Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T21:27:49.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Profile: In celebration of questions, past, present and future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Geoff A. Parker
Edited by
Tamás Székely ,
Allen J. Moore  and
Jan Komdeur
Geoff A. Parker
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool, UK
Tamás Székely
Affiliation:
University of Bath
Allen J. Moore
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Jan Komdeur
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
Get access

Summary

But I now see that the whole problem is so intricate that it is safer to leave its solution for the future.

Darwin (1874) on the evolution of the unity sex ratio; later solved by Fisher (1930)

A vital part of science is the compulsion to ask questions, even if, like Darwin, we cannot always find an answer. I admit to being surprised, almost offended, when people claim not to be interested in animals, what animals do, and why they do it. I don't care at all if someone isn't interested in my other preoccupations – jazz, exhibition poultry – why should they be? But somehow I can't accept that it is possible not to have an interest in the evolution of behaviour – the evolution of our own behaviour, and ultimately why we are what we are. Indeed, it seems impossible to gain insight about ourselves without considering the diversity of animal life, and our place in it all.

Maybe that, and my fascination for natural history, was why I changed almost immediately from medicine to zoology as a student at Bristol University in 1962. Medicine would have offered affluence and security, but when ‘push came to shove’, I opted for the risk and adventure of following my obsession. Biology – indeed science itself – offers a philosophy and insight into the nature of life that applied science and technology does not.

Type
Chapter
Information
Social Behaviour
Genes, Ecology and Evolution
 , pp. 267 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Darwin, C. (1874) The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 2nd edn. London: John Murray.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R. A. (1930) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Maynard Smith, J. & Price, G. R. (1973) The logic of animal conflicts. Nature, 246, 15–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. A. (1968) The reproductive behaviour and the nature of sexual selection in Scatophaga stercoraria L. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Bristol.
Parker, G. A. (1978) Selfish genes, evolutionary games, and the adaptiveness of behaviour. Nature, 274, 849–855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. A. (2001) Golden flies, sunlit meadows: a tribute to the yellow dungfly. In: Model Systems in Behavioural Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches, ed. Dugatkin, L. A.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 3–26.Google Scholar
Parker, G. A. (2006a) Behavioural ecology: the science of natural history. In: Essays on Animal Behaviour: Celebrating 50 years of Animal Behaviour, ed. Lucas, J. R. & Simmons, L. W., Burlington MA: Elsevier, pp. 23–56.Google Scholar
Parker, G. A. (2006b) Sexual conflict over mating and fertilization: an overview. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 361, 235–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. A. (2009) Reflections before dusk. In: Leaders in Animal Behavior: the Second Generation, ed. Drickamer, L. & Dewsbury, D. A.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 429–464.Google Scholar
Parker, G. A. & Maynard Smith, J. (1990) Optimality theory in evolutionary biology. Nature, 348, 27–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segerstråle, U. (2000) Defenders of the Truth: the Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. (1975) Sociobiology: the New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×