You might also like

More about Evolutionary Restraints

• Book details
• Synopsis
• Trending among others

You get 259 loyalty points

Book synopsis

Much of the history of the evolutionary debate since Darwin has focused on the level at which natural selection occurs. Most biologists acknowledge multiple levels of selection - from the gene, the trait, and the organism, to the family, the group, and the species. However, it is the debate about group selection that Mark E. Borrello focuses on in "Evolutionary Restraints". Tracing the history of biological attempts to determine whether selection could lead to the evolution of fitter groups, Borrello takes as his focus the British naturalist V. C. Wynne-Edwards, who proposed that animals could regulate their own population levels and thereby avoid overexploitation of their food and other resources. By the mid-twentieth century, Wynne-Edwards became the primary advocate for group selection theory and precipitated a debate that engaged the most significant evolutionary biologists, including Ernst Mayr, John Maynard Smith, G. C. Williams, and Richard Dawkins. The resultant interpretations and arguments bled out into broader conversations about population regulation, environmental crises, and the evolution of human and animal social behavior. "Evolutionary Restraints" illuminates both the process of science and the role of controversy in the process. From its origins in Darwin's own thinking, this debate, Borrello reminds us, remains relevant and alive to this day.

Book details

Book category Knihy po anglicky Mathematics & science Biology, life sciences Life sciences: general issues

• Full title: Evolutionary Restraints
• Subtitle: The Contentious History of Group Selection
• Author: Mark E. Borrello
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 208
• EAN: 9780226067018
• ISBN: 0226067017
• ID: 04542810
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Weight: 463 g
• Dimensions: 229 × 152 × 20 mm
• Date of publishing: 19. October 2010

---

---

---