‘From Man to Bacteria’: W.D. Hamilton, the theory of inclusive fitness, and the post-war social order

Swenson, Sarah A.

doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.12.001

Cited by 5 publications

References 36 publications

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“It Felt More like a Revolution.” How Behavioral Ecology Succeeded Ethology, 1970–1990

Stuhrmann¹

2022

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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As soon as ethology's status diminished in the early 1970s, it was confronted with two successor disciplines, sociobiology and behavioral ecology. They were able to challenge ethology because it no longer provided markers of strong disciplinarity such as theoretical coherence, leading figures and a clear identity. While behavioral ecology developed organically out of the UK ethological research community into its own disciplinary standing, sociobiology presented itself as a US competitor to the ethological tradition. I will show how behavioral ecology took the role of legitimate heir to ethology by rebuilding a theoretical core and an intellectual sense of community, while sociobiology failed to use its public appeal to reach disciplinary status. Meanwhile, ethology changed its disciplinary identity to encompass all biological studies of animal behavior.

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“It Felt More like a Revolution.” How Behavioral Ecology Succeeded Ethology, 1970–1990

Stuhrmann¹

2022

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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“How complex and even perverse the real world can be”: W.D. Hamilton's early work on social wasps (1964–1968)

Caniglia

2017

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in

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‘Morals can not be drawn from facts but guidance may be’: the early life of W.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness

Swenson

2015

Br J Hist Sci

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W.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness saw the evolution of altruism from the point of view of the gene. It was at heart a theory of limits, redefining altruistic behaviours as ultimately selfish. This theory inspired two controversial texts published almost in tandem, E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) and Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (1976). When Wilson and Dawkins were attacked for their evolutionary interpretations of human societies, they claimed a distinction between reporting what is and declaring what ought to be. Can the history of sociobiological theories be so easily separated from its sociopolitical context? This paper draws upon unpublished materials from the 1960s and early 1970s and documents some of the ways in which Hamilton saw his research as contributing to contemporary concerns. It pays special attention to the 1969 Man and Beast Smithsonian Institution symposium in order to explore the extent to which Hamilton intended his theory to be merely descriptive versus prescriptive. From this, we may see that Hamilton was deeply concerned about the political chaos he perceived in the world around him, and hoped to arrive at a level of self-understanding through science that could inform a new social order.

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‘From Man to Bacteria’: W.D. Hamilton, the theory of inclusive fitness, and the post-war social order

Cited by 5 publications

References 36 publications

“It Felt More like a Revolution.” How Behavioral Ecology Succeeded Ethology, 1970–1990

“It Felt More like a Revolution.” How Behavioral Ecology Succeeded Ethology, 1970–1990

“How complex and even perverse the real world can be”: W.D. Hamilton's early work on social wasps (1964–1968)

‘Morals can not be drawn from facts but guidance may be’: the early life of W.D. Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness

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