Living things are constantly engaged in a struggle for
existence, and ingenious devices for the purpose of
self-preservation can be seen in all types of animal and plant
life. However, nature also displays phenomena that are not related
to survival or that seem clearly to violate the principle of
self-preservation--particularly when organisms interact with one
another. Darwin investigated these apparent contradictions and
proposed that both mechanisms of self preservation and those of
reproduction are explained by a more basic principle of "natural
selection"--the reproductive survival of the fittest. George C.
Williams in "Group Selection" challenges the adequacy of this
process of selection at the individual level.
Williams has here collected the work of the chief partisans with
opposed viewpoints on the theory of selection at the group level to
state their arguments and rebuttals. A minority of modern
biologists offer evidence to show that groups of living things are
organized to assure their collective survival; they are not merely
collections of individuals designed for their own survival and
reproduction. In opposition, defenders of the traditional point of
view charge that mechanisms of group survival are based on illusion
and misinterpretation.
Because of the wide range of opinion expressed in "Group
Selection," the reader is exposed to all sides of the dispute and
encouraged to form his or her own views. In addition, as a source
book on current evolutionary issues or for research or reference
material, "Group Selection" remains a valuable addition to every
personal and institutional library in the biological sciences.
"George C. Williams" is professor emeritus of biological
sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is
the author of "Adaptation and Natural Selection" and has
contributed numerous articles to scholarly publications on the
behavior and ecology of fish and has published several technical
articles on evolutionary mechanisms, especially in relation to
social behavior, strategies of reproduction, and adaptive features
of life cycles. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences
and was awarded its Elliot Medal.
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