Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of the Social and Conceptual Development of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series)

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Applies evolutionary models to the cultural and conceptual change of intellectual communities. Essential reading for anyone interested in how ideas evolve, and how best to describe these processes rigorously.

Book Description

"Legend is overdue for replacement, and an adequate replacement must attend to the process of science as carefully as Hull has done. I share his vision of a serious account of the social and intellectual dynamics of science that will avoid both the rosy blur of Legend and the facile charms of relativism. . . . Because of [Hull's] deep concern with the ways in which research is actually done, Science as a Process begins an important project in the study of science. It is one of a distinguished series of books, which Hull himself edits."—Philip Kitcher, Nature

"In Science as a Process, [David Hull] argues that the tension between cooperation and competition is exactly what makes science so successful. . . . Hull takes an unusual approach to his subject. He applies the rules of evolution in nature to the evolution of science, arguing that the same kinds of forces responsible for shaping the rise and demise of species also act on the development of scientific ideas."—Natalie Angier, New York Times Book Review

"By far the most professional and thorough case in favour of an evolutionary philosophy of science ever to have been made. It contains excellent short histories of evolutionary biology and of systematics (the science of classifying living things); an important and original account of modern systematic controversy; a counter-attack against the philosophical critics of evolutionary philosophy; social-psychological evidence, collected by Hull himself, to show that science does have the character demanded by his philosophy; and a philosophical analysis of evolution which is general enough to apply to both biological and historical change."—Mark Ridley, Times Literary Supplement

"Hull is primarily interested in how social interactions within the scientific community can help or hinder the process by which new theories and techniques get accepted. . . . The claim that science is a process for selecting out the best new ideas is not a new one, but Hull tells us exactly how scientists go about it, and he is prepared to accept that at least to some extent, the social activities of the scientists promoting a new idea can affect its chances of being accepted."—Peter J. Bowler, Archives of Natural History

"I have been doing philosophy of science now for twenty-five years, and whilst I would never have claimed that I knew everything, I felt that I had a really good handle on the nature of science, Again and again, Hull was able to show me just how incomplete my understanding was. . . . Moreover, [Science as a Process] is one of the most compulsively readable books that I have ever encountered."—Michael Ruse, Biology and Philosophy

Customer Reviews:

Frustrating.......2006-07-20

Although it is a good read, this is one of those books whose sum is less than its parts. Hull presents a very nice account of the various turns in the historical development of evolutionary theory. There is an especially good description of the different schools of taxonomy (how organisms are classified). We also get a blow-by-blow account of the struggle for ascendancy between the pheneticists and the cladists, with lots of juicy, insider detail about the personalities involved, including some well-known figures in evolutionary biology. This is all in the service of an argument in favor of a generalized selectionist account of conceptual change in science, which uses Hull's useful and clarifying terminology of replicators and interactors. (It was especially clarifying for Dawkins.) There is much wise and insightful commentary, and many interesting tidbits, about science and the philosophy of science sprinkled throughout the book.

But in terms of the book's overall argument, it doesn't seem we end up with all that much after 500 pages of text. I found myself a bit worn down and more than a bit frustrated by then. Yes, scientific change can be seen as a selection process with much in common with natural selection in biology. But the questions that conclusion suggests for future research (e.g., "Does science develop more quickly in areas characterized by competing factions than in areas where scientists work largely alone?") don't seem very exciting or novel, nor do they seem to require Hull's selectionist framework. I'm reminded of systems theory, where once you point out that interdependent things can often be viewed as elements of a system, nothing much of interest seems to follow. Similarly, memetics and viral theories of information spread involve an interesting insight, but where is the yield?

Hull spends a lot of time on the details of how articles end up published or rejected by journals, much less on the processes by which research grants are given out. His subjects worked in museums and other environments where outside financial support apparently was not critical; but that is hardly characteristic of most areas of science today, where whole labs float on soft money and the scramble for research dollars is intense. One has to wonder, too, about the extent to which his conclusions based on "small science" would hold for the kind of big-money science done in the pharmaceutical industry or where scientists themselves become entrepreneurs, such as we see today in genomics and the high-payoff areas of molecular biology generally. There is something slightly quaint about his taxonomists sniping at each other over control of their conference agendas.

For a much more succinct account of Hull's selectionist model, I'd recommend his later book, "Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science" (2001).

A must-read book for anyone.......1999-07-13

The people thinks that the science is only for scientist. Nothing's far from that. In this book we can learn how the science involves people and their relationships, personal or not. Some parts of the book are funny, some are amazing. Did you already read "On the origin....", it does not matter, read the Hull's book!, and then any "about-evolution-book" you want, you'll read with other mind.

Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (Economic Learning and Social Evolution)

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Well written, easy to read, informative
An eclectic collection of great essays
Fairness and Sociability

Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (Economic Learning and Social Evolution)

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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ASIN: 0262572370

Book Description

Moral Sentiments and Material Interests presents an innovative synthesis of research in different disciplines to argue that cooperation stems not from the stereotypical selfish agent acting out of disguised self-interest but from the presence of "strong reciprocators" in a social group.

Presenting an overview of research in economics, anthropology, evolutionary and human biology, social psychology, and sociology, the book deals with both the theoretical foundations and the policy implications of this explanation for cooperation. Chapter authors in the remaining parts of the book discuss the behavioral ecology of cooperation in humans and nonhuman primates, modeling and testing strong reciprocity in economic scenarios, and reciprocity and social policy. The evidence for strong reciprocity in the book includes experiments using the famous Ultimatum Game (in which two players must agree on how to split a certain amount of money or they both get nothing.)

Customer Reviews:

Well written, easy to read, informative.......2007-09-19

Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (Economic Learning and Social Evolution) combinds the theory of cultural evolution ala Boyd and Richerson (and Henrich et al) and the behavioral economy by people like Gintis, Bowles and Fehr. The book works further based on the theory - develops e.g. models for a better social policy etc.

Book discusses an issue which is very central for "being a human being" - co-operation. Book is very informative, very well written even if there are many writers with heterogenous background. Also after the book you kind of get more optimistic about the prospects of humananity.

I am without any formal education in antropology, biology and economics but have read "everything" by Boyd and Richerson - my understanding on economics is based on Microeconomics by Samuel Bowles.

The book was to me a good further reading after the Bowles Microeconomics book. But the book can be read even by someone who does not know about economics even that much as me. The book is not too formal - easy to read actually.

An eclectic collection of great essays.......2007-06-08

This book is just really great. The literature on fairness and reciprocity in social science is growing fast, and this book is ideal to give you a flavour of why this is such a good thing. It is diverse, with entries ranging from biological models that attempt to explain the evolution of reciprocity, through the implications of reciprocity for the way legal sanctions work, to the political philosophy of the dark side of clan mentality.
Most readers will probably not want to read everything, and even less people will agree with everything. One needs to remember that a lot of the stuff in this book is still controversial, including the existence of (strong) reciprocity, but this is what makes it so very interesting. And if only half of what's in this book is right, it is still revolutionary.
In 10 years, this book will be terribly outdated. But for now, it is the best thing you can get if you are interested in the interplay between evolution, reciprocity and social order, and the fundamental questions of social science that it entails.

Fairness and Sociability.......2006-05-08

For several years now, a group of social scientists has been studying the human tendency to be socially fair rather than narrowly selfish. The editors of this volume--Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles, Robert Boyd, and Ernst Fehr--are among the stalwarts; others are found among the authors of the book's chapters.
The core of this long-running effort is Fehr's experiments with the ultimatum game, in which two people must share a sum of money (say, $10); Person A gets to propose a split, Person B can only accept or decline. Economists and politicians would expect every game to wind up with a $9.99/$0.01 split (or actually a 9-1 split, since bills are used), but in fact typical splits are more like 5-5 or 6-4, and in one place (Lamalera, Indonesia) people actually split something like 4-6, few A's ever claiming even half the money. This long-running set of experiments around the world adds to a vast, rapidly accumulating set of data showing that people are sociable, not "rational" in the folk-economic sense (i.e., dedicated solely to narrow material self-interest). The present book discusses the implications for economics and politics. If people are naturally concerned with fairness, narrowly economistic policies can be counterproductive; we all know cases of "crowding out," in which a material incentive actually makes people act worse, by crowding out moral incentives. If you reward people for being good, they will think it's all a cynical game, and will act worse. Punitive legislation to make people do what they do anyway (for moral reasons) is also counterproductive. Imagine what these realizations would do to American social policy.
The problem with this book is that it is too optimistic and upbeat. The downside of human sociability is confined to one page, late in the book (p. 388), where racism, honor killing, and the like get a quick mention. Alas, the morning radio brings a stream of accounts not only of such things but also of religious butchery all over the world--Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and even Buddhists (theoretically prohibited from killing but busily genocidal). This brings us back to Adam Smith's suggestion that greed may not be lovable but may be better than the noble, virtuous alternatives. I hope Gintis et al work on how to decouple fairness and interpersonal concern from the desire to exterminate everybody who is not in one's immediate social set. Until this is done, the hope purveyed in this work will remain thin.
The authors note that humans seem genetically programmed to have at least some sense of fairness and of self-sacrifice for the common good, but they wisely refrain from trying to unpack "hereditary" and "environmental" or "cultural" aspects. Heredity makes us do this, and learn it easily, and heredity gives us the ability to learn and develop cultures. No way to unpack. Still, more needs to be done on just how flexible these inborn moralities are. The range from Lamalera to certain parts of South America is pretty great. So is the range of murderousness in religious and ethnic settings. We need to know how to modify human behavior in these regards, and how much we can hope for.
That being said, this book is the best yet in the long list of books that devastate the selfish-individualist model of human behavior. People desperately want to be sociable, and be good members of their society. This may lead them to fairness and generosity, or to body-piercing, or to suicide bombing. This book offers hope for building new societies through use of innate human decency. At this point in time, any book seriously offering such hope is desirable.

Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology

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Level: advanced

Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology
Massimo Pigliucci , and Jonathan Kaplan
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226668371

Book Description

Making Sense of Evolution explores contemporary evolutionary biology, focusing on the elements of theories—selection, adaptation, and species—that are complex and open to multiple possible interpretations, many of which are incompatible with one another and with other accepted practices in the discipline. Particular experimental methods, for example, may demand one understanding of “selection,” while the application of the same concept to another area of evolutionary biology could necessitate a very different definition.

Spotlighting these conceptual difficulties and presenting alternate theoretical interpretations that alleviate this incompatibility, Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan intertwine scientific and philosophical analysis to produce a coherent picture of evolutionary biology. Innovative and controversial, Making Sense of Evolution encourages further development of the Modern Synthesis and outlines what might be necessary for the continued refinement of this evolving field.

Customer Reviews:

Level: advanced.......2007-01-12

I came to this book for an introduction to the statistics at the heart of current evolutionary theory. It gave me that, and a whole lot more--a great round up of issues in evolution at the professional level, most of it way over my head. I felt well satisfied that I'd been introduced to modern evolutionary discourse, to how professional evolutionists think about the subject and what issues matter to them. I noticed how little that discourse connects to the roots of evolutionary theory in the 19th C. Discussion of basics went back no further than the 1920s and '30s. My overriding impression was that professional evolutionists no longer have a language in which to talk to laypeople about lay interests. I recommend that, if you want to argue with evolutionists about something, you read this book first and see if your "something" can be framed in their discourse. If not, you may be met with an expression of well-meaning puzzlement--"what are you talking about?". Well-written, easy to read, except for the inscrutability of the subject matter itself, which I ultimately found just uninteresting.

Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History (Foundations of Human Behavior)

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Bankruptcy in the field of social science.
A Broadbased View of Human Diversity
Very clear. No indepth knowledge of genetics required.

Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History (Foundations of Human Behavior)
Jonathan Marks
Manufacturer: Aldine Transaction
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Book Description

The present volume is an attempt to synthesize, present, and argue for what has been learned and remains to be learned about the biological differences within and among human groups. Marks, a biologist as well as an anthropologist, avails himself of the data generated by molecular genetics about the hereditary composition of the human species. As it happens, genetics has undermined the fundamental assumptions of racial taxonomy, for genetic variation has turned out to be, to a large extent, polymorphism (variation within groups) rather than polytypy (variation among groups). Though populations at geographical extremes can be contrasted, the fundamental units of the human species are populations rather than races. Further, genetics provides little in the way of reliable biological history of : our species, because human populations are culturally-defined, as well as biological, entities. Genetics has also been used as a scientific validation for cultural values - from the idea that there is indeed a small number of genetically distinct kinds of people ("races") to be identified, to more pervasive suggestions about the relationship of genetics to behavior. In its presentation of the biocultural nature of human diversity as well as in its presentation of the history of the problem and the illusions embedded in that history, this will be a widely used textbook that fills a void in the literature of biology and of physical anthropology.

Customer Reviews:

Bankruptcy in the field of social science........2000-04-20

This book is very similar to Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man" except it attacks eugenics more straightforwardly and is even more shameless; just a series of lies and half-truths. But first, let me say that the eugenics movement at the turn of the century did have two fundamental stumbling blocks: a belief in simple Mendelian principles of heredity, and a belief in class and elitism. Until universal education finally took hold in only the last few decades, where bright students are encouraged to get advanced degrees, elitism or a sense of aristocracy and moral certitude was part culture. But culture changes. So this book, like Gould's, uses old arguments against new concepts that are no longer relevant.

What is even more strange however, is that almost every diatribe against understanding group differences and investigating why and how humans behave has now been turned around. At one time, like folk medicine, folk eugenics was in fact largely pseudoscience in that doctrine drove the science without adequate academic peer review or oversight. But now, the opposite is occurring. The radical egalitarians, those die-hard Marxists that reject science they do not like, are attacking academically reviewed work without providing any evidence to the contrary. This is how he describes pseudoscience, and it is in fact what this book is all about. Half-truths and accusations against behavior genetics and evolutionary psychology, fields that have now matured and are solidly in the mainstream. And social scientists? Still floundering around trying to make sense of failed programs and broken promises. They accuse institutional racism for poverty but they provide no proof or evidence. They claim that redistribution of wealth will make everyone equally smart without one study to show that this is possible. The Gouldian Marxists have now become the Pseudoscientists, fighting a rear-guard defense by making claims and accusations that are clearly incorrect.

This book was written in 1995, but it reads like it was written in 1970. The author has conveniently ignored all of the most recent research in human evolution, sociobiology, and differential psychology. It is as if, in order to make his claims seem credible, he had no way of addressing the scientific progress made the last thirty years. And just over the last five years the few caveats he may have had about such matters as the correlation of brain size to intelligence have been laid to rest. Numerous recent studies from around the world using sophisticated MRI methods have confirmed that intelligence does correlate with brain size, and is different for men and women for different parts of the brain. This is just one example of the obfuscation conjured up in this book.

So is it good reading? By all means. Existing Marxists will have their prejudices reinforced, while those of us who are unabashed empiricists can take pleasure in the hackneyed attempts at dislodging good solid science. That is, it was for me a pleasure to read because on almost every page, the arguments against eugenics could be turned around against the radical environmentalists. It is similar to an atheist reading the bible to confirm, chapter after chapter, the inconsistencies and absurdities of the text to reaffirm their position.

A Broadbased View of Human Diversity.......1999-08-08

This book is excellent introduction to the thorny topic of human biodiversity. The book's real strength lies in the fact that Marks brings in historical material which illuminates the ideological underpinnings of work on human diversity. Dr. Marks, at the time this book was written was a visiting professor at UC/Berkeley. He had studied anthropology at the University of Arizona and genetics at UC/Davis. According to a note on the copyright page he is known for his work in molecular anthropology. The book's 14 chapters take an extremely broad view of human diversity, both cultural and biological, and of the attempts to understand and explain that diversity. The book covers the history of anthropology's attempts to understand human biodiversity, the evolution of primates, the eugenics movement, a critique of the biological race concept, patterns of human variation - both phenotypic and genotypic, the nature and function of human variation, the role of human variation in health and disease and a critique of hereditarian theory. An appendix discusses DNA structure and function. The chapters are generally well written and referenced. The book is written for an academic audience or at least a reader with a strong foundation in biology. I found the critique of the biological race concept to be the most lucid and well thought out one that I have ever read. Marks points out that a division of humans into three or four primordial races seems to ignore the long history of human intermingling. Either there has always been intermingling among humans - in which case the very concept of biologically separated races is wrong from the start - or intermingling is a more recent phenomenon in which case race may have been relevant in the past but no longer is. Marks points out that the three major races identified in the US - White, Black and Asian - correspond to the three major immigrant groups in US history - from Europe, Western Africa and Eastern Asia. [I note that he did not discuss Native Americans.] There is an excellent discussion of the history of race thinking as it was applied to the ABO blood groups. This makes palpable the argument that within-race diversity is much greater than between-race diversity. Marks devotes a fair amount of time to discussing how cultural values impact on scientific work. This is illustrated by numerous examples, many drawn from a critique of the eugenics movement. It is difficult, however, to figure out what he thinks we should do about the fact that science is not "value neutral." He appears to suggest that scientists be better schooled in the humanities and pay more attention to the social implications of their work. It is unclear to me, however, that the problem with eugenics was that the scientists were unschooled in the humanities and unmindful to the social implications of their policies. Could one not criticize Marks for simply displaying his own values when he writes, for instance that: "The resolution of the problem of racism is not to deny group differences, which obviously exist; nor to deny the human urge to associate with like-minded people, which is undeniably strong; but to ensure that the diverse groups of people in contemporary society are given equal access to resources and opportunities. In other words, to assure that individuals are judged as individuals, and not as group members. The opportunity for self-improvement is vital to a free and cosmopolitan society, and the possibility to take advantage of it must be independent of group considerations." (p. 168)? How does Marks assure himself that these values of his do not subvert his scientific studies? The question is particularly troubling because many of the concepts surrounding work on human diversity - such as "innate ability" - are loaded with social judgements. Is innate ability a static thing? Should society reward provide greater rewards to people with greater innate ability? Marks repeatedly makes the observation that studies of humans are different than studies of animals, because there are practical implications to the results of studies on humans. But his book amply demonstrates how studies on animals - such as studies on "rape" in scorpionflies - have also been misused to draw conclusions about humans. One could easily argue that all science is inevitably based on values. The book appears to be a collection of lectures and unfortunately there is a fair amount of repetition. The book might have been stronger had it developed one central thesis. Nonetheless I found this to be a clearly written and very informative book.

Very clear. No indepth knowledge of genetics required........1998-07-14

I read this book while taking a correspondence course in physical anthropology from Univ. of Cal. at Berkeley. It is a textbook for a course on biodiversity.

The book is about 280 pages and is subtitled genes, race and history. It has 14 chapters. The book's major theme is how culture and science have interacted around the issue of race.

Marks is both an anthropologist and a biologist, so the book presents a clear and thorough explanation of genetics in the context of how Western culture has chosen to interpret--and misinterpret--human differences.

Book Description

Biological and cultural processes have evolved together, in a symbiotic spiral; they are now indissolubly linked, with human survival unlikely without such culturally produced aids as clothing, cooked food, and tools. The twelve original essays collected in this volume take an evolutionary perspective on human culture, examining the emergence of culture in evolution and the underlying role of brain and cognition. The essay authors, all internationally prominent researchers in their fields, draw on the cognitive sciences -- including linguistics, developmental psychology, and cognition -- to develop conceptual and methodological tools for understanding the interaction of culture and genome. They go beyond the "how" -- the questions of behavioral mechanisms -- to address the "why" -- the evolutionary origin of our psychological functioning. What was the "X-factor," the magic ingredient of culture -- the element that took humans out of the general run of mammals and other highly social organisms?

Several essays identify specific behavioral and functional factors that could account for human culture, including the capacity for "mind reading" that underlies social and cultural learning and the nature of morality and inhibitions, while others emphasize multiple partially independent factors -- planning, technology, learning, and language. The X-factor, these essays suggest, is a set of cognitive adaptations for culture.

The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Systems New Foundations of a Mathematical Sociology (Theory and Decision Library Series A Philosophy and Methodology of the Social. Sciences Volume 29)

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The Dynamics and Evolution of Social Systems New Foundations of a Mathematical Sociology (Theory and Decision Library Series A Philosophy and Methodology of the Social. Sciences Volume 29)
Jürgen Klüver
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792364430

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The central topic of this book is the mathematical analysis of social systems, understood in the following rather classical way: social systems consist of social actors who interact according to specific rules of interactions; the dynamics of social systems is then the consequences of these interactions, viz., the self-organization of social systems. According to particular demands of their environment, social systems are able to behave in an adaptive manner, that is they can change their rules of interaction by certain meta rules and thus generate a meta dynamics. It is possible to model and analyse mathematically both dynamics and meta dynamics, using cellular automata and genetic algorithms.
These tools allow social systems theory to be carried through as precisely as the theories of natural systems, a feat that has not previously been possible.
Readership: Researchers and graduate students in the fields of theoretical sociology and social and general systems theory and other interested scientists. No specialised knowledge of mathematics and/or computer science is required.

Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution

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Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution
Lucy Bernholz
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471448524

Book Description

Through a coherent framework for pursuing such far-ranging changes, this easy-to-understand book addresses new ways for individuals and organizations to invest grant funds, approach regulatory structures that guide giving, and define their goals, activities, outcomes, and achievements. The author applies basic principles of industrial theory and evolution to examine, with a trained scholar’s eye, how individual organizations, associations, and the philanthropic infrastructure can work more effectively.

Order your copy today!

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This book applies the basics of industrial theory and evolution to see how individual organizations, associations, and the philanthropic infrastructure can change to work more effectively--suggesting how to build a framework for philanthropy as it must develop as an industry through the 21st century. It includes a thorough breakdown of industry drivers (e.g., demographic changes, wealth and income predictions and disparities, regulatory pressure, and new technologies) and offers practical advice for the development of a new capital market based on such opportunities as organizational change (new staffing patterns), new uses for industry knowledge (technological advances), and the advent of tangential service providers (consultants and advisors).

Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective (Evolutionary Foundations of Human Behavior) (Evolutionary Foundations of Human Behavior)

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GREAT
Another step forward for empirical science.
Human Behavioral Ecology at its Finest

Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective (Evolutionary Foundations of Human Behavior) (Evolutionary Foundations of Human Behavior)

Manufacturer: Aldine Transaction
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Binding: Paperback

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Production and Reproduction: A Comparative Study of the Domestic Domain (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

ASIN: 0202020444

Book Description

Adaptation and Human Behavior is a collection of state-of-the-art studies in the rapidly growing field of human behavioral ecology. It commemorates the birth of this approach two decades ago with the publication of Chagnon and Irons's edited volume Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. At the same time it redefines human behavioral ecology for a new generation of scholars and students. Following a set of introductory chapters that put the volume in broader historical and theoretical context, eighteen chapters use data from more than twenty different human societies to explore human behavioral adaptations. A final chapter looks at how far the approach has come and where it may go. Well-known human behavioral ecologists as well as a younger generation of scholars approach topics with a degree of theoretical and methodological sophistication that demonstrate both the maturity and freshness of this new paradigm in the study of human behavior.

CONTENTS

Preface · Part I. Some Statements of Theory · 1. Two Decades of a New Paradigm, William Irons · 2. Three Styles in the Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behavior, Eric Alden Smith · Part II. Mating · 3. Polygyny, Family Structure, and Child Mortality: A Prospective Study among the Dogon of Mali, Beverly I. Strassman · 4. Paternal Investment and Hunter-Gatherer Divorce Rates, Nicholas Blurton Jones, Frank W. Marlowe, Kristen Hawkes, and James F. O'Connell · 5. Fertility, Offspring Quality, and Wealth in Datoga Pastoralists: Testing Evolutionary Models of Intersexual Selection, Daniel W. Sellen, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, and Daniela F. Sieff · 6. Manipulating Kinship Rules: A Form of Male Yanomamö Reproductive Competition, Napoleon Chagnon · 7. Physical Attractiveness, Race, and Somatic Prejudice in Bahia, Brazil, Douglas Jones · Part III. Parenting · 8. Parental Investment Strategies among Aka Foragers, Ngandu Farmers, and Euro-American Urban Industrialists, Barry S. Hewlett, Michael E. Lamb, Birgit Leyendecker, and Axel Schölmerich · 9. Parenting Other Men's Children: Cost, Benefits, and Consequences, Jane B. Lancaster and Hillard S. Kaplan · 10. Female-Biased Parental Investment and Growth Performance among the Mukogodo, Lee Cronk · 11. The Grandmother Hypothesis and Human Evolution, Kristen Hawkes, James F. O'Connell, Nicholas Blurton Jones, H. Alvarez, and E.L. Charnov · 12. Why Do the Yomut Raise More Sons than Daughters? William Irons · Part IV. The Demographic Transition · 13. An Adaptive Model of Human Reproductive Rate Where Wealth Is Inherited: Why People Have Small Families, Ruth Mace · 14. Skills-Based Competitive Labor Markets, the Demographic Transition, and the Interaction of Fertility and Parental Human Capital in the Determination of Child Outcomes, Hillard S. Kaplan and Jane B. Lancaster · 15. Sex, Wealth, and Fertility: Old Rules, New Environments, Bobbi Low · 16. To Marry Again or Not: A Dynamic Model for Demographic Transition, Barney Luttberg, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, and Marc Mangel · Part V. Sociality · 17. Effects of Illness and Injury on Foraging among the Yora and Shiwiar: Pathology Risk as Adaptive Problem, Lawrence Sugiyama and Richard Chacon · 18. Reciprocal Altruism in Yanomamö Food Exchange, Raymond Hames · 19. Reciprocal Altruism and Warfare: A Case from the Ecuadorian Amazon, John Q. Patton · 20. The Emergence and Stability of Cooperative Fishing on Ifaluk Atoll, Richard Sosis · Part VI. Conclusion · 21. Twenty Years of Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: Where Are We Now? J. Patrick Gray · References · Index

Customer Reviews:

GREAT.......2005-09-25

This book arrived in adequate time and was in great condition. There was no trouble with delivery, it was on time.

Another step forward for empirical science........2001-01-20

This book brings together some of the best minds to discuss what we
know about evolutionary strategies for mating, parenting, reproduction
and altruism. It consists of numerous studies showing the universality
of human behavior, and how different ecologies result in different
local behaviors, all the while conforming to our innate algorithms.
That is, how nature and nurture combine resulting in our modern
societies, and how our maladaptations with regards to rep[17~roduction
and altruism are a result of our technology changing the rules of
adapted strategies. Such things as birth control have now unlinked
male social displays of wealth and dominance that once led to
reproductive success.

But the best part of the book is the Statement
of Theories. It is a lucid history of how cultural anthropology has
all but abandoned the scientific empiricism for a politically driven
agenda of cultural determinism. That is, while these radical
environmentalists were criticizing evolutionary approaches without
coming up with alternative theories, evolutionary theorists were
charging ahead, making phenomenal progress in understanding human
nature. It explains again how detractors such as Sahlins, Gould,
Lewontin, Kamin, Rose, et al., with their condemnation of the
evolutionary perspective, without providing alternative hypotheses,
have actually accelerated the progress made in linking humans to all
other organisms in an evolutionary explanation of how we interact with
the world about us.

[17~[17~[17~

Overall, this book is must
reading, especially for anyone interested in demographics, parenting,
and reproduction rates of different population groups. Especially now
when there is a renewed interest in many countries that reproduction
rates are so low that immigration is sought to make up the difference,
with the impending problems it brings when multiculturalism replaces
homogeneous populations and cultures.

Human Behavioral Ecology at its Finest.......2000-11-09

The greatest error in social theory throughout the 20th century was the belief that humans are so different from other species that none of the tools normally used to study behavior in non-humans is applicable to the study of behavior in humans. Usually this was supported by arguing that human culture is so variable and human nature so malleable that we have virtually completely transcended our animal roots.

E. O. Wilson's great book, Sociobiology (1975) changed all that. Despite ferocious opposition to the idea that humans are animals deeply affected by their evolutionary history (Wilson was called a racist and a fascist by very eminent biologists and anthropologists), a whole generation of young researchers got the message, and began producing extremely valuable studies confirming that many aspects of human psychology and human social organization could be better appreciated by treating humans as the product of evolution, and using methods little different from the study of primates, and even birds and insects.

This book is an edited collection of some of the major research efforts undertaken by these evolutionary psychologists, sociobiologists, and behavioral ecologists. The research is for the most part not armchair theorizing, but the analysis of painfully collected and minutely analyzed data on small scale societies. After two chapters of nicely developed theory, the book offers five chapters on mating, followed by another five chapters on parenting.

The book then attacks a major problem in sociobiology: the demographic transition, which occurred in Europe a century ago, and is occuring in many developing nations today. The demographic transition consists of a fall in the birth rate following a rise in per capital income---an event that is quite unexpected, since sociobiology is based on the notion that humans are/were in their evolutionary history, fitness maximizers. The most plausible explanation, offered by Kaplan and Lancaster, is that humans do not maximize fitness, but rather a combination of fitness and welfare. The implications of this for social theory are immense, and begin to draw sociobiology back into conformance with economic theory, which stresses utility maximization.

The book then presents four papers on human sociality. These papers, while quite impressive, are to my mind excessively closely tied to Robert Triver's notion of reciprocal altruism, and more broadly, Richard Alexander's slightly broader notion of indirect altruism. I think recent evidence fairly conclusively shows that human behavior is not self-interested even in the widest sense, and some theory of multilevel selection and/or culture/gene coevolution is needed to explain human sociality in an acceptable manner.

Book Description

This is a masterly theoretical treatment of one of the central problems in evolutionary biology, the evolution of social cooperation and conflict. Steven Frank tackles the problem with a highly original combination of approaches: game theory, classical models of natural selection, quantitative genetics, and kin selection. He unites these with the best of economic thought: a clear theory of model formation and comparative statics, the development of simple methods for analyzing complex problems, and notions of information and rationality. Using this unique, multidisciplinary approach, Frank makes major advances in understanding the foundations of social evolution.

Frank begins by developing the three measures of value used in biology--marginal value, reproductive value, and kin selection. He then combines these measures into a coherent framework, providing the first unified analysis of social evolution in its full ecological and demographic context. Frank also extends the theory of kin selection by showing that relatedness has two distinct meanings. The first is a measure of information about social partners, with close affinity to theories of correlated equilibrium and Bayesian rationality in economic game theory. The second is a measure of the fidelity by which characters are transmitted to future generations--an extended notion of heritability.

Throughout, Frank illustrates his methods with many examples, including a complete reformulation of the theory of sex allocation. The book also provides a unique "how-to" guide for constructing models of social behavior. It is essential reading for evolutionary biologists and for economists, mathematicians, and others interested in natural selection.

Customer Reviews:

A Book for the Specialist.......2000-05-16

This is a book for mathematically-inclined population and evolutionary biologists and other behavioral scientists. It is not for the layperson. The book is an extended exegesis on Price's equation---like variations and themes. The exposition is a bit rough, but some of the formulations are marvelous.

Price's equation is great for dealing with the interaction of structured populations, but there are other important approaches, including developing Markov processes and/or sets of differential equations to capture the dynamics of interacting social groups.

Not for the non specialist!.......1999-02-02

This book may well be everything its poblisher says it is, but it still will be of little use to readers unused to reading mathematical tracts. I was disappointed. With all the contention in this crucial field, somebody needs to go back to the beginning and carefully review the issues -- without bias and animus -- in a way that any attentive reader can understand.

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