This View of Life

From noted evolutionary biologist and the author of Evolution for Everyone comes a paradigm-changing new look at how we can apply evolutionary theory to our social and cultural institutions.

Charles Darwin''s vision of evolution was so broad that he wrote "There is grandeur in this view of life" in the concluding paragraph of On the Origin of Species. By the 1970''s, the Darwinian revolution was sufficiently complete that the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Yet, according to David Sloan Wilson, the Darwinian revolution won''t be truly complete until it makes sense of everything associated with the words "human", "culture," and "policy."

In a series of engaging stories--from the breeding of hens, to the timing of cataract surgeries, to the organization of an automobile plant--Wilson shows how an evolutionary worldview provides a practical toolkit for understanding not only genetic evolution, but also the fast-paced changes impacting our world and ourselves. What emerges is an incredibly empowering argument: If we can become wise managers of evolutionary processes, we can solve the problems of our age at all scales--from the efficacy of our groups, to our wellbeing as individuals, to our stewardship of the planet earth.