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Tuesday "Noon" Seminar: April 24, 2007Jeff Fletcher on "Advances in social evolution theory: Is genetic similarity the key?"
12:30-1:45 p.m. in Biosciences West (map of building location), Room 208 Hosted by John Pepper. Dr. Fletcher will be available for appointments throughout the day on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning. Please email John if you would like an appointment. |
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Jeff is an evolutionary theorist who has done important work integrating some of the seemingly disparate theories for the evolution of cooperation and altruism. He is also interested in how general theories such as game theory, information theory, chaos theory, and theories of ‘complexity’ can be used in novel ways to investigate problems in evolutionary biology. Visit his home page for more information. Talk Abstract For several decades the mechanisms by which altruistic and cooperative behaviors evolve have been vigorously debated. The main theories are kin selection (or inclusive fitness) theory, reciprocal altruism theory, and multilevel (or group selection) theory. This debate has recently intensified in the literature with publications by E. O. Wilson and others on the role of group selection in the evolution of eusociality and several articles last year that claim kin selection (genetic similarity between altruists and recipients) is the only mechanism that can account for biological altruism. My work has focused on unifying different theories of how altruism evolves and my talk will consider this recent controversy and its history from this perspective. |
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