Are selfishness and individuality—rather than kindness and cooperation—basic to biological nature? Does a "selfish gene" create universal sexual conflict? In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully... Read More
Description
Are selfishness and individuality—rather than kindness and cooperation—basic to biological nature? Does a "selfish gene" create universal sexual conflict? In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully rejects these and other ideas that have come to dominate the study of animal evolution. Building on her brilliant and innovative book Evolution's Rainbow, in which she challenged accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation, Roughgarden upends the notion of the selfish gene and the theory of sexual selection and develops a compelling and controversial alternative theory called social selection. This scientifically rigorous, model-based challenge to an important tenet of neo-Darwinian theory emphasizes cooperation, elucidates the factors that contribute to evolutionary success in a gene pool or animal social system, and vigorously demonstrates that to identify Darwinism with selfishness and individuality misrepresents the facts of life as we now know them.
Details
- Price: $26.95
- Pages: 272
- Carton Quantity: 22
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Publication Date: 20th April 2009
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustration Note: 20 tables
- ISBN: 9780520265936
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Zoology / General
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies
Reviews
- New Yorker“Argues that. . . . sexual selection as a form of self-seeking improvement on the part of each beast is a myth.”
- Nature“Succeeds in re-opening issues long thought closed.. . . .(Challenging) what we thought we already know.”
- New Scientist“Roughgarden's new theory is likely to end up an important extension to existing thought.”
- The American Scholar“The arguments and counterarguments will most certainly generate a good deal of heat, but also, let’s hope,. . . . even more light.”
Author Bio
Are selfishness and individuality—rather than kindness and cooperation—basic to biological nature? Does a "selfish gene" create universal sexual conflict? In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully rejects these and other ideas that have come to dominate the study of animal evolution. Building on her brilliant and innovative book Evolution's Rainbow, in which she challenged accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation, Roughgarden upends the notion of the selfish gene and the theory of sexual selection and develops a compelling and controversial alternative theory called social selection. This scientifically rigorous, model-based challenge to an important tenet of neo-Darwinian theory emphasizes cooperation, elucidates the factors that contribute to evolutionary success in a gene pool or animal social system, and vigorously demonstrates that to identify Darwinism with selfishness and individuality misrepresents the facts of life as we now know them.
- Price: $26.95
- Pages: 272
- Carton Quantity: 22
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Publication Date: 20th April 2009
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustrations Note: 20 tables
- ISBN: 9780520265936
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Zoology / General
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies
– New Yorker“Argues that. . . . sexual selection as a form of self-seeking improvement on the part of each beast is a myth.”
– Nature“Succeeds in re-opening issues long thought closed.. . . .(Challenging) what we thought we already know.”
– New Scientist“Roughgarden's new theory is likely to end up an important extension to existing thought.”
– The American Scholar“The arguments and counterarguments will most certainly generate a good deal of heat, but also, let’s hope,. . . . even more light.”