ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a view of behavioral science from an evolutionary, biological, and medical perspective, and traces the web of connections between human evolution, modern society, and behavior. The book addresses the population problem from a variety of perspectives, especially that of economics which has given a relatively large amount of attention to the relations between population growth and economic growth. It reviews the massive and accelerating modifications being made on the face of the earth by "the imprint of the human hand"; and the history of the environmental movement at the local as well as national and international level. The relation of interdisciplinary research activities to the emergence of the notion of behavioral science(s) is an intriguing one, certainly worth analysis by professional historians of science.
