.
Nature. 1978 Aug 31;274(5674):849-55.
Selfish genes, evolutionary games, and the adaptiveness of behaviour.
Parker GA.
The science of sociobiology, which began in principle with the work of Fisher and Haldane and has more recently been developed by Hamilton, Maynard Smith, Trivers, Wilson and others, has been the centre of both scientific and political controversy. Dr Parker discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and illustrates that behaviour can be adapted in a complex way in conformity with sociobiological theory.
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