Colleagues in Conflict: An 'In Vivo' Analysis of the Sociobiology Controversy ULLICA SEGERSTRALE Department of Sociology and Anthropology Smith College Northampton, MA 01063, U.S.A. ABSTRACT: Edward 0. Wilson's forays into human sociobiology have been the target of persistent, vehement attack by his Harvard colleague in evolutionary biology, Richard C. Lewontin. Through examination of existing "documents in the case", together with in-depth personal interviews of Wilson, Lewontin, and other biologists, the reasons for Wilson's stance and Lewontin's criticisms are uncovered. It is argued that the dispute is not primarily personally or politically motivated, but involves a conflict between long-term scientific- cum-moral agendas, with the "reductionist program" as a key issue. It is concluded that it is in the interest of both disputants to keep the controversy alive. KEYWORDS: E. O. Wilson, R. C. Lewontin, sociobiology. In the early summer of 1975, the distinguished Harvard entomologist Edward O. Wilson published a very large tome, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, in which he offered a full-scale discussion of the biological evolution of animal social behavior. Among animal species Wilson ex- plicitly included our own species Homo sapiens, and the final chapter of his work looked exclusively at humans. In this final chapter, Wilson suggested that human sex role divisions, aggressiveness, moral concerns, religious beliefs, and much more, could be connected to our evolutionary heritage, as it is represented today in our underlying genetic dispositions. In October 1975, a group called the Sociobiology Study Group,' com- posed of professors, students, researchers and others from the Boston area launched an attack on Wilson's Sociobiology, which by then had received widespread publicity and positive reviews. The first public statement by this group was a letter in the New York Review of Books, in response to the evolutionist C. H. Waddington's sympathetic account of Wilson's book in an earlier issue. 2 The dramatic nature of this letter lay not only in its strong language, but also in the fact that among the co-signers could be found the names of some of Wilson's colleagues, working in the same department at Harvard. 3 The most distinguished was the population geneticist, Richard C. Lewontin. The hostile tone of the letter was evident: Wilson's attempt to include the human species as a legitimate object of analysis in terms of the concepts of Biology and Philosophy I (1986) 53-87. © 1986 D. Reidel Publishing Company.