No End in Sight

The New Synthesis was published in the summer of 1975, Wilson popularized it as the first step toward a new discipline, the study of nonhuman animal and human society through an approach that emphasized evolutionary adaptation and cross-species comparisons: "By comparing man with other primate species, it might be possible to identify basic primate traits that lie beneath the surface and help to determine the configuration of man's higher social behavior." 1 In Wilson's estimation these traits included xenophobia, aggression, hierarchy, sexual division of labor, altruism, communication, ritual, and religion. 2It was this extension of evolutionary explanations to human societies and his extrapolation from animal to human behavior in Sociobiology's final chapter, "Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology," that ultimately was the subject of contention.Only months after the publication of Sociobiology, Wilson was accused of being a part of the political legacy of biological determinism and reviving social Darwinism and Nazi racial science in The New York Review of Books by the newly formed Sociobiology Study Group (SSG) of the leftwing organization, Science for the People (SftP). 3He quickly defended himself by accusing the critics of academic vigilantism and unduly mixing their science and politics. 4Thus, the sociobiology debate began, immediately merging the scientific, political, and public sphere.