The Morality of the Gene

An Excerpt from Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

By Edward O. Wilson

Reviewed by: A.J. Napier

Biographical Information
• E.O. Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama in
1929.
• His field of study… ants (myrmecology).
• An Eagle Scout and Nature Director of his Boy Scout
summer camp, he became very interested in
insects, and at 18 was intent on become an
entomologist.
– Due to a shortage of insect pins resulting from World
War II, his insect collections were limited, so he
began to collect ants which could be kept in vials.
– At the urging of Marion R. Smith of the National
Museum of Natural History in Washington, he began
an insect survey of the ant populations of Alabama,
and is credited with the first report of fire ant
populations in the United States, near the port in
Mobile.
Biographical Information (cont.)
• At an early age, he lost eyesight in one eye due
 to a fishing accident.
– Fearing he might not be able to afford to attend
university, he attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army.
His enlistment was denied due his visual impairment.
• Graduating from high school in 1946, he was able to
enroll at the University of Alabama, receiving both
a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology in only 4 years. He
then received his PhD in Biology from Harvard
University in 1955.
• Currently holds position at Harvard University as:
– Museum of Comparative Zoology Faculty Curator,
Emeritus
– Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus

Theories
• Some of Dr. Wilson’s theories include:
– The Epic of Evolution
• An attempt to define the creation of the universe while
reconciling
 the religious and scientific into an all-encompassing
mythos.
– Ants and Social Insects
• Dr. Wilson’s study of insect behavior has influenced, and
been influenced by, many theoreticians.
• On Karl Marx, Dr. Wilson stated, “[he] was right, socialism
works, it is just that he had the wrong species.” Ants are
forced to work and live communally because they lack
reproductive independence, where humans are not so
impaired in this manner, i.e. the survival of the queen is
directly in line with the survival of the species.
– Consilience
• The uniting of science with the humanities. Human nature,
he defines, as a “collection of epigenetic rules,” and states
culture is a product of human nature, and not a part. He
states elements of human nature such as art appreciation,
phobias, and incest taboos can be scientifically studied,
and no longer reside within the sole realm of the ‘soft
I am sure some of you have opinions about the automatous nature of the


human animal, and it’s relation to the behavioral aspects of social insect
populations, so maybe you see where this is going. And so, without further
ado, I present his most defining theories…

WAIT ! WHAT COULD A

MYRMECOLOGIST POSSIBLY KNOW
ABOUT ANTHROPOLOGY?
The Unit & Target of Selection

• The Unit and Target of Selection

– Dr. Wilson argues the “unit of selection is the
gene, the basic element of heredity. The
target of selection is normally the individual
who carries an ensemble of genes of certain
kinds.” He states the behavior of insects,
and by extension all animals, tends toward
almost Darwinian aspects of group
selection.
Sociobiology

• Sociobiology
– Defines social behaviors as a product of evolution and
attempts to examine social behavior as such. Just as
natural selection places pressures on organisms
leading to the most ‘fit’ methods of environmental
interaction, genetic tendencies toward beneficial social
behavior also arise. It views evolution as not only a
means to derive the best physical traits given a
particular environment, but also as a method by which
the most profitable social behaviors are selected for. Dr.
Wilson defined sociobiology as the “extension of
population biology and evolutionary theory to social
organization”.
– Lett defines sociobiology as social “reductionism”, defined
as the theory that every complex phenomenon can be
explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic
physical mechanisms that are in operation during the
phenomenon. (Dictionary.com)
Sociobiology (cont.)
• The basic tenets of the theory are:
–