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The Sociobiology of Democracy: Is Authoritarianism in Our Genes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Peter A. Corning
Peter A. Corning*
Affiliation:
Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, USA
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Abstract

In the famous (some would say infamous) final chapter of his discipline-defining volume, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, biologist Edward O. Wilson invited us to consider humankind as if we were zoologists from another planet. In this light, Wilson said, “the humanities and social sciences shrink to specialized branches of biology” (1975:547). One of the functions of the new discipline of sociobiology, Wilson suggested, was “to reformulate the foundations of the social sciences…” (1975:4). Wilson cautioned, however, that it “remains to be seen” whether or not the social sciences can be “truly biologized” in this fashion.

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Type
Commentaries
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Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 103 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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