The Resurgence of Evolutionary Biology: Ethical and Political Implications

In this work Terry Hoy charts the intersection between political theory and the intellectual debate over human evolution. The book deals with the contemporary interpretation of Darwinism as an apology for racism, imperialism and capitalism. Hoy argues that this perspective underlies the contemporary debates between proponents of both genetic and environmental determinants of behaviour. In response to several leading thinkers in the field - principally Edward Wilson, Stephen Gould and R.C. Lewontin - Hoy presents the neo-Darwinian synthesis of Edwin Mayr as a mediation between these two schools of thought.