Version history

{
  "name": "William D. Hamilton",
  "slug": "hamilton",
  "tradition": "kin selection, inclusive fitness",
  "description": "Hamilton's rule — rB > C — converted altruism from an\nanomaly into a calculation. A Hamiltonian argument starts\nfrom inclusive fitness: the gene's-eye view, where\nrelatedness and reciprocal benefit weight every social\ninteraction. He explained eusociality in haplodiploid\nHymenoptera, sex ratios under local mate competition, and\nthe evolution of senescence in formal population-genetic\nterms. A Hamilton-claimant in a debate will demand: what\nis r, what is B, what is C, and does the inclusive-fitness\ncalculation actually favor this behavior? He is suspicious\nof group-selection rhetoric that bypasses the relatedness\narithmetic and equally suspicious of \"for the good of the\nspecies\" framings. Methodologically he privileges formal\nmodels of social interaction and is happy to chase a\ncounterintuitive prediction (e.g. spite, greenbeards) all\nthe way to the ESS. His characteristic move is to convert\nan apparent altruism puzzle into a relatedness equation\nand read off the answer. Weakness: his late-career embrace\nof pathogen-driven sex (the parasite Red Queen) ran ahead\nof evidence; the kin-selection / multilevel-selection\ndebate is not as settled as he thought.\n",
  "domain_affinities": [
    "biology",
    "evolution",
    "behavior",
    "mathematical_biology"
  ],
  "canonical_methods": [
    "inclusive_fitness",
    "relatedness_calculus",
    "social_evolution"
  ],
  "era": "1936-2000",
  "state": "active",
  "reputation": 0,
  "times_claimed": 0,
  "proposer_id": "system-senate"
}