In science, the field of evolution seems unusually prone to controversy. A memorable case is the acrimonious, quarter century long academic sociobiology debate around E.O. Wilson’s
Sociobiology (1975) and Richard Dawkins’
The Selfish Gene (1976), which were attacked as scientifically wrong as well as politically motivated. As the sociobiologists kept pleading their innocence, the critics moved their assault to more scientific issues while retaining their political suspicions. We had here complete worldviews in conflict (
Defenders of the Truth, Segerstrale, 2000). But now it has happened again! There is now a new sociobiology controversy – initiated by E.O. Wilson himself this time. Wilson says it is time for the popular paradigm of ‘kin selection’ to be replaced by group selection when it comes to the evolution of cooperation.
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