Books in Brief: Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard, 697 pp., $20).

I found Professor Wilson’s The Insect Societies a marvelous book (I reviewed it for NR, June 23, 1972), both for the solid and fascinating information provided and for the metaphors that could be extracted to illuminate all kinds of social organization. In Sociobiology, Wilson has not limited himself to insects. All kinds of animals, fish, fowl, and people are considered. Their social habits are described, and the adaptive significance of them is discussed. It is an ambitious attempt to show the biological foundations and functions of the social behavior of innumerable species. And quite successful. Once more Professor Wilson has gathered an immense amount of information in a small space and made it intelligible. For years to come this book will be the basic text for anyone interested in the biological foundations of society. I doubt that even a fellow specialist—and I am certainly not one—could competently discuss all the information gathered in his volume. It would take a committee of specialists. However, Professor Wilson never fails to provide the evidence and the necessary references. He is convincing, and I am quite willing to be guided by him. But I have a reservation this time. In the last chapter, “From Sociobiology to Sociology” (shouldn’t it be “From Sociobiology to Biosociology”?) Professor Wilson attempts to apply biological knowledge directly to theories of human society. He fails. Indeed, the result reminds me of what a man who does not know much French would produce if he attempted to translate Marcel Proust by means of a dictionary. The chapter is embarrassing (and I think myself competent here); but it is one out of 27 chapters, and even in this chapter there is a lot of interesting material, however doubtful the interpretation. Come to think of it, here and there throughout the book Professor Wilson has not resisted the temptation to take his own striking similes too seriously. But this does not interfere with the immense amount of information provided and synthesized. We have much to be grateful for.

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Ernest van den Haag

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Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard, 697 pp., $20).

I found Professor Wilson’s The Insect Societies a marvelous book (I reviewed it for NR, June 23, 1972), both for the solid and fascinating information provided and for the metaphors that could be extracted to illuminate all kinds of social organization. In Sociobiology, Wilson has not limited himself to insects. All kinds of animals, fish, fowl, and people are considered. Their social habits are described, and the adaptive significance of them is discussed. It is an ambitious attempt to show the biological foundations and functions of the social behavior of innumerable species. And quite successful. Once more Professor Wilson has gathered an immense amount of information in a small space and made it intelligible. For years to come this book will be the basic text for anyone interested in the biological foundations of society. I doubt that even a fellow specialist—and I am certainly not one—could competently discuss all the information gathered in his volume. It would take a committee of specialists. However, Professor Wilson never fails to provide the evidence and the necessary references. He is convincing, and I am quite willing to be guided by him. But I have a reservation this time. In the last chapter, “From Sociobiology to Sociology” (shouldn’t it be “From Sociobiology to Biosociology”?) Professor Wilson attempts to apply biological knowledge directly to theories of human society. He fails. Indeed, the result reminds me of what a man who does not know much French would produce if he attempted to translate Marcel Proust by means of a dictionary. The chapter is embarrassing (and I think myself competent here); but it is one out of 27 chapters, and even in this chapter there is a lot of interesting material, however doubtful the interpretation. Come to think of it, here and there throughout the book Professor Wilson has not resisted the temptation to take his own striking similes too seriously. But this does not interfere with the immense amount of information provided and synthesized. We have much to be grateful for.