The concept of sociobiology as a programme for investigations of human and animal social behaviour

Abstract

The major aim of the present paper is an attempt at a general summarizing characteristics-of results obtained hitherto by sociobiology in the realm of studies upon social behaviour of man and animals. More specifically, the author deals with concepts of ethology, general questions of 'sociobiology, a problem of optimum strategy, basic questions of human sociobiology and meritoric and methodological status of the discipline. Formulation of the theory of evolution enabled scientific approach to animal behaviour. It had lead in the 1930-s to formation of ethology, a discipline investigating behaviour from the biological viewpoint. It gives much attention to animal social behaviour. In order to express interrelations between members of a group of individuals of the same species a notion of organization or social system is used in ethology. Usually social organization is looked upon as an -adaptation to a specific type of environment. Beginnings of sociobiology are related to formulation of the general theory of social behaviour by W. D. Hamilton. The central notion for this theory is a concept of inclusive fitness. It includes number of offspring of a given individual as well as the reproductive success of its relatives (a product of their offspring number and degree of kinship). A social behaviour is adaptive only when it increases inclusive fitness. This statement is the core of sociobiology understood as a systematic study upon biological basis for all types of human as well as animal behaviour. Its formulation dates back to the mid 1970-s and is contributed to E. O. Wilson. Present studies are concerned mainly with behaviour of insects, though recently a number of sociobiological analyses of mammalian and human bshaviour increases. In order to explain what is an optimum strategy of behaviour sociobiology makes use of a notion of stable strategy of individual behaviour in an evolutionary perspective. It includes mixed ratio of various individual behavioural strategies favourable in comparison with alternative behaviours maximizing general inclusive fitness of an individual. Major controversy is related to human sociobiology. Sociobiologists propose to include social sciences into evolutionary biology viewed as a basis for all the humanities. They use for their purposes a host of genetic, evolutionary and ecological data and aim to put in doubt a concept of distinctive place occupied by cultural evolution of man. Sociobiology is related to previous results of biological sciences, but differs considerably from traditional ethology. In sociobiology the basic unit of analysis is an individual together with a small group of its relatives, while in ethology the whole species is a primary object of considerations. The aim of sociobiology is not only to compare behaviour of various species (as in ethology) but also to attempt at elucidation of general laws concerning biology and evolution of social behaviour (including human behaviour). Ethology is concentrated upon studying neurological and physiological mechanisms of behaviour — deals with so-called direct bases of behaviour. To the contrary sociobiology attempis to find ultimate purposes of social-behaviour aimed at maximization of inclusive fitness. Despite a number of differences between the two disciplines one observes recently a process of merging basic notions and methods of investigation. Sociobiology nowadays constitutes a challenge for behaviouristic theories claiming on unlimited plasticity of behaviour and overlooking phylogenetic determinants of behaviour.