Sociobiology
Sociobiology denotes the attempt to provide a biological explanation for the social behavior of animals, including humans, although the focus is more often on social insects such as ants and honey bees. Because ethics is also concerned with social behavior among human beings, achievements in sociobiology may also have implications for a possible science of ethics.
The Darwinian Background
As a term the word sociobiology first appears in Principles of Animal Ecology (1949) by Warder C. Allee, Alfred E. Emerson, et al., but the subject matter is much older. In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin argued that there is constant population pressure brought on by the fact that numbers of organisms always outstrip food and other resources. There is therefore a constant struggle for existence. Some organisms have features enabling them to better succeed in the struggle, and thus there is a natural selection of the winners over the losers. This leads to evolution, but evolution of a special kind. Selection produces and perfects features useful in the struggle—organisms have adaptations such as the hand and the eye that aid them in survival (and, even more importantly, to reproduce).
Darwin realized that behavior is as much part of an animal's repertoire in the struggle for existence as are any physical adaptations.
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