Defenders of the truth : the battle for science in the sociobiology debate and beyond.

Harvard entomologist Edward 0. Wilson's Sociobiology (CH, Nov'75) incited an acrimonious 25-year controversy about the legitimacy of employing insights from the natural sciences to explain human behavior and societal institutions. Segerstroale details Wilson's quest to devise a new paradigm, founded on population genetics, that would unify the sciences and offer scientific grounding for ethics and altruism. Herbert Spencer's goal of a cosmic philosophy appears to find new life in Wilson's iteration of this theme in his Consilience (CH, Jul'99). Segerstroale's chapter-length essays detail the emergence of sociobiology as a collective process of scientific endeavor in Britain and America, the precipitating events that championed human sociobiology, and the key ideas and theoretical breakthroughs that constituted the "deep background of sociobiology." He then explains how the Sociobiology Study Group, supported by such notables as Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, became "defenders of the truth," using an alternative model of science to attack Wilson's project. Sociobiology's critics condemned this paradigm as "bad science," as biological determinism, as having committed the naturalistic fallacy, as racist, and as an apology for the political status quo. Especially instructive is the chapter "Inside the Mind of the Critics." A balanced and detailed insider's account of this morality tale in the sociology of science. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. J. H. Rubin; Saint Joseph College

In 1975, E.O. Wilson published Sociobiology, a study of evolution and animal societies; its last chapter called for attention to the Darwinian and genetic foundations of human behavior. The book produced prolonged contention among scientists and laypeople over morals, politics, genes, evolution, statistics, sex, race, "intelligence," evidence, truth, "human nature" and other hot-button topics. Why were they all so upset, and what can their arguments tell us? In a broad and detailed view of that intellectual firestorm along with its prequels and sequels, Segerstr?le--a professor of sociology at the Illinois Institute of Technology--shows how "a debate about the nature of science, the relationship of science to society, and the nature of acceptable knowledge was expressed as a conflict between individuals." Debaters revealed not just their political underpinnings but their beliefs and assumptions about what constitutes valid science, what counts as verification, as fact and as falsehood. Segerstr?le begins at the start of the clash, with Harvard titans Wilson and Richard Lewontin; backtracks to Britain in the mid-1960s, with a population biologist's investigations of altruism; and zooms forward to the "Science Wars" of the mid-1990s and the international slugfest over The Bell Curve. Partisans in these controversies will likely find something here to make them angry; they will also learn much they didn't know. Even those who might dispute Segerstr?le's conclusions will appreciate her assiduous chronology of these tangled issues and her accounts of what many of the participants thought they were doing in their "battle for the soul of science in one of the few fields where it might still be fought." (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In some scientific disputes, especially those that spill into the public arena, it is possible for both sides to be right-and for both to be wrong. Such may be the case with the 25-year-old debate over sociobiology. The polar viewpoints have been labeled with various tags: determinism vs. free will, nature vs. nurture, adaptat ionism vs. environmentalism, etc. The major participants are a virtual "who's who" in contemporary evolutionary biology, including Edward O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Richard Lewontin, and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as many notable others. Despite their vehement disagreements, they all believe fervently in the scientific correctness of their positions. It will be interesting to see their own reactions to this book. The author, a sociologist with advanced degrees in biochemistry and organic chemistry, has written an expansive and objective account of the controversy. At times, she may be overly interpretive and analytical, but on the whole she provides a thorough overview of one of the most contentious and publicized academic skirmishes in recent years. For larger public and all academic libraries. -Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.