ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides a general overview of the relationship between biology and the social sciences. It argues that technical and intellectual developments in biology are forcing social scientists “to take biology seriously.” The part suggests that the paradigm of sociobiology appears to be a worthwhile arena from which to gather testable hypotheses about human social behavior and provides numerous examples for the reader. It explores the concept of disciplines and antidisciplines, and in doing so it also provides examples from cell biology /biochemistry and ecology/population biology. The part also argues that “the full phenomenology of social life cannot be predicted from a knowledge of the genetic programs of the individuals alone.” It explains the responsibility for the disjuncture between biology and the study of human social behavior squarely on the shoulders of the social science community.
