Sociobiology: The New Synthesis by Edward O. Wilson (review)

4.The issue for or against abortion, in a given case, lies with the parents when they have received such advice as is available. 5.The parents are entitled to understanding and support from family, medical attendants, and the state, whatever their decision. Harris's book raises many ethical questions for the future. They are worth remembering, and their solution is not easy. Michael Newton, M.D. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology University of Chicago Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. By Edward O. Wilson. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1975. Pp. 697. $20.00. This is a beautiful book with an immodest title and a grandiose mission. Most writers would stumble over this self-imposed environmental load, but Professor Wilson carries it off magnificently. It could well become the most influential book written for biological scientists in this decade. Its potential importance may be likened to that achieved by John Peter's and Donald Van Syke's Quantitative Clinical Chemistry, which established a beachhead, set a style, and served as an articulate authoritative reference over a quarter of a century ago. For biologists or physicians, Sociobiology is a book which ought to be easily available to read or reread a chapter here or there as the spirit moves or when the mind needs refreshing. For specialists within the field of sociobiology, this must be the book to own. Sociobiology is generously illustrated with drawings, graphic descriptions of the author's conceptions, photographs, and graphs. Wilson does not employ illustrations to break the monotony but to clarify verbal passages, illustrate animal attitudes, and to assure the reader, if he has doubts, that he is indeed dealing with the miracles of life. The first short chapter "The Morality of the Gene" sets the tone ofthe volume. The following passage is illustrative: These centers [the hypothalamus and limbic system] flood our consciousness with all emotions—hate, love, guilt, fear and others—that are consulted by ethical philosophers who wish to intuit the standards of good and evil. What, we are then compelled to ask, made the hypothalamus and limbic system? They evolved by natural selection. That simple biological statement must be pursued to explain ethics and ethical philosophers if not epistemology and epistemologists at all depths. Self-existence, or the suicide that terminates it, is not the central question of philosophy. The hypothalmic-Hmbic complex automatically denies such logical reduction by countering it with feelings of guilt and altruism . In this one way the philosopher's own emotional control centers are wiser than his solipsist consciousness, "knowing" that in evolutionary time the individual organism accounts for almost nothing. In a Darwinist sense the organism does not live for itself. From this and numerous other passages in the book one senses correctly that the new synthesis must be the product of an entymologic population biologist. So 598 J Book Reviews many of the insights seem to be easily derived from this sort of a career experience . Sociobiology is defined as a systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior. It is thus probably the last frontier of biology, and bears roughly the same relationship to molecular biology that astrophysics does to the study of the elementary aspects of matter. The new discipline attempts to relate the gene as the basic control instrument of the organism to population biology, ecological factors which affect survival and ultimately the social behavior of groups, and the relationship of ethology to behavioral psychology and integrated neurophysiology. Most of the studies reported have been carried out on a multitude of invertebrate and vertebrate species, and there is a significant attempt to relate these animal observations to the social evolution of man. One of the most fascinating aspects of the presentation is the central importance which Wilson places on the phenomenon of altruism in complex societies. The more obvious examples of altruism such as the worker bees who are unable to reproduce themselves but are essential to the survival of the colony are illustrative, but it becomes clear that some individuals in any organized society must make sacrifices for the welfare of the group. The mechanisms by which such altruistic traits survive in a competitive biological system is intriguing...