David Sloan Wilson

Harvard Book Store welcomes eminent evolutionary biologist DAVID SLOAN WILSON—author of Evolution for Everyone—for a discussion of his latest book, This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution.

About This View of Life

Charles Darwin's vision of evolution was so broad that he wrote, "There is grandeur in this view of life" in the concluding paragraph of On the Origin of Species. By the 1970s, the Darwinian revolution was sufficiently complete that the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Yet, according to David Sloan Wilson, the Darwinian revolution won't be truly complete until it makes sense of everything associated with the words "human," "culture," and "policy."

In a series of engaging stories—from the breeding of hens, to the timing of cataract surgeries, to the organization of an automobile plant—Wilson shows how an evolutionary worldview provides a practical toolkit for understanding not only genetic evolution, but also the fast-paced changes impacting our world and ourselves. What emerges is an incredibly empowering argument: if we can become wise managers of evolutionary processes, we can solve the problems of our age at all scales—from the efficacy of our groups, to our wellbeing as individuals, to our stewardship of the planet earth.

Praise

“Splendid . . . An excellent argument that evolution applies to culture as well as organisms . . . [Wilson is] a masterful educator.” —Kirkus, starred review

“David Sloan Wilson has long been one of the most visionary and trail-blazing evolutionary biologists around, forcing the field to recognize that evolutionary change occurs from far more than selection solely at the level of the gene. In This View of Life, he explores the various surprising things that ‘evolution’ is and isn’t, and its relevance to everything from everyday life to global policy decisions. It’s thick with ideas and insights, written in a graceful, accessible style.” —Robert Sapolsky, New York Times bestselling author of Behave and Professor of Biology and Neurology at Stanford University

“I thought I understood evolutionary theory, but I never expected to see so much of human psychology, society, and economics through its lens. Rarely has a book so effectively changed the way I view the world.” —Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and author of WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us