E.O. Wilson's Views on Human — and Ant — Social Evolution


	E.O. Wilson's Views on Human — and Ant — Social Evolution

seaj11

7-15-2008 5:49 PM

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tags:

nature, evolution, society, sociology, sociobiology, biology, human

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/1d4a929e-0b46-44f3-bedf-d30ebd0e4cb8/BE2B5499-CAA4-425C-8ECC-7D3D8885EC80/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html?8dpc" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html?8dpc" style="font-size: 11px;">www.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html?8dpc"> It concerns a central feature of evolution, one with considerable bearing on human social behaviors. The issue is the level at which evolution operates. Many evolutionary biologists have been persuaded, by works like  “The Selfish Gene”  by <A title="More articles about Richard Dawkins." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/richard_dawkins/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Richard Dawkins</A>, that the gene is the only level at which natural selection acts. Dr. Wilson, changing his mind because of new data about the <A title="In-depth reference and news articles about Genetics." href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/genetics/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier">genetics</A> of ant colonies, now believes that natural selection operates at many levels, including at the level of a social group. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html?8dpc">It is through multilevel or group-level selection —  favoring the survival of one group of organisms over another —  that evolution has in Dr. Wilson’s view brought into being the many essential genes that benefit the group at the individual’s expense.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/BE2B5499-CAA4-425C-8ECC-7D3D8885EC80/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>