Szathmáry, Eörs. “Transitions and social evolution.” Philosophy & Theory in Biology 4 (2012).
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The concept of the major evolutionary transitions has excited a large number of highly qualified researchers in the last fifteen years; Bourke’s book is a very useful contribution to this expanding field. David Queller has distinguished egalitarian and fraternal transitions, which correspond to cases where the emerging higher-level units arise from unlike and like lower-level units, respectively. Bourke focuses mainly on fraternal transitions, analyzing the evolution of multicellular organisms and animal societies in the framework of Hamilton’s kin selection (inclusive fitness) theory. The supporting evidence is substantive and very up-to-date, and the book offers a remarkable collection of relevant facts. However, the picture of egalitarian transitions is painted somewhat crudely, and thus some of the most exciting theoretical questions are not asked. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent stimulant for further thinking.