Sociobiology
EO Wilson
Sociobiology: the systematic study of the biological bases of social behaviorie. using evolutionary theory as a foundation for the study of social behavior
Sociobiology
Application of sociobiology to mate choice
Male mating decisionspredict:-competitive & aggressive, promiscuous, less nurturing to children, attracted to fertile females
Female mating decisionspredict:-less competitive, more nurturing to children, attracted to resource-rich males
Social Darwinism
Herbert Spencer
Social Darwinism: social & cultural differences in human societies arise through processes of natural selection, similar to those that account for biological differences among populations & species
Social Darwinism
JD Rockefeller
Appealing to those in ‘superior’ social positions
Assumes society operates through same laws as biology
False assumption!
No evidence that what is in biology, is or ought to be in society
Eugenics
Eugenics: humanity can be improved by altering human genotypes or their frequenciesie. evolution of human traits by natural selection could be substituted by evolution through social selection
Positive eugenics - increase frequency of beneficial genes
Negative eugenics - decrease frequency of deleterious genes
Eugenics
Positive eugenics - increase frequency of beneficial genes
Sperm banks
Genetic engineering
Parthenogenesis
Cloning
Eugenics
Negative eugenics - decrease frequency of deleterious genes
2 - 2.5% of children born in the US are markedly defective - mentally or physically
Two reasons for prevalence of deleterious genes
1 although deleterious in homozygous condition, may produce hybrid vigor in heterozygous
2 frequency of deleterious genes is now high because natural selection has been artificially reduced
Biological vs cultural maturity
Biological efficiency decreases post-reproductive age of 20-30
Cultural efficiency increases then or later
Cro-Magnon man
Humans evolve, but also know that they evolve
-what is the goal?
-can we choose the direction of human evolution with certainty that this direction is what is best for our descendents?
Humans are graduating from being mere subjects of evolution to coauthors
We have the destiny of ourselves and many other organisms in our hands