Edward Osborne Wilson

Edward Osborne Wilson 1929-, American sociobiologist, b. Birmingham, Ala. Founder of sociobiology , Wilson argued in his controversial Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) that all human behavior, including altruism , is genetically based, and therefore "selfish." He later called for careful study of "gene-cultural co-evolution." Critics have called sociobiology a dangerously reductive determinism that could be used to defend notions of racial superiority and eugenics ; others have defended Wilson's evidence and biological reasoning. Wilson's On Human Nature (1978) won the Pulitzer Prize; Biophilia (1984) suggests that human attraction to other living things is innate; Consilience (1998) urges wider integration of the sciences; and The Creation (2006) pleads for a unified effort by secular and religious thinkers to save the earth's biodiversity. Other books by Wilson are Insect Societies (1971), The Diversity of Life (1992), The Ants, with Bert Hölldobler (1990; Pulitzer Prize), and The Future of Life (2002).

Bibliography: See his autobiography (1994).

Wilson, Edward O. ( Osborne) (1929– ) US entomologist, ecologist and sociobiologist. In 1956, a year after obtaining his Ph.D. from Harvard University, Wilson and William L. Brown introduced the concept of ‘character displacement’ to describe how closely related species undergo rapid evolutionary differentiation after first coming into contact with each other. In Theory of Island Biogeography (1967), Wilson and Robert MacArthur developed the notion that “a dynamic equilibrium number of species exists for any island.” Wilson's Insect Societies (1971) is a definitive study of ants and other social insects. In Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), Wilson presented his controversial theories about the biological basis of human social behaviour. Wilson won a Pulitzer Prize for On Human Nature (1978), in which he explored the contribution of sociobiology to the understanding of human aggression and sexuality. He received a second Pulitzer Prize for The Ants (1988, written with Bert Hölldobler). In The Diversity of Life (1992) and The Future of Life (2001), Wilson examined the threat to biodiversity posed by human activity. Other works include the autobiography Naturalist (1994). See also evolution