Tag Archives: David Sloan Wilson

Martin Nowak and Roger Highfield’s “SuperCooperators”

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Chris Jensen

Martin Nowak has accomplished a lot for a mid-career scientist. His theoretical work exploring how cooperation evolves has illuminated the importance of a great number of evolutionary mechanisms. He has also been unafraid to tackle real-life problems of cooperation, including … Continue reading →

Posted in Altruism, Books, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, History, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Kin Selection, Language Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Mutualism, Punishment, Reciprocity, Religion, Superorganisms, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Naturalistic Fallacy: 1, Sam Harris: 0

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Chris Jensen

For those who don’t know Sam Harris, he is a rather famous critic of theism who often invokes science and broad rationalism in his arguments for the abandonment of organized religion. Along with Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Memetic Fitness, Multilevel Selection, Philosophy, Radio & Podcasts, Religion, Talks & Seminars, Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Barash and Lipton on Bin Laden (and Us)

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Chris Jensen

David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton are unafraid of explaining modern social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. As famous communicators of evolutionary psychology, they see in an understanding of biology the promise of explaining humanity. In their latest column … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Cooperation, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Nature, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Psychology, Punishment, Sociology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Trivers and colleagues on Nowak, Tarnita, and Wilson’s “The evolution of eusociality”

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Chris Jensen

One of the most difficult things about being the only full-time biologist on the Pratt Institute campus is that I do not have the opportunity to discuss serious science in my field with colleagues or guest speakers. To help alleviate … Continue reading →

Posted in Adaptation, Altruism, Articles, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Data Limitation, Evolution, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Sociology, Superorganisms, Talks & Seminars | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Do you still think God is good?

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Chris Jensen

George C. Williams, eminent scholar of evolutionary biology, died on September 8th at the age of 84. During the second half of the twentieth century, Williams emerged as one of the most influential thinkers in evolutionary biology, and helped to … Continue reading →

Posted in Adaptation, Biography, Evolution, Group Selection, Obituary, Senescence | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NPR is all up in evolution

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Chris Jensen

It is kind of amazing how much evolution has found its way into the news of late. National Public Radio usually has pretty good science coverage via Talk of the Nation Science Friday, but lately they have been providing some … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Evolution, Evolution, Human Evolution, Psychological Adaptation, Radio & Podcasts, Religion, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Darwin’s Cathedral versus The God Delusion

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Chris Jensen

  Awhile back I read Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and more recently I finished David Sloan Wilson’s Darwin’s Cathedral. Both books provide a view on religion from the perspective of a prominent evolutionary biologist, and the contrast between these … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Religion, Reviews | Tagged , | Leave a comment