Sociobiology as an adaptationist program

Abstract

Sociobiology is discussed as an extreme example of the adaptationist program. This program attempts to describe all aspects of living organisms as optimal solutions to problems set by the environment and by the biology of the species. Sociobiology first describes human nature by generalizing about human behavioral universals, then asserts that these traits are controlled by genes and then provides an adaptive story to explain why individuals with these traits would leave more offspring. The theory takes no account of problems of correct description and makes four errors: Arbitrary agglomeration, reification, conflation, and confusion of levels. As a result, the human behavior described bears no necessary resemblance to actual biological traits. The theory depends upon assertions of genetic control that have no basis in experimental fact. Sociobiologists have made no critical evaluation of the extremely poor knowledge of human genetics. Finally, the assumption that all characteristics are adaptations is never examined by sociobiology. There are many alternative evolutionary forces besides direct adaptation for establishment of characters. These include genetic drift, multiple selective peaks, lack of correspondence between the result of natural selection and optimal solutions, pleiotropic gene action, allometry and developmental noise. If sociobiology is to become a real science instead of idle speculation, it must abandon the tautological adaptationist program which is untestable.

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Affiliated Institutions

• Harvard University US

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