Includes bibliographical references (pages 206-244) and indexes.
An expanded view of social evolution: The biological hierarchy, the evolution of individuality, and the major evolutionary transitions ; Strengths of the 'major transitions view' of evolution and aims of this book ; Defining major evolutionary transitions and their component stages ; Inclusive fitness theory and the evolution of cooperation ; Challenges remaining in the study of social evolution ; Summary -- A primer in inclusive fitness theory: Hamilton's rule and relatedness ; The effect of levels of relatedness on evolvable types of social action ; Social conflict and the tragedy of the commons ; Assumptions of inclusive fitness theory ; The value of inclusive fitness theory ; Summary -- The major transitions in light of inclusive fitness theory: Egalitarian versus fraternal major transitions ; Conflict resolution ; Life cycles and the major transitions ; Summary -- Social group formation: Pathways of social group formation ; Genetic factors in social group formation ; Ecological factors in social group formation ; Synergistic factors in social group formation ; Hamilton's rule and social group formation ; Summary -- Social group maintenance ; Limitation of exploitation : principles and processes ; Limitation of exploitation from outside ; Limitation of exploitation from inside : self-limitation through negative frequency-dependence ; Limitation of exploitation from inside : self-limitation through excessive costs to the group ; Limitation of exploitation from inside : limitation by others through coercion ; Predicting the outcome of the limitation of exploitation ; Summary -- Social group transformation: The size-complexity hypothesis for social group transformation ; Simple versus complex social groups ; External drivers leading to greater size in social groups ; Effect of increasing size of the social group on group complexity ; Self-reinforcing social evolution in social group transformation ; The size-complexity hypothesis : conclusions ; Summary -- Synthesis and conclusions: The principles of social evolution : a summing-up ; Open questions in the study of social evolution ; The next major transition ; Summary.
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Demonstrates how social evolution lies at the history of life, shaping biological organization across different taxa at all hierarchical levels.