This View of Life

December 1, 2018
An excellent argument that evolution applies to culture as well as organisms.Most people, the uneducated included, have no objection to the concept of the Darwinian evolution of plants and animals. Evolution of humans won over scientists long ago. Applied to human behavior in the form of politics, economics, business, and war, evolutionary theories existed before Darwin but acquired a bad reputation by equating Darwinian "fitness" with wealth, social status, and belligerence. Evolutionary biologist Wilson (Biology and Anthropology/Binghamton Univ.; Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others, 2015, etc.), the president of the Evolution Institute, points out that the 20th century was nearly over before scientists began to examine human institutions without the ideological distraction of social Darwinism. Ironically, this happened because of spectacular advances in biology, especially genetics: "Evolution...became associated with an incapacity for change (being stuck with our genes), with our capacity for change somehow residing outside the orbit of evolution. The term 'Social Darwinism' helps to buttress this bizarre configuration of ideas in ways that are almost childish, once they are seen clearly." A masterful educator, Wilson begins with basics and then carefully amplifies them. To understand any product of evolution (a hand, cancer, aggression), one must address four areas: function, history, mechanism, and how it develops. A snowflake may be more complex than a hand, but it doesn't qualify because it has no function. The problem of evil torments theologians but yields to evolutionary analysis. Thus, altruism seems a trait for wimps because selfish individuals prosper, but a group where everyone cooperates always outcompetes a group with selfish members. The author emphasizes that cultural evolution is a multilevel process. A learned behavior spreads by benefiting individuals compared to other individuals in the same group or the whole group compared to competing groups.One of the major advances in modern biology receives a splendid overview.

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According to evolutionary biologist Wilson (biology & anthropology, SUNY Binghamton; Does Altruism Exist?), "biology" should be redefined to include both behavior and culture (learned information) as these, too, are products of evolution. Wilson calls this all-encompassing outlook on life an "evolutionary worldview," and his goals are to demonstrate how such a perspective can be used as a powerful framework for improving the human condition and why biology should be the foundation of public policy. His approach involves first asking a series of questions (borrowed from the field of animal behavior) to get at the facts of a given issue. The second part involves following eight principles (borrowed from economics) designed to maximize the efficacy of self-directed groups (any collection of people organized to get something done). Wilson includes real-world stories about organizations that have put this philosophy into practice and invites readers to roll up their sleeves and give the evolutionary worldview a try within their own groups. VERDICT Readers from all backgrounds will find the concepts underlying this philosophy clearly explained and may even discover that an evolutionary worldview has relevance to their own lives. Recommended for those who enjoyed the author's Evolution for Everyone.--Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ