The Social Conquest of Earth - 9780871404138

Where did we come from? Whatare we? Where are we going? In a generational work of clarity and passion, oneof our greatest living scientists directly addresses these three fundamentalquestions of religion, philosophy, and science while “overturning the famoustheory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover magazine). Refashioning the story of human evolutionin a work that is certain to generate headlines, Wilson draws on his remarkableknowledge of biology and social behavior to show that group selection, not kinselection, is the primary driving force of human evolution. He proves thathistory makes no sense without prehistory, and prehistory makes no sensewithout biology. Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and thecreative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, Wilson presents us withthe clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human conditionand why it resulted in our domination of the Earth's biosphere.