Putting evolution back into the social sciences
Dunbar R.
Biology and the social sciences parted company at a time when evolution itself was poorly understood. As a result, the social sciences left with a rather impoverished view of evolution, and therefore failed to take note of the developments that emerged later. Among these have been an appreciation of Tinbergen's "Four Whys", Hamilton's broadening of the concept of fitness into what he termed "neighbour modulated fitnesses" and multi-level selection (as distinct from group selection). I argue that a better appreciation of some of these developments might go some way towards facilitating a rapprochement between the social and evolutionary sciences.