Current Problems in Sociobiology [Paperback]

The authors of this 1982 book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored.The authors of this 1982 book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored. These contributions cover a wide array of areas within the field. In many cases they pointed the way to future improvements in practice as well as theory.The authors of this 1982 book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored. These contributions cover a wide array of areas within the field. In many cases they pointed the way to future improvements in practice as well as theory.This text was published in 1982, when sociobiology was experiencing the rapid expansion typical of a new subject. It did not do so without its critics, who pointed to the logical flaws and empirical problems present in many functional arguments. The authors of this book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored and needed to be developed. These contributions cover a wide array of areas within the field. In many cases they pointed the way to future improvements in practice as well as theory and the book should continue to be of fundamental interest to those involved in any way with the behavioural sciences, population biology, ecology and evolutionary studies.List of participants; Preface P. P. G. Bateson; Acknowledgements; Introduction J. Maynard Smith; Part I. Natural Selection and Sociobiology R. W. Wrangham: 1. Adaptation, fitness and the evolutionary tautology R. I. M. Dunbar; 2. The evolution of social behaviour - a classification of models J. Maynard Smith; 3. Replicators and vehicles R. Dawkins; 4. The concept of fitness in population genetics and sociobiology P. O' Donald; Part II. Complexity in Evolutionary Processes D. I. l(