Sociobiology: A New Synthesis?

This paper examines the relatively new theory of sociobiology, which is an attempt to explain the social behavior of animals to a significant extent genetically. This theory is characterized in terms of its origins, its relation to biology and evolutionary theory, and its explanations of human behavior patterns such as aggression, parenthood, and the like. Moreover, the implications which this theory holds for society and the social sciences are examined and criticized with the conclusions that sociobiology, in its present form, cannot be held as a scientifically acceptable account of all the factors determining animal behavior, but that it does have the effect of giving greater impetus to the idea that the social and natural sciences are inseparable.