Genes, mind, and culture: the coevolutionary process (25th anniversary ed.)

Long considered one of the most provocative and demanding major works on human sociobiology, Genes, Mind, and Culture introduces the concept of gene-culture coevolution.

It has been out of print for several years, and in this volume Lumsden and Wilson provide a much needed facsimile edition of their original work, together with a major review of progress in the discipline during the ensuing quarter century.

They argue compellingly that human nature is neither arbitrary nor predetermined, and identify mechanisms that energize the upward translation from genes to culture.

The authors also assess the properties of genetic evolution of mind within emergent cultural patterns.

Lumsden and Wilson explore the rich and sophisticated data of developmental psychology and cognitive science in a fashion that, for the first time, aligns these disciplines with human sociobiology.

The authors also draw on population genetics, cultural anthropology, and mathematical physics to set human sociobiology on a predictive base, and so trace the main steps that lead from the genes through human consciousness to culture.Contents:The Next Synthesis: 25 Years of Genes, Mind, and CultureThe Primary Epigenetic RulesThe Secondary Epigenetic RulesGene-Culture TranslationThe Gene-Culture Adaptive LandscapeThe Coevolutionary CircuitThe Biogeography of the MindGene-Culture Coevolution and Social TheoryReadership: For the biological and social scientists, as well as applied mathematicians, philosophers, and historians of science, the book will indeed interest and be accessible to researchers, academics and lecturers.