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8 - The Complexity of Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

Andrew Travers
Andrew Travers
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

A central issue in modern biology is the question of the mechanism of evolution of social groups. Such groups are considered to be integral components of biological complexity (Mayr, 1963), and the discussion of this point has been one of the most animated – and often the most sterile – debates in biological thinking. It is often framed as a distinction between kin selection, driven by altruistic behaviour by members of a family group sharing a panoply of genes, and group selection where the cohesion of the group, and not necessarily genetic relatedness, is the driving factor.

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Why DNA?
From DNA Sequence to Biological Complexity
 , pp. 171 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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