This View of Life
Completing the Darwinian Revolution
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- £9.49
Publisher Description
It is widely understood that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution completely revolutionized the study of biology. Yet, according to David Sloan Wilson, the Darwinian revolution won’t be truly complete until it is applied more broadly—to everything associated with the words “human,” “culture,” and “policy.”
In a series of engaging and insightful examples—from the breeding of hens to the timing of cataract surgeries to the organization of an automobile plant—Wilson shows how an evolutionary worldview provides a practical tool kit for understanding not only genetic evolution but also the fast-paced changes that are having an impact on our world and ourselves. What emerges is an incredibly empowering argument: If we can become wise managers of evolutionary processes, we can solve the problems of our age at all scales—from the efficacy of our groups to our well-being as individuals to our stewardship of the planet Earth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilson (Darwin's Cathedral), a Binghamton University biology and anthropology professor, makes a careful, step-by-step argument for adopting an "evolutionary worldview" for understanding social and cultural development, and for using this understanding to guide public policy. Grounding his discussion in Nobel Prize winning ethologist Niko Tinbergen's four questions to ask about a product of evolution about its function, history, mechanism, and development Wilson proposes evolution as a multilevel process, stretching "from genes to the planet." He focuses on the level of small groups of people, stating that the central driver of evolution in this context is social interaction. For evidence, he brings in a wide array of case studies, from immune reactions to factory assembly lines, arguing that at every level, a balance between addressing individual needs and the common good is ultimately adaptive. Wilson thus rejects both laissez-faire and centralized control-and-command policies in favor of a more inclusive decision-making process throughout society in which people "function in two capacities: as designers of social systems and as participants in the social systems that we design." Readers who take Wilson's bold and clever concept to heart may well be able to apply it to their own families, schools, cities, and communities.
