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Evolution for Everyone

How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives

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2007 Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE Magazine (American Library Association)

"This is a book of tall claims about evolution: that it can be uncontroversial; that the basic principles are easy to learn; that everyone should want to learn them, once their implications are understood; that evolution and religion...can be brought harmoniously together."--From Evolution for Everyone

Polls show that more than half of all Americans don't believe in evolution. And most people who do accept evolution don't appreciate its relevance to the world today. In lively prose, renowned evolutionist David Sloan Wilson explodes the great misconceptions that have made the theory of evolution seem daunting, irrelevant, or even dangerous. And he shows how evolutionary principles can be applied to almost every aspect of human life--from crime to laughter, from politics to pregnancy--providing a wealth of insights both intriguing and useful.

Evolution for Everyone cuts through the rhetoric to present a simply revolutionary way of thinking about human beings and their place in the world.


Praise for Evolution for Everyone...

"Evolution for Everyone is a remarkable contribution. No other author has managed to combine mastery of the subject with such a clear and interesting explanation of what it all means for human self-understanding. Aimed at the general reader, yet peppered with ideas original enough to engage scholars, it is truly a book for our time."--Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Human Nature

"There tend to be two types of science books, those for professional scientists and those for the general public. Every once in awhile a book comes along that bridges this gap, and David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone is just such a book--a well written, page-turning narrative that can be enjoyed by anyone, that also contains original ideas that simply must be read by professional scientists because they push the science forward. I was amazed by how much new ground Wilson covers, how many new ideas he presents, so in this case "everyone" means just that: general readers and professional scientists alike."--Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for Scientific American, and the author of Why Darwin Matters

“In this age of mounting mistrust between science and religion in American society--especially in America's classrooms--David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone comes as a breath of fresh air. Without stooping to condemn those whose religious beliefs lead them to reject evolution, Wilson clearly but gently shows how evolution is essential to understanding all aspects of our daily lives. Wilson knows the power of a good story--and most of his 36 chapters are short, riveting accounts of evolution and the scientists who have puzzled out the intricacies, and importance, of understanding evolution in human life. Evolution for Everyone fills a gap in understanding evolution, and will help in the much-needed bridge building across the divide that has threatened educational values in recent years.” --Niles Eldredge, Division of Paleontology, The American Museum of Natural History (NY, NY)

"David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, takes a different and decidedly refreshing approach. Rather than catalog its successes, denounce its detractors or in any way present evolutionary theory as the province of expert tacticians like himself, Wilson invites readers inside and shows them how Darwinism is done, and at lesson’s end urges us to go ahead, feel free to try it at home. The result is a sprightly, absorbing and charmingly earnest book that manages a minor miracle, the near-complete emulsifying of science and the “real world,” ingredients too often kept stubbornly, senselessly apart. Only when Wilson seeks to add religion to the mix, and to show what natural, happy symbionts evolutionary biology and religious faith can be, does he begin to sound like a corporate motivational speaker or a political candidate glad-handing the crowd."--New York Times Book Review

"
The chapters are short, with metaphors, applications, and analogies about evolution interwoven with personal anecdotes and biological facts. Wilson writes in the first person—a refreshing approach—and provides insight into his experiences and development of his way of thinking. I predict that his undergraduate evolution course will provide a novel learning experience in which students find themselves in a lively environment that connects and transcends the disciplinary boundaries of biology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and even the fine arts. Without doubt, students in Wilson's course are active participants rather than passive listeners."
--BioScience

"This is a mind-stretching and unforgettable synthesis of biology, psychology, religion, and politics. In this grand theory, David Sloan Wilson argues compellingly that we are creatures of the hive, and our most vital institutions, are shaped by natural selection of the group, rather than the kinship, variety. This engrossing story is evolutionary biology at its very best."--Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness

Evolution for Everyone is tremendous fun. But don't be deceived. David Sloan Wilson is a master biologist, who just happens to be a wonderful storyteller.”--Sarah B. Hrdy, Author of Mother Nature

"...[B]y far the most accessible account of evolution for a general audience, as well as the farthest ranging. Building on diverse examples, Wilson demonstrates that evolution is a completely relevant to modern human affairs, including how we use language, create culture and define morality....Readers who've grown weary of the usual treatment of evolution as a deadly foe to religion will find Wilson's book a cheerful antidote, breaking new ground in its sweeping breath and offering much to think about." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Wilson does for evolution what Steve Levitt does for economics in his book Freakonomics.... Evolution for Everyone is full of gripping stories about the natural world, related with humor and a rare flair for language.” --Chicago Sun Times

And an extended blurb from American Scientist:
"A professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University, Wilson often draws here on his own evolutionary research, which ranges from the provision of a sound theoretical basis for group selection, to behavioral studies of burying beetles, to the evolutionary value of cooperation and forgiveness. In the service of finding harmony between evolution and religion, he discusses some of the evidence for his evolutionary hypothesis that religions are adaptive at the group level, providing practical benefits relating to the specific conditions the group is confronted with. Throughout the book, as when he talks about bacterial morality, he conveys an infectious enthusiasm for his subject.//Given the central importance of evolution in biology, the most extraordinary thing about the public's view, Wilson points out, is not that 50 percent don't believe it, but that nearly 100 percent haven't connected it to anything of importance in their lives. One of Wilson's chief goals—one he accomplishes admirably—is to demonstrate the relevance and value of evolutionary biology not just to scientists but to ordinary people. In story after engaging story, he conveys not only the sweep and the power of evolutionary thinking but the grandeur, as Darwin put it, of this view of life. By the end of the book, the reader understands Wilson's metaphor that evolution is an artist that has helped fashion the sculpture that is the living world.//A natural teacher, Wilson also seizes every opportunity to highlight both the ordinary and the distinctive ways in which scientists gather data, test hypotheses and reach conclusions. For instance, a chapter about his research on understanding religion from an evolutionary perspective begins with an obvious concern: Might not any conclusions he draws be biased by which religions he picks to examine? Of course they might. This leads to a discussion of selection bias and how scientists use random sampling to help avoid it. He then explains how he wrote a computer program to pick page numbers at random from the 16-volume Encyclopedia of World Religions as a way to get a sample set of religions for his students to examine, rather than make the selections himself and perhaps inadvertently stack the deck. There is scarcely a page that doesn't exemplify, either explicitly or implicitly, the way a scientist works on the basis of evidential reasoning. //But Wilson's tone is never pedantic or preachy. With only a few exceptions, the writing is light, conversational and filled with apt metaphors and felicitous turns of phrase. In explaining the ubiquity of groups-as-individuals, for instance, he writes of how 'life emerged as tiny molecular fellowships.' He compares an ant colony forcing out the smaller competition as it moves into a rotten log to 'a Wal-Mart moving into your neighborhood.' The copying of DNA during cell division occurs with the care of 'a monk transcribing a holy text.' And although Wilson aims for a down-to-earth way of talking about science, to emphasize it as an approachable 'roll-up-your-sleeves' kind of activity that anyone might learn to do, at times one finds a hint of the poetic in his language and images. He describes, for instance, one scientist who studies social insects as having been originally inspired by 'the aroma of wax and honey and the spectacle of thousands of bees crisscrossing the summer sky.'//To contemplate and appreciate that not only our bodies but also our minds and our thoughts are the result of the same evolutionary sculpting action that formed hemlocks, wood turtles, burying beetles and cellular slime mold, Wilson says, is both 'awesome and humbling."'These are the same words Levine uses to express the enchantment that Darwinian evolution makes possible. But Wilson has conveyed this enchantment with the world, and with the scientific way of thinking that leads to it, so dramatically throughout his book that by the time he puts the words to page in the last paragraph, readers can't help but understand the point, for he has allowed them to get a sense of the feeling for themselves."
-American Scientist
1 The Future Can Differ from the PastThis is a book of tall claims about evolution: that it can become uncontroversial; that the basic principles are easy to learn; that everyone should want to learn them, once their implications are understood; that evolution and religion, those old enemies who currently occupy opposite corners of human thought, can be brought harmoniously together.Can these claims possibly be true? Isn’t evolution the most controversial theory the world has ever seen? Since it’s a scientific subject, isn’t it hard to learn? If the implications are benign, then why all the fear and trembling? And how on earth can the old enemies of evolution and religion do anything other than come out of their opposite corners fighting?I might be an optimist, but I am not naive. Allow me to introduce myself: I am an evolutionist, which means that I use the principles of evolution to understand the world around me. I would be an evolutionary biologist if I restricted myself to the topics typically associated with biology, but I include all things human along with the rest of life. That makes me an evolutionist without any qualifiers. I and my fellow evolutionists study the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to religion. I therefore have a pretty good idea of what people think about evolution, and I can report that the situation is much worse than you probably think. Let me show you how bad it is before explaining why I remain confident about accomplishing the objectives of this book.Most people are familiar with the reluctance of the general public to accept the theory of evolution, especially in the United States of America. According to the most recent Harris Poll, 54 percent of U.S. adults believe that humans did not develop from earlier species. That is up from 46 percent in 1994. Rejection of evolution extends to beliefs about the origin of other species, the fossil record as evidence for evolution, and the constant refrain that evolution is “just a theory.”To make matters worse, most people who do accept evolutionary theory don’t use it to understand the world around them. For them it’s about dinosaurs, fossils, and humans evolving from apes, not the current environment or human condition. The polls don’t measure the fraction of people who relate evolution to their daily lives, but it would be minuscule.It’s easy for scientists and intellectuals to smile at the ignorance of religious believers and the general public, but the fact is that they’re not much better. The Ivory Tower would be more aptly named the Ivory Archipelago. It consists of hundreds of isolated subjects, each divided into smaller subjects in an almost infinite progression. People are examined less with a microscope than with a kaleidoscope—psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, history, art, literature, philosophy, gender studies, ethnic studies. Each perspective has its own history and special assumptions. One person’s heresy is another’s commonplace. With respect to evolution, most scientists and intellectuals would say that they accept Darwin’s theory, but many would deny its relevance to human affairs or would blandly acknowledge its relevance without using it themselves in their professional or daily lives. In effect, there is a wall within academia that restricts the study of evolution to biology and a few human-related subjects such as human genetics, physical anthropology, and specialized branches of psychology. Outside this wall, it is possible for a person to get a Ph.D. without a single course in evolution or more than a casual reference to evolution in other courses. That is why the term “evolutionary biologist” sounds familiar while the more general term “evolutionist” has a strange ring.Some intellectuals rival young-earth creationists in their rejection of evolution when it comes to human affairs. A 1997 article in The Nation titled “The New Creationism: Biology Under Attack” put it this way:The result is an ideological outlook eerily similar to that of religious creationism. Like their fundamentalist Christian counterparts, the most extreme anti-biologists suggest that humans occupy a status utterly different from and clearly “above” that of all other living beings. And, like the religious fundamentalists, the new aca-demic creationists defend their stance as if all of human dignity—and all hope for the future—were at stake.The famous metaphor of the mind as a blank slate captures the idea that we can understand the human condition without any reference to basic evolutionary principles or our own evolutionary past. The most extreme academic creationists reject not just evolution but science in general as just another social construction, but they are only one particularly fierce tribe that inhabits the Ivory Archipelago. Other tribes are fully scientific but still manage to exclude evolutionary theory. In a 1979 survey of twenty-four introductory sociology textbooks, every one assumed that biological factors were irrelevant to the study of human behavior and society. Fast-forwarding to the present, political scientist Ian Lustick could say this about the human social sciences in a 2005 article:Of course social scientists have no objection to applying evolutionary theory in the life sciences—biology, zoology, botany, etc. Nevertheless, the idea of applying evolutionary thinking to social science problems commonly evokes strong negative reactions. In effect, social scientists treat the life sciences as enclosed within a kind of impermeable wall. Inside the wall, evolutionary thinking is deemed capable of producing powerful and astonishing truths. Outside the wall, in the realm of human behavior, applications of evolutionary thinking are typically treated as irrelevant at best; usually as pernicious, wrong, and downright dangerous.It might seem that the situation can’t get more bleak, but it does. Evolutionary biologists are themselves conflicted about the study of our own species. When Harvard evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson published his encyclopedic book Sociobiology in 1975, his fiercest critics were fellow Harvard evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. Fast-forwarding to the present, the National Science Foundation’s most recent and ambitious effort to fund evolutionary research is called the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), whose basic mission is to “help foster a grand synthesis of the biological disciplines through the unifying principle of descent with modification.” This language is not as grandiose as it might seem. Biologists expect evolution to serve as a unifying theory, delivering “powerful and astonishing truths,” as Ian Lustick put it. Yet, as a curious complement to his diagnosis of the social sciences, not a single member of NESCent’s scientific advisory board represents a human-related subject apart from human genetics. It seems that the barrier separating the study of humans from the study of the rest of life is largely respected on both sides, even by evolutionary biologists who are trying to foster a grand synthesis.Knowing all of this, I remain confident that there is a path around both walls of resistance, the first denying evolution altogether and the second denying its relevance to human affairs. Darwin provides an example for us to emulate: on any given day of his life he might have been found dissecting barnacles, minutely observing the behavior of his children, or germinating seeds that had first been fed to mice, which in turn had been fed to hawks at the London Zoo. The same person who studied earthworms and orchids also studied human morality. Darwin’s interests were so far-flung that his mail came by the wagonload from all corners of the globe. One letter about plant distributions in India might be followed by another on the emotional expressions of African natives. Darwin’s empire of thought was larger than the British Empire.How was Darwin able to unite so many subjects and blend humans seamlessly with the rest of life? Perhaps he was a genius. Perhaps there was less to know back then. Perhaps, but the main reason is more interesting and relevant to our own situation. It was primarily Darwin’s theory, not his personal attributes or time and place, that enabled him to build his empire of thought. Moreover, his theory was powerful even in a rudimentary form, because Darwin knew so much less about the details of evolution than we do now.The same theory enables modern evolutionists to build empires of their own. I’m no Darwin, but my own career shows what a good theory can do. I have studied creatures as diverse as bacteria, beetles, and birds. I have studied topics as diverse as altruism, mating, and the origin of species. I can understand and enjoy the work of my colleagues who study an even greater range of creatures and topics. Please don’t think that I am boasting about myself—that would be boring. I am boasting about the theory, and the whole point of this book is to show how anyone can profit from it. It takes a great theory, not great intelligence, to acquire this kind of synthetic knowledge.If our own species can be included in this grand synthesis, there is every reason to do so. It would be like a strange figure emerging from the shadows to enjoy the warmth of a campfire with good company. My own career shows that this is possible. Just like Darwin—not because I share his personal attributes but because I share his theory—I have seamlessly added humans to the bestiary of animals that I study, on topics as diverse as altruism, beauty, decision making, gossip, personality, and religion. I publish in anthropology, economic, philosophy, and psychology journals in addition to my biological research. My books are on subjects that most people don’t associate with evolution: Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (co-written with a world-class philosopher named Elliott Sober), Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, and The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative (co-edited with a bold young literary scholar named Jonathan Gottschall). These are not popular accounts watered down for a general audience. They are written for the experts, most of whom spend their lives studying a much smaller range of subjects. Evolutionists can stride across human-related subjects at the highest level of intellectual discourse, in the same way that evolutionary biologists are already accustomed to striding across biological subjects.Darwin should be emulated in another respect. His interactions with people from all walks of life were primarily respectful and cordial. We can learn from his humility and good humor in presenting his theory to others, in addition to the theory itself. Since writing Unto Others and Darwin’s Cathedral, I have spoken about evolution, morality, and religion to diverse audiences around the world. Perhaps my most memorable experience was a televised conversation with a group of faculty and monks from St. John’s University in Minnesota, a Catholic university and the oldest Benedictine monastery in North America. My co-author Elliott Sober was invited to converse with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, making me unspeakably jealous. These encounters are the very opposite of the sterile “debates” that are staged between creationists and evolutionists. If this kind of cordial dialogue can take place for evolution and religion, then surely it can take place for evolution and any other human-related topic.
  • WINNER | 2007
    Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title
© William Holden
An evolutionary biologist with a special interest in human biocultural evolution, DAVID SLOAN WILSON is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. His books include Evolution for Everyone, The Neighborhood Project, Does Altruism Exist?, and Darwin's Cathedral. He is the president of the Evolution Institute and editor in chief of the institute's magazine, This View of Life. View titles by David Sloan Wilson

About

2007 Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE Magazine (American Library Association)

"This is a book of tall claims about evolution: that it can be uncontroversial; that the basic principles are easy to learn; that everyone should want to learn them, once their implications are understood; that evolution and religion...can be brought harmoniously together."--From Evolution for Everyone

Polls show that more than half of all Americans don't believe in evolution. And most people who do accept evolution don't appreciate its relevance to the world today. In lively prose, renowned evolutionist David Sloan Wilson explodes the great misconceptions that have made the theory of evolution seem daunting, irrelevant, or even dangerous. And he shows how evolutionary principles can be applied to almost every aspect of human life--from crime to laughter, from politics to pregnancy--providing a wealth of insights both intriguing and useful.

Evolution for Everyone cuts through the rhetoric to present a simply revolutionary way of thinking about human beings and their place in the world.


Praise for Evolution for Everyone...

"Evolution for Everyone is a remarkable contribution. No other author has managed to combine mastery of the subject with such a clear and interesting explanation of what it all means for human self-understanding. Aimed at the general reader, yet peppered with ideas original enough to engage scholars, it is truly a book for our time."--Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Human Nature

"There tend to be two types of science books, those for professional scientists and those for the general public. Every once in awhile a book comes along that bridges this gap, and David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone is just such a book--a well written, page-turning narrative that can be enjoyed by anyone, that also contains original ideas that simply must be read by professional scientists because they push the science forward. I was amazed by how much new ground Wilson covers, how many new ideas he presents, so in this case "everyone" means just that: general readers and professional scientists alike."--Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for Scientific American, and the author of Why Darwin Matters

“In this age of mounting mistrust between science and religion in American society--especially in America's classrooms--David Sloan Wilson's Evolution for Everyone comes as a breath of fresh air. Without stooping to condemn those whose religious beliefs lead them to reject evolution, Wilson clearly but gently shows how evolution is essential to understanding all aspects of our daily lives. Wilson knows the power of a good story--and most of his 36 chapters are short, riveting accounts of evolution and the scientists who have puzzled out the intricacies, and importance, of understanding evolution in human life. Evolution for Everyone fills a gap in understanding evolution, and will help in the much-needed bridge building across the divide that has threatened educational values in recent years.” --Niles Eldredge, Division of Paleontology, The American Museum of Natural History (NY, NY)

"David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, takes a different and decidedly refreshing approach. Rather than catalog its successes, denounce its detractors or in any way present evolutionary theory as the province of expert tacticians like himself, Wilson invites readers inside and shows them how Darwinism is done, and at lesson’s end urges us to go ahead, feel free to try it at home. The result is a sprightly, absorbing and charmingly earnest book that manages a minor miracle, the near-complete emulsifying of science and the “real world,” ingredients too often kept stubbornly, senselessly apart. Only when Wilson seeks to add religion to the mix, and to show what natural, happy symbionts evolutionary biology and religious faith can be, does he begin to sound like a corporate motivational speaker or a political candidate glad-handing the crowd."--New York Times Book Review

"
The chapters are short, with metaphors, applications, and analogies about evolution interwoven with personal anecdotes and biological facts. Wilson writes in the first person—a refreshing approach—and provides insight into his experiences and development of his way of thinking. I predict that his undergraduate evolution course will provide a novel learning experience in which students find themselves in a lively environment that connects and transcends the disciplinary boundaries of biology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and even the fine arts. Without doubt, students in Wilson's course are active participants rather than passive listeners."
--BioScience

"This is a mind-stretching and unforgettable synthesis of biology, psychology, religion, and politics. In this grand theory, David Sloan Wilson argues compellingly that we are creatures of the hive, and our most vital institutions, are shaped by natural selection of the group, rather than the kinship, variety. This engrossing story is evolutionary biology at its very best."--Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness

Evolution for Everyone is tremendous fun. But don't be deceived. David Sloan Wilson is a master biologist, who just happens to be a wonderful storyteller.”--Sarah B. Hrdy, Author of Mother Nature

"...[B]y far the most accessible account of evolution for a general audience, as well as the farthest ranging. Building on diverse examples, Wilson demonstrates that evolution is a completely relevant to modern human affairs, including how we use language, create culture and define morality....Readers who've grown weary of the usual treatment of evolution as a deadly foe to religion will find Wilson's book a cheerful antidote, breaking new ground in its sweeping breath and offering much to think about." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Wilson does for evolution what Steve Levitt does for economics in his book Freakonomics.... Evolution for Everyone is full of gripping stories about the natural world, related with humor and a rare flair for language.” --Chicago Sun Times

And an extended blurb from American Scientist:
"A professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University, Wilson often draws here on his own evolutionary research, which ranges from the provision of a sound theoretical basis for group selection, to behavioral studies of burying beetles, to the evolutionary value of cooperation and forgiveness. In the service of finding harmony between evolution and religion, he discusses some of the evidence for his evolutionary hypothesis that religions are adaptive at the group level, providing practical benefits relating to the specific conditions the group is confronted with. Throughout the book, as when he talks about bacterial morality, he conveys an infectious enthusiasm for his subject.//Given the central importance of evolution in biology, the most extraordinary thing about the public's view, Wilson points out, is not that 50 percent don't believe it, but that nearly 100 percent haven't connected it to anything of importance in their lives. One of Wilson's chief goals—one he accomplishes admirably—is to demonstrate the relevance and value of evolutionary biology not just to scientists but to ordinary people. In story after engaging story, he conveys not only the sweep and the power of evolutionary thinking but the grandeur, as Darwin put it, of this view of life. By the end of the book, the reader understands Wilson's metaphor that evolution is an artist that has helped fashion the sculpture that is the living world.//A natural teacher, Wilson also seizes every opportunity to highlight both the ordinary and the distinctive ways in which scientists gather data, test hypotheses and reach conclusions. For instance, a chapter about his research on understanding religion from an evolutionary perspective begins with an obvious concern: Might not any conclusions he draws be biased by which religions he picks to examine? Of course they might. This leads to a discussion of selection bias and how scientists use random sampling to help avoid it. He then explains how he wrote a computer program to pick page numbers at random from the 16-volume Encyclopedia of World Religions as a way to get a sample set of religions for his students to examine, rather than make the selections himself and perhaps inadvertently stack the deck. There is scarcely a page that doesn't exemplify, either explicitly or implicitly, the way a scientist works on the basis of evidential reasoning. //But Wilson's tone is never pedantic or preachy. With only a few exceptions, the writing is light, conversational and filled with apt metaphors and felicitous turns of phrase. In explaining the ubiquity of groups-as-individuals, for instance, he writes of how 'life emerged as tiny molecular fellowships.' He compares an ant colony forcing out the smaller competition as it moves into a rotten log to 'a Wal-Mart moving into your neighborhood.' The copying of DNA during cell division occurs with the care of 'a monk transcribing a holy text.' And although Wilson aims for a down-to-earth way of talking about science, to emphasize it as an approachable 'roll-up-your-sleeves' kind of activity that anyone might learn to do, at times one finds a hint of the poetic in his language and images. He describes, for instance, one scientist who studies social insects as having been originally inspired by 'the aroma of wax and honey and the spectacle of thousands of bees crisscrossing the summer sky.'//To contemplate and appreciate that not only our bodies but also our minds and our thoughts are the result of the same evolutionary sculpting action that formed hemlocks, wood turtles, burying beetles and cellular slime mold, Wilson says, is both 'awesome and humbling."'These are the same words Levine uses to express the enchantment that Darwinian evolution makes possible. But Wilson has conveyed this enchantment with the world, and with the scientific way of thinking that leads to it, so dramatically throughout his book that by the time he puts the words to page in the last paragraph, readers can't help but understand the point, for he has allowed them to get a sense of the feeling for themselves."
-American Scientist

Excerpt

1 The Future Can Differ from the PastThis is a book of tall claims about evolution: that it can become uncontroversial; that the basic principles are easy to learn; that everyone should want to learn them, once their implications are understood; that evolution and religion, those old enemies who currently occupy opposite corners of human thought, can be brought harmoniously together.Can these claims possibly be true? Isn’t evolution the most controversial theory the world has ever seen? Since it’s a scientific subject, isn’t it hard to learn? If the implications are benign, then why all the fear and trembling? And how on earth can the old enemies of evolution and religion do anything other than come out of their opposite corners fighting?I might be an optimist, but I am not naive. Allow me to introduce myself: I am an evolutionist, which means that I use the principles of evolution to understand the world around me. I would be an evolutionary biologist if I restricted myself to the topics typically associated with biology, but I include all things human along with the rest of life. That makes me an evolutionist without any qualifiers. I and my fellow evolutionists study the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to religion. I therefore have a pretty good idea of what people think about evolution, and I can report that the situation is much worse than you probably think. Let me show you how bad it is before explaining why I remain confident about accomplishing the objectives of this book.Most people are familiar with the reluctance of the general public to accept the theory of evolution, especially in the United States of America. According to the most recent Harris Poll, 54 percent of U.S. adults believe that humans did not develop from earlier species. That is up from 46 percent in 1994. Rejection of evolution extends to beliefs about the origin of other species, the fossil record as evidence for evolution, and the constant refrain that evolution is “just a theory.”To make matters worse, most people who do accept evolutionary theory don’t use it to understand the world around them. For them it’s about dinosaurs, fossils, and humans evolving from apes, not the current environment or human condition. The polls don’t measure the fraction of people who relate evolution to their daily lives, but it would be minuscule.It’s easy for scientists and intellectuals to smile at the ignorance of religious believers and the general public, but the fact is that they’re not much better. The Ivory Tower would be more aptly named the Ivory Archipelago. It consists of hundreds of isolated subjects, each divided into smaller subjects in an almost infinite progression. People are examined less with a microscope than with a kaleidoscope—psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, history, art, literature, philosophy, gender studies, ethnic studies. Each perspective has its own history and special assumptions. One person’s heresy is another’s commonplace. With respect to evolution, most scientists and intellectuals would say that they accept Darwin’s theory, but many would deny its relevance to human affairs or would blandly acknowledge its relevance without using it themselves in their professional or daily lives. In effect, there is a wall within academia that restricts the study of evolution to biology and a few human-related subjects such as human genetics, physical anthropology, and specialized branches of psychology. Outside this wall, it is possible for a person to get a Ph.D. without a single course in evolution or more than a casual reference to evolution in other courses. That is why the term “evolutionary biologist” sounds familiar while the more general term “evolutionist” has a strange ring.Some intellectuals rival young-earth creationists in their rejection of evolution when it comes to human affairs. A 1997 article in The Nation titled “The New Creationism: Biology Under Attack” put it this way:The result is an ideological outlook eerily similar to that of religious creationism. Like their fundamentalist Christian counterparts, the most extreme anti-biologists suggest that humans occupy a status utterly different from and clearly “above” that of all other living beings. And, like the religious fundamentalists, the new aca-demic creationists defend their stance as if all of human dignity—and all hope for the future—were at stake.The famous metaphor of the mind as a blank slate captures the idea that we can understand the human condition without any reference to basic evolutionary principles or our own evolutionary past. The most extreme academic creationists reject not just evolution but science in general as just another social construction, but they are only one particularly fierce tribe that inhabits the Ivory Archipelago. Other tribes are fully scientific but still manage to exclude evolutionary theory. In a 1979 survey of twenty-four introductory sociology textbooks, every one assumed that biological factors were irrelevant to the study of human behavior and society. Fast-forwarding to the present, political scientist Ian Lustick could say this about the human social sciences in a 2005 article:Of course social scientists have no objection to applying evolutionary theory in the life sciences—biology, zoology, botany, etc. Nevertheless, the idea of applying evolutionary thinking to social science problems commonly evokes strong negative reactions. In effect, social scientists treat the life sciences as enclosed within a kind of impermeable wall. Inside the wall, evolutionary thinking is deemed capable of producing powerful and astonishing truths. Outside the wall, in the realm of human behavior, applications of evolutionary thinking are typically treated as irrelevant at best; usually as pernicious, wrong, and downright dangerous.It might seem that the situation can’t get more bleak, but it does. Evolutionary biologists are themselves conflicted about the study of our own species. When Harvard evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson published his encyclopedic book Sociobiology in 1975, his fiercest critics were fellow Harvard evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. Fast-forwarding to the present, the National Science Foundation’s most recent and ambitious effort to fund evolutionary research is called the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), whose basic mission is to “help foster a grand synthesis of the biological disciplines through the unifying principle of descent with modification.” This language is not as grandiose as it might seem. Biologists expect evolution to serve as a unifying theory, delivering “powerful and astonishing truths,” as Ian Lustick put it. Yet, as a curious complement to his diagnosis of the social sciences, not a single member of NESCent’s scientific advisory board represents a human-related subject apart from human genetics. It seems that the barrier separating the study of humans from the study of the rest of life is largely respected on both sides, even by evolutionary biologists who are trying to foster a grand synthesis.Knowing all of this, I remain confident that there is a path around both walls of resistance, the first denying evolution altogether and the second denying its relevance to human affairs. Darwin provides an example for us to emulate: on any given day of his life he might have been found dissecting barnacles, minutely observing the behavior of his children, or germinating seeds that had first been fed to mice, which in turn had been fed to hawks at the London Zoo. The same person who studied earthworms and orchids also studied human morality. Darwin’s interests were so far-flung that his mail came by the wagonload from all corners of the globe. One letter about plant distributions in India might be followed by another on the emotional expressions of African natives. Darwin’s empire of thought was larger than the British Empire.How was Darwin able to unite so many subjects and blend humans seamlessly with the rest of life? Perhaps he was a genius. Perhaps there was less to know back then. Perhaps, but the main reason is more interesting and relevant to our own situation. It was primarily Darwin’s theory, not his personal attributes or time and place, that enabled him to build his empire of thought. Moreover, his theory was powerful even in a rudimentary form, because Darwin knew so much less about the details of evolution than we do now.The same theory enables modern evolutionists to build empires of their own. I’m no Darwin, but my own career shows what a good theory can do. I have studied creatures as diverse as bacteria, beetles, and birds. I have studied topics as diverse as altruism, mating, and the origin of species. I can understand and enjoy the work of my colleagues who study an even greater range of creatures and topics. Please don’t think that I am boasting about myself—that would be boring. I am boasting about the theory, and the whole point of this book is to show how anyone can profit from it. It takes a great theory, not great intelligence, to acquire this kind of synthetic knowledge.If our own species can be included in this grand synthesis, there is every reason to do so. It would be like a strange figure emerging from the shadows to enjoy the warmth of a campfire with good company. My own career shows that this is possible. Just like Darwin—not because I share his personal attributes but because I share his theory—I have seamlessly added humans to the bestiary of animals that I study, on topics as diverse as altruism, beauty, decision making, gossip, personality, and religion. I publish in anthropology, economic, philosophy, and psychology journals in addition to my biological research. My books are on subjects that most people don’t associate with evolution: Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (co-written with a world-class philosopher named Elliott Sober), Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, and The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative (co-edited with a bold young literary scholar named Jonathan Gottschall). These are not popular accounts watered down for a general audience. They are written for the experts, most of whom spend their lives studying a much smaller range of subjects. Evolutionists can stride across human-related subjects at the highest level of intellectual discourse, in the same way that evolutionary biologists are already accustomed to striding across biological subjects.Darwin should be emulated in another respect. His interactions with people from all walks of life were primarily respectful and cordial. We can learn from his humility and good humor in presenting his theory to others, in addition to the theory itself. Since writing Unto Others and Darwin’s Cathedral, I have spoken about evolution, morality, and religion to diverse audiences around the world. Perhaps my most memorable experience was a televised conversation with a group of faculty and monks from St. John’s University in Minnesota, a Catholic university and the oldest Benedictine monastery in North America. My co-author Elliott Sober was invited to converse with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, making me unspeakably jealous. These encounters are the very opposite of the sterile “debates” that are staged between creationists and evolutionists. If this kind of cordial dialogue can take place for evolution and religion, then surely it can take place for evolution and any other human-related topic.

Awards

  • WINNER | 2007
    Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title

Author

© William Holden
An evolutionary biologist with a special interest in human biocultural evolution, DAVID SLOAN WILSON is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. His books include Evolution for Everyone, The Neighborhood Project, Does Altruism Exist?, and Darwin's Cathedral. He is the president of the Evolution Institute and editor in chief of the institute's magazine, This View of Life. View titles by David Sloan Wilson