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| On Human Nature | 
| Author: Edward O. Wilson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $19.47
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Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 56612
Media: Paperback
Edition: 25#Anniversary#e.
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 284
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0674016386
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.5
EAN: 9780674016385
ASIN: 0674016386
Publication Date: October 18, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies led him to write "Sociobiology, and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Evolutionary determinism September 13, 2008
In 1975 Wilson published 'Sociobiology' which proposed the idea that social structures in the animal kingdom could be explained by biological evolution. The last chapter in that book dealt with humans and created a wave of praise and critic. Many detractors, including influential evolutionists such as Stephen J. Gould, saw Wilson as crossing the fine between the science of evolution and Social Darwinism.
In response Wilson wrote 'On Human Nature' in an attempt to further expand upon his explanation of humans in relation to sociobiology and to answer criticisms. Sociobiology according to Wilson is the explanation of social behaviour through understanding what evolution has evolved. It is important that he uses the term evolution and not just biology because a certain sense (and a quite wrong one) of biological determinism could be inferred. That is that culture and nurture should be excluded in the consideration. It seems that this was the critic of Wilson's sociobiology and it is somewhat misplaced. Wilson's sociobiology incorporates culture and does not omit it because he is aware twofold that without environmental selective pressures there would be no evolution and that sociologists are right, they just sometimes don't see the power of biology in their reasoning. This is what Wilson corrects with sociobiology in On Human Nature.
At the same time Wilson's On Human Nature is heavy on genetic predispositions within the framework of evolutionary determinism. In truth this is where the critic should lie, not with his overall concept (sociobiology actually developed into evolutionary psychology). Wilson favours a mostly genetic explanation for behaviour. His answer to the nature vs. nurture debate is predominantly placed within the chromosome but also open to the potential for nurture. You either agree with him or not, however Wilson still must make his case for it.
Wilson quickly pushes politics aside. This isn't about how you feel about the topic, it's about the science. Biologists have no reserves in answering the question 'why are people?' with pure scientific materialism. In fact, it has become so mainstream that one would expect scientific commentary of this type to be anything less than empirical data supported by the evidence. What does turn heads however is when biologists understand human behaviour to the point where the science has predictive capabilities. The notion sounds like we don't need security cameras anymore. Just give us your DNA and we will know what you are going to do. The first thing to say about this is to repeat that sociobiology doesn't omit nurture. The second is that while a degree of a person's behaviour could in theory be known, acts are of such various degrees of complexity that experienced profilers can get lots wrong even based on extensive evidence and behavioural patterns. Sociobiology in a way doesn't attempt to proclaim it can be this accurate. Instead it looks at common and obvious human behaviours and tries to explain them with evolution. It keeps to the simple because even the straightforward has a complex explanation. At the same time sociobiology ultimately does have the power to make strong inferences about how genes determine behaviour. Essentially we are playing with the cards we have been dealt (our genes) and should scoff at the idea that babies are a blank slate.
On Human Nature covers the topics of insect behaviour, especially ants (Wilsons favourite), biochemistry in relation to human development, infant behaviour, twin studies, hunter-gatherer environments, infanticide, chromosomes, embryology, function identification through defects, evolved learning rules, the nervous systems and instinct, the evolution of society and classes, violence and warfare, the evolution of sex, sex for social bonding rather than reproduction, evolution of homosexuality, the evolution of altruism, the evolution of religion both socially and ritualistically, why Marxism is biologically incompatible with humanity and finally the need for scientific popularization.
The first thing that strikes you is that this book is a world away from the kind of environmental determinism that authors like Jared Diamond propose (in other Pulitzer Prize winning book). The second is that Wilson really does reveal a lot. Every page has something new although many authors today borrow extensively from this work and so much of it you may have come across elsewhere already. It does expect that the reader will have some understanding of the basics of evolution and often Wilson does berate religions that try to condemn natural human behaviour. Ultimately when all is said and done no religious text in the past 2000 years can compete with these 300 pages of unifying evolution with our ways. It is an amazing accomplishment.
The book however does have some shortcomings. While there are notes the references are not linked directly to the passages. I feel for a work so controversial he should have made clear what he has citations for and not. The bigger problem though is that towards the end of the book he invokes group selection as an evolutionary explanation for some behaviours (including religion). He is almost certainly wrong. While group selection is somewhat sound on paper it has serious failings in terms of subversion from within and is highly doubtful to exist in the real world to the extent that it is attributed. Furthermore there are more powerful explanations in the form of kin selection or reciprocal altruism that are well able to maintain the integrity of natural selection acting on the individual (or the gene) and not the group. Quite simply there is no need to use problematic group selection when Neo-Darwinian explanations suffice. Despite these weaknesses, look at how many stars it still gets.
Pros:
-It is a classic and well written
-An important text on human evolution
Cons:
-Group selection
- References not linked
 thought provoking and worth reading August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I pull a couple books off the shelf every year and dust them off to reread the ones I've kept because I thought they would be worth keeping. This is one of those. I read this book for the first time 30 years ago when it created a lot of controversy about human nature but finished it without being satisfied that the author had come up with any answers. However that doesn't make it a bad book when you are dealing with a topic that has been under debate and development since our ancestors climbed out of the trees and headed for new ground all around the world, crossing the land bridge from Asia to the North American continent when sea levels were 400 feet lower than today.
The genius of this book, and Wilson's other books, is that it tries to reconcile the so-called "disciplines" that universities have arbitrarily divided into specialties when knowledge of the human condition does not lend itself to such divisions.
So Wilson has examined such major categories as sex, heredity, development,aggression, religion, hope, and other facets of human nature into discussions of how they relate to each other.
While some of the "findings" in this book have been superseded by subsequent research and science, this is a book worthwhile reading for a first time or re-reading again as i did. His observations may not provide answers, but they at least provoke some good questions, which is as good as you expect on such expansive and important questions about human nature.
still a profound, clear vision August 5, 2008
This is one of the most important books you could read on the reason for our actions, our behavior, and our history as humans. One warning though, do not read this just before bedtime as you will lose significant sleep from contemplating the thoughts expressed in this fine book.
Although Wilson wrote this in 1978 and based his analysis on research done at that time the book does not seem dated. In fact it seems very contemporary. At this time when there are so many published books dealing with the conflict between reason and religion Wilson's classic shows the need to promote rational scientific advance in our culture and yet does not deny the power and cultural and even genetic origin of our religious beliefs.
I continue to be impressed by Wilson's broad intelligence and his ability to clarify such profound thought in a clear readable manner.
A very interesting book. March 20, 2008
E. O. Wilson is an excellent scientist and writer. His book is very informative, yet still very well written, and it held my attention to the end.
head or tail? can you control the human nature using so complex technology? January 29, 2008
Wilson's take-on the human nature sometimes approaches to reductionism and biological determism but he draws a delicate line leaving HN unpredictable and complex enough not to be manipulated.This book is probably the best in trying to explain the human behavior (sex, altruism,religion..etc) in relation with genetic and cultural evolution. The latter started to evolve for some 10.000 years since human first became hunter gatherer while the former has lasted millions years. taking on each main topic briefly Wilson have targeted layman and thus simplified the matter to be easily digestible.
I found Steven Pinker's Blank Slate highly influenced by Wilson. Blank Slate is a good book if readers would like to read similar books.
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