Editing Sociobiology (section)

==History==

[[File:Plos wilson.jpg|upright|thumb|[[E. O. Wilson]], a central figure in the history of sociobiology, from the publication in 1975 of his book ''[[Sociobiology: The New Synthesis]]'']]

The philosopher of biology [[Daniel Dennett]] suggested that the political philosopher [[Thomas Hobbes]] was the first proto-sociobiologist, arguing that in his 1651 book ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book) |Leviathan]]'' Hobbes had explained the origins of morals in human society from an amoral sociobiological perspective.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dennett, Daniel |author-link=Daniel Dennett |title=Darwin's Dangerous Idea |url=https://archive.org/details/darwinsdangerous0000denn |url-access=registration |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1995 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/darwinsdangerous0000denn/page/453 453–454] |isbn=978-0140167344}}</ref>

The geneticist of animal behavior [[John Paul Scott (geneticist) |John Paul Scott]] coined the word ''sociobiology'' at a 1948 conference on genetics and social behavior, which called for a conjoint development of field and laboratory studies in animal behavior research.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Life of J.P. Scott |url=https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/neuroscience/john-paul-scott/the-life-of-jp-scott.html |publisher=Bowling Green State University |access-date=14 December 2016}}</ref> With John Paul Scott's organizational efforts, a "Section of Animal Behavior and Sociobiology" of the Ecological Society of America was created in 1956, which became a Division of Animal Behavior of the American Society of Zoology in 1958. In 1956, [[E. O. Wilson]] came in contact with this emerging sociobiology through his PhD student Stuart A. Altmann, who had been in close relation with the participants to the 1948 conference. Altmann developed his own brand of sociobiology to study the social behavior of rhesus macaques, using statistics, and was hired as a "sociobiologist" at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in 1965.
Wilson's sociobiology is different from [[John Paul Scott (geneticist) |John Paul Scott]]'s or Altmann's, insofar as he drew on mathematical models of social behavior centered on the maximization of the genetic fitness by [[W. D. Hamilton]], [[Robert Trivers]], [[John Maynard Smith]], and [[George R. Price]]. The three sociobiologies by Scott, Altmann and Wilson have in common to place naturalist studies at the core of the research on animal social behavior and by drawing alliances with emerging research methodologies, at a time when "biology in the field" was threatened to be made old-fashioned by "modern" practices of science (laboratory studies, mathematical biology, molecular biology).<ref name=Dobzhansky1966>{{cite journal |last1=Dobzhansky |first1=Theodosius |title=Are Naturalists Old-Fashioned? |journal=[[The American Naturalist]] |date=September 1966 |volume=100 |issue=915 |pages=541–550 |doi=10.1086/282448 |bibcode=1966ANat..100..541D |s2cid=129104506 }}</ref>

Once a specialist term, "sociobiology" became widely known in 1975 when Wilson published his book ''Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'', sparking intense controversy. Since then "sociobiology" has largely been equated with Wilson's vision. The book pioneered and popularized the attempt to explain the evolutionary mechanics behind social behaviors such as [[altruism]], [[aggression]], and nurturance, primarily in ants (Wilson's own research specialty) and other [[Hymenoptera]], but also in other animals. However, the influence of evolution on behavior has been of interest to biologists and philosophers from the 19th century onwards. [[Peter Kropotkin]]'s ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'', written in the early 1890s, is a popular example. The final chapter of the book is devoted to sociobiological explanations of human behavior, and Wilson later wrote a [[Pulitzer Prize]] winning book, ''[[On Human Nature]]'', that addressed human behavior specifically.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Walsh |first=Bryan |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/slide/on-human-nature-by-edward-o-wilson/ |title=All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=17 August 2011}}</ref>

[[Edward Hagen (anthropologist)|Edward H. Hagen]] writes in ''The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology'' that sociobiology is, despite the public controversy on its application to humans, "one of the scientific triumphs of the twentieth century."<ref name="Hagen 2005"/> He adds that "Sociobiology is now part of the core research and curriculum of virtually all biology departments, and it is a foundation of the work of almost all field biologists."<ref name="Hagen 2005"/> Sociobiological research on nonhuman organisms has increased dramatically and continuously in the world's top scientific journals such as ''[[Nature (journal) |Nature]]'' and ''[[Science (journal) |Science]]''.<ref name="Hagen 2005"/> The more general term [[behavioral ecology]] is commonly substituted to avoid the public controversy.<ref name="Hagen 2005">{{cite book |last=Hagen |first=Edward H. |author-link=Edward Hagen (anthropologist) |title=The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology |editor=Buss, David M. |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |year=2005 |chapter =Controversial Issues in Evolutionary Psychology |pages=145–173 |isbn=978-0471264033 |doi=10.1002/9780470939376.ch5}}</ref>