Ever since the groundbreaking work of George Williams, W. D. Hamilton,
and Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologists have recognized that
natural selection generally does not operate for the good of the group,
but rather for the good of lower-level units such as the individual, the
cell, even the gene. One of the fundamental problems of biology is: what
keeps competition between these various levels of natural selection from
destroying the common interests to be gained from cooperation? In this
volume twelve prominent scientists explore this question, presenting a
comprehensive survey of the current theoretical and empirical research
in evolutionary biology.
Recent studies show that at many levels of biological organization,
mechanisms have evolved to prevent potential conflict in natural
selection. Editor Laurent Keller's aim in this book is to bring together
leading researchers from all biological disciplines to outline these
potential conflicts and discuss how they are resolved. A multi-level
approach of this kind allows important insights into the evolution of
life, as well as bridging the long-standing conceptual chasm between
molecular and organismal biologists. The chapters here follow a rigorous
theoretical framework, giving the book an overall synergy that is unique
to multi-authored books.
The contributors, in addition to the editor, are H. Charles J. Godfray,
Edward Allen Herre, Dawn M. Kitchen, Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr., Catherine
M. Lessells, Richard E. Michod, Leonard Nunney, Craig Packer, Andrew
Pomiankowski, H. Kern Reeve, John Maynard Smith, and Eörs Szathmáry.
