Sociobiology: The scientific study of the biological basis of all forms of social behavior in all kinds of organisms, including humans. Scientific materialism: The view that all phenomenon in the universe, including the human mind, have a material basis, are subject to the same physical laws, and can be most deeply understood by scientific analysis. In this book it is suggested that most kinds of human social behavior are hypertrophic forms or original, simpler responses that were of more direct adaptive advantage in hunter-gatherer and primitively agricultural societies. The elephant’s tusk, for example, represents the hypertrophic enlargement and change in shape through evolution of a tooth that originally had an ordinary form. Hypertrophy: The extreme development of a preexisting structure. The reason why this book is under the Violence and Tribalism category is because it speaks to the degree to which our (largely primitive) socialness often overrides our (largely modern) values of individual morality, common sense, and rationality.Īutocatalysis: The Process in which the products of a reaction serve as catalysts, that is, they speed up the rate of the same reaction that produced them and cause it to accelerate. Here is some clarity in the murkiness of one of the big questions of this website, what is going wrong with our relationship to Nature, and why is it happening so fast? The two big words I’ve often come back to in relation to this idea are autocatalysis and hypertrophy, both defined below. This makes us kind of like Apes in business suits at the computer monitor. One of the most important insights I found here was the difference in speed between cultural evolution (which happens comparatively fast, because of human intentionality), and biological evolution (happens slow). He studied ants and other insects most extensively, and extended many of his theories to all animals, including humans. This idea is important when we consider the fact that one species on this planet is quickly destroying countless other species. He introduced and popularized the idea of biophilia – the urge to affiliate with other forms of life. Wilson is a biologist who is considered “the Darwin of his generation.” He is considered “the father of sociobiology” – the exploration of social behavior in terms of evolution.

On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson