ABSTRACT
Sociobiology is that branch of evolutionary biology which aims at providing biological explanations of social behavior. Sociobiology invokes no new general theories. Rather, it is characterized by its special domain. Given the assumption that natural selection has been the most significant force operating in evolutionary history, the explanation of the presence of a given behavior in a population is most often couched in terms of its adaptive significance. While behavior is unquestionably part of an organism's phenotype (or gene's "extended phenotype"), this chapter argues that special concerns regarding the target of selection in sociobiological explanations, i.e. individuating evolutionarily significant behaviors, are problematic. It considers two such problems; the difficulties of individuating evolutionarily significant behaviors, and the collateral problem of recognizing similarity of behaviors across species. After a general discussion of these issues, the chapter turns to some recent studies of the adaptive significance of rape for illustration.
