On Human Nature

On Human Nature

Cover of the first edition
Author E. O. Wilson
Country United States
Language English
Subject Human nature
Publisher Harvard University Press
Publication date
 1978
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 288
ISBN 0-674-01638-6
OCLC 55534964
304.5 22
LC Class GN365.9 .W54 2004

On Human Nature (1978; second edition 2004) is a book by Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, in which Wilson attempts to explain human nature and society through sociobiology. Wilson argues that evolution has left its traces on characteristics such as generosity, self-sacrifice, worship and the use of sex for pleasure, and proposes a sociobiological explanation of homosexuality.[1] He attempts to complete the Darwinian revolution by bringing biological thought into social sciences and humanities. Wilson describes On Human Nature as a sequel to his earlier books The Insect Societies (1971) and Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975).

Summary

Wilson writes that On Human Nature is the third of a trilogy, the previous volumes of which were The Insect Societies (1971) and Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), and that its thesis is that general sociobiology, "the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization", is the appropriate means of closing "the famous gap between the two cultures". He proposes that homosexuality may be "a distinctive beneficent behavior that evolved as an important element of early human social organization", describing it as "above all a form of bonding", possibly based on a genetic predisposition.[2]

Reception

On Human Nature won a 1979 Pulitzer Prize.[3] Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy wrote that a reading of the book refutes the accusation that Wilson aims to use sociobiology to reinforce traditional sex roles.[4] Philosopher Roger Scruton, writing in Sexual Desire (1986), criticized Wilson's sociobiological explanations of human social behavior, arguing that because of Wilson's "polemical purpose" he was forced to engage in "immense simplification" of the facts. However, Scruton granted that sociobiological explanations of the sort favored by Wilson might possibly be correct.[5] On Human Nature was described by science writers John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin as an "accessible account of the application of sociobiology to people",[6] and by sociologist Ullica Segerstråle as essentially a development of Wilson's earlier ideas. Segerstråle commented that, unlike opponents of sociobiology, Wilson saw it as having liberal political implications, and tried to develop these suggestions in On Human Nature.[7] Psychologist David P. Barash and author Ilona A. Barash called On Human Nature, "A wide-ranging, thoughtful, and controversial classic of human sociobiology".[8]

In 2011, On Human Nature was named by Time magazine as one of the "100 best and most influential" books written in English since 1923.[3]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Wilson 1995. p. 143.
  2. ↑ Wilson 1995. pp. ix-x, 143-4.
  3. 1 2 Walsh 2011.
  4. ↑ Hrdy 1981. p. 200.
  5. ↑ Scruton 1994. pp. 185-6, 403.
  6. ↑ Gribbin 1993. p. 286.
  7. ↑ Segerstråle 2000. pp. 157, 377.
  8. ↑ Barash 2001. p. 362.

Bibliography

Books
  • Barash, David P.; Barash, Ilona A. (2001). The Mammal in the Mirror: Understanding Our Place in the Natural World. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-4166-0. 
  • Gribbin, Mary; Gribbin, John (1993). Being Human: Putting People in an Evolutionary Perspective. London: J. M. Dent. ISBN 0-460-86164-6. 
  • Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer (1981). The Woman That Never Evolved. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-95541-2. 
  • Scruton, Roger (1994). Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Phoenix. ISBN 1-85799-100-1. 
  • Segerstråle, Ullica (2000). Defenders of the Truth: The battle for science in the sociobiology debate and beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850505-1. 
  • Wilson, Edward O. (1995). On Human Nature. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-024535-9. 
Online articles
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