E. O. Wilson

Edward Osborne (E. O.) Wilson , was an American biologist, zoologist, naturalist, ecologist, and entomologist,Edward O. Wilson Discover Life. known for developing the field of sociobiology, the primary forerunner of evolutionary psychology. Wilson did not himself invent the term "sociobiology" as it had been introduced at least as early as 1940 by the English anthropologist and humorist, Ashley Montagu in his essay "The Socio-biology of Man" (Scientific Monthly, 50:483-490).Ashley Montagu New World Encyclopedia. Wilson also pioneered the field of 
Wilson was well-known and almost universally loved and admired. In the introduction to the PBS documentary about Wilson, he was described as "one of America’s greatest living thinkers".E. O. Wilson Of Ants and Men (September 2015) The Sarasota Herald-Tribune called him "A Hero of the Planet."Honoring a hero of the planet (April 6 2009) The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Leonardo DiCaprio tweeted that he was "the Darwin of the 20th Century."Leonardo DiCaprio on Twitter: "The world lost a true hero for the planet when Dr. E.O. Wilson passed away - "the Darwin of the 20th century", prolific writer, pioneer of groundbreaking new concepts in biology, and one of the towering intellects of our time." the Darwin of the 20th century But more controversially, Wilson supported some racialist ideas that live on in the modern-day so-called human biodiversity movement, and some have long claimed Wilson's sociobiology amounts to hereditarianism and biological determinism.
Wilson's work has also had political implications, primarily through his support of the racialist claims of J. Philippe Rushton, which have been used to argue against the social safety net and even for discrimination in employment.
==Career==
Wilson was a professor at Harvard for 46 years. A natural scientist, his concern about plant and animal habitat degradation, and its impact on biodiversity led him to become a conservationist.E. O. Wilson E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Apart from sociobiology, he also pioneered another discipline, island biogeography, a fundamental principle of ecology and conservation biology.Wilson, Renowned Harvard Biologist Known as ‘Darwin’s Natural Heir,’ Dies at 92 The Harvard Crimson On the latter, he worked together with 
Wilson biographies are widely available both onlineEdward Osborne Wilson, Naturalist (1929–2021) (2021) Bert Hölldobler PNAS and in published biographies such as Scientist: E. O. Wilson: A Life in Nature by ."A Biography of E.O. Wilson, the Scientist Who Foresaw Our Troubles" (November 10, 2021) New York Times and in Wilson's own memoir Naturalist. He donated a great deal of his letters, reprints, conference proceedings, etc. to the U.S. National Archive at the request of the Library of Congress.
The E. O. Wilson Foundation notes that it was thanks to the publication of Sociobiology that Wilson became famous — while recounting :
==="An endearing southern gentleman"===
Throughout the latter half of his career, Wilson was often referred to as a "southern gentleman": "a soft-spoken southern gentleman"E. O. Wilson, Renowned Harvard Biologist Known as 'Darwin's Natural Heir' Dies at 92 (December 31, 2021) Harvard CrimsonE.O. Wilson of Ants and Men aired 09/30/15 PBS, "an endearing Southern gentleman"Mountainfilm Festival introduction to its presentation of the PBS program 'E. O. Wilson of Ants and Men' 2016,"greeted us with the warmth of a true southern gentleman"A Tribute to E. O. Wilson The American Chestnut Foundation, Lisa Thomson, TACF President & CEO, "looks and acts the part of a southern gentlemanThe ant king's latest mission (Sat 30 Sep 2006 19.40 EDT) Robin McKie, The Guardian,"always retaining the kindness and generosity of a true ‘southern gentleman'"Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021) (February 3, 2022) Corrie S. Moreau and Naomi E. Pierce nature ecology & evolution , "the grand 77-year-old Southern gentleman"Of ants and men - and saving the world (Sunday September 24 2006, 1.00am BST,) Bryan Appleyard The Sunday Times, "ever the reasoned Southern gentleman" , "A mild-mannered southern gentleman."Top 10 Books about Intelligent Animals - Naturalist by E. O. Wilson (Wed 12 Oct 2016 06.00 EDT) Frans de Waal The Guardian
"Southern Gentleman" is an American archetype that is often associated with racism,Carbon Costume DIY Guide for Cosplay and Halloween Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, holds Django’s wife Broomhilda captive. As the owner of Candyland Plantation, his cruelty simmers under the mask of good manners, charming personality, and a sweet tooth. per TVTropes:TV Tropes: Southern Gentleman "...depending on time period, he usually either owns slaves or is nostalgic for the era of slavery (even if he doesn't harbor any actual racist views, the romanticism of The South's "golden age" is what matters)." One of the examples given is Candie, the sadistic plantation owner in the film Django Unchained, who studies "the racist pseudoscience of phrenology" as a hobby.
In his 1994 autobiography Naturalist, Wilson said: "'I instinctively respect authority and believe emotionally if not intellectually that it should be perturbed only for conspicuous cause. At my core I am a social conservative, a loyalist. I cherish traditional institutions, the more venerable and ritual-laden the better."Life Lessons, Taught by Insects review of Wilson's novel Anthill by Verlyn Klinkenborg (April 8, 2010) quoting Wilson's autobiography New York Times
==The path to sociobiology==
===20th century hereditarians and the civil rights movement===
The civil rights movement of the 1960s was opposed by hereditarians. the President of the American Psychological Association and Chair of Psychology at Columbia University organized an international group of scholars dedicated to preventing "race mixing", promoting segregation and eugenics.Science in the service of the far right: Henry E. Garrett, the IAAEE, and the Liberty Lobby Winston, A. S. (1998) Journal of Social Issues, 54(1), 179–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00059 During the 1950s-1960s Garrett helped distribute grants for the white nationalist Pioneer Fund. Recipients of Pioneer Fund money would eventually include Arthur Jensen, Hans Eysenck, Richard Lynn, J. Philippe Rushton, the and Mankind Quarterly.Pioneer Fund Southern Poverty Law Center
Garrett published The Equalitarian Dogma in 1961.The Equalitarian Dogma Henry E. Garrett Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 4, Number 4, Summer 1961 pp. 480-484 10.1353/pbm.1961.0028 accessed via Project Muse The paper attacked opponents of hereditarianism, claiming that the belief in racial equality was dogma, asking: Many college students have been indoctrinated and parrot the equalitarian arguments without competent familiarity with the evidence, shifting from the "scientific" to the moralistic position as the occasion requires. The northern press and many influential magazines, together with radio and TV programs, confidently proclaim equalitarianism. How can we account for today's shift from a general belief in native racial differences to acceptance of the equalitarian dogma?"
The claim that opposition to the race essentialism of hereditarians is a dogma is a favorite claim of present-day hereditarians, and even the term "equalitarian" has been adopted by them, likely in honor of those pro-segregation hereditarians, as with the Bo Winegard co-authored paper Equalitarianism: A Source of Liberal Bias.Equalitarianism: A Source of Liberal Bias (August 2023) Bo Winegard, Cory Clark, Connor Hasty and Roy Baumeister Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences
Garrett co-wrote the introduction to Carleton Putnam's 1961 Race and Reason, a Yankee View. The introduction includes the strategy that hereditarians would use again and again, right up to the present time: while using "science" to argue in favor of a political position, they accuse their anti-hereditarian opponents of politicizing science.The Peril of Politicizing Science Anna I. Krylov (June 10, 2021) The Journal of Physical Chemistry LettersThe Ideological Subversion of Biology Jerry A. Coyne and Luana S. Maroja (July/August 2023) Skeptical Inquirer
In 1962, Putnam's cousin, Carleton S. Coon, while professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and serving as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists published The Origin of Races, which promoted "racial polygenism". Coon stepped down as President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in protest after the association voted to censure his book Race and Reason.Carleton S. Coon New World Encyclopedia
In 1966 Garrett produced a pamphlet, How Classroom Desegregation Will Work, which states: "it is clear that desegregation will not pull the Negro up to White standards. To the contrary, desegregation will pull down the White child. Every items of evidence points this way."How Classroom Desegregation Will Work (1966) Henry E. Garrett Patrick Henry Press. When Garrett died in 1973, the New York Times mentioned nothing about his racialist views and activities.HENRY E. GARRETT, PSYCHOLOGIST, DIES (June 28, 1973) The New York Times 
In spite of the ongoing attempts of well-connected and well-respected members of academia and science, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, to prove biological races exist and those races possess distinct mental and behavioral traits, and from that argue that therefore desegregation was bad, the civil rights movement had great successes in the 1960s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the end of American miscegenation laws through Loving v. Virginia in 1967. 
But the quest to prove Black American inferiority through "science" continued. The main difference would be that from now on the hereditarians would no longer explicitly support segregation.
====Wilson's view of the civil rights movement====
In his book Naturalist, Wilson testified to rethinking his "social heritage" in his mid-20s. He said:
Naturalist was published in 1994. Between 1987 and 1994 Wilson had , encouraging his pseudoscientific claims about Black people. There are no letters available after 1994, but that could be the result of switching to email.
===Jensenism===
Before the 1960s ended, Arthur Jensen published claims that lower Black IQ test scores were the result of the genetic deficiencies of Black people. Jensen's theory was coined as "jensenism — the theory that IQ is largely determined by the genes." The New York Times explained how it made Jensen famous:
===Richard Herrnstein===
The project to prove that intelligence (and therefore human social hierarchies) is the direct result of genetics continued into the 1970s. In 1971 Richard Herrnstein published an article in The Atlantic, titled "IQ". In the article, Herrnstein refers to "biological barriers" of class and "a natural level in society."I.Q. Richard Herrnstein (September 1971) The Atlantic
As with Jensen, Herrnstein's genetic claims made him famous, so famous that then-president Richard Nixon was influenced by Herrnstein. In a taped conversation with Nixon broached Herrnstein's article. The tape is available online here. The relevant bit begins at 1:32:50.
Nixon and Moynihan go on to discuss the ramifications for social welfare policy and Nixon wonders whether well-educated Black teachers are qualified to teach English.
 
In 1973 Herrnstein published IQ in the Meritocracy. In the acknowledgments section, Herrnstein's list of "helpful respondents" includes Arthur Jensen and William Shockley Southern Poverty Law Center.I. Q. in the Meritocracy (1973) R. J. Herrnstein Little, Brown Company
In 1994 Herrnstein co-authored, with Charles Murray,Charles Murray Southern Poverty Law Center. The Bell Curve, described by Matthew Yglesias Matthew Yglesias The Brookings Institution. as "a tract proposing the comprehensive revision of the American welfare state along eugenicist lines"The Bell Curve is about policy. And it’s wrong. (Apr 10, 2018, 8:00am EDT) Matthew Yglesias Vox 
===Enter sociobiology===
Throughout the 1960s, hereditarian arguments were made against desegregation and against social programs to aid poor (often Black) children. But there was no single overarching research strategy to be used for furthering the hereditarian project as a science. 
In 1969-70, Wilson created the sociobiology concept and outlined how it could be linked with biology and "to some extent, with the humanities."A melding of humanities, science Amy MacKinnon (March 6, 2018) Harvard Crimson
Previously, in 1967 working with Robert MacArthur, Wilson had coined the terms "r-selection" and "K-selection",The Theory of Island Biogeography Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson (originally published in 1967) but the usefulness of r/K selection to human-centric sociobiology would not be clear to Wilson until his conversations with J. Philippe Rushton.
In 1971 Wilson introduced the term "sociobiology" in his book The Insect Societies.The Insect Societies Edward O. Wilson (1971) Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
==Sociobiology: The New Synthesis==
In 1975 Wilson published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.Sociobiology: the new synthesis Edward O. Wilson (1975) Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 
Wilson was aware of the fame that Jensen achieved in 1969The Jensen Uproar Antony Flew (February 25, 2009) Cambridge University Press followed by Herrnstein in 1971A Public Statement on the Herrnstein Controversy: Distributed at Philadelphia AAAS Meeting December 1971 Sister Marie Augusta Neal, Hilary Putnam, William Ryan, George Salzman, & Ethan Signer Science for the People’ Vol. 4, No. 2, March 1972, p. 15 for their controversial claims.
Wilson recounted that Herrnstein received institutional support from Harvard, in an interview in the hereditarian publication Quillette:
==="The amphetamine of ambition"===
In his autobiography, Wilson explains what drove him to write Sociobiology:
In the first chapter of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Wilson explains his ambition for sociobiology - One Synthesis to rule them all:
The last chapter of the book includes claims about human sociobiology, and even cites Herrnstein's Atlantic IQ article, the one that caused Richard Nixon to wonder if well-educated Black women were capable of teaching English: 
===="I recognized an opportunity"====
In his autobiography, Wilson explained why he included the chapter on human sociobiology:
Wilson always claimed to be surprised by the controversy stirred up by his human sociobiology claims, in spite of deliberately creating a "catalyst" and supported with a Herrnstein citation and expressed with "strong, provocative language." 
Understandably, found Wilson's claim hard to believe:
With Sociobiology, Wilson achieved not only fame but the National Medal of Science:
What Wilson neglects to mention here is that between November 22, 1977 and in February 1978, Wilson had published On Human Nature in January 1978 in which for the first time Wilson explicitly claims genetic racial differences.
==On Human Nature==
Wilson published On Human NatureOn Human Nature Edward O. Wilson (1978) Cambridge : Harvard University Press in January 1978. In it, he takes his claims from Sociobiology one step further by speculating on genetic causes for race-based (or as he calls it "geographical variation") differences in human social behavior. As evidence, Wilson used the work of and one of his students. In 1968, Freedman had delivered a paper The ethological study of man at the Eugenics Society Symposium.The ethological study of man Daniel G. Freedman (1968;4:37-62.) PubMed 
In 1979 Freedman published his own sociobiology book, thanking Wilson for his encouragementHuman Sociobiology: A Holistic Approach Daniel G. Freedman (1979) Free Press. In his Human Sociobiology: A Holistic Approach, Freedman explains that he took his first step towards human sociobiology when he began to wonder about differences between himself and his Chinese wife:
Freedman had many sociobiology speculations:
===Implications amok===
Freedman, ambitious like Wilson, found "broader implications" for the hereditarian hypothesis:
In his 1997 book Consilience, Wilson expanded hereditarian implications further. In a review of the book, biologist commented: "(Wilson) suggests that science will help tell us why painting A is better than painting B – a traditionally artsy enterprise. (Wilson believes neurobiology will find innate rules that cause us to prefer some visual art to others. The fact that twentieth-century art has been virtually defined by the rise of styles that people at first hated doesn’t seem to bother him.)"The Big Picture, a book review of Consilience by E. O. Wilson H. Allen Orr (October 1, 1998) Boston Review
Five years later Steven Pinker would expand hereditarian artsy implications even further, by including a chapter-long harangue about contemporary art in The Blank Slate where he explains how contemporary art is bad because it is in opposition to "human nature," but good artists (mavericks) abide by the precepts of sociobiology:
(In his review for the New Yorker of The Blank Slate Louis Menand dryly observes: "Music appreciation, for instance, seems to be wired in at about the level of "Hot Cross Buns." But people learn to enjoy Wagner. They even learn to sing Wagner. One suspects that enjoying Wagner, singing Wagner, anything to do with Wagner, is in gross excess of the requirements of natural selection. To say that music is the product of a gene for "art-making," naturally selected to impress potential mates — which is one of the things Pinker believes — is to say absolutely nothing about what makes any particular piece of music significant to human beings. No doubt Wagner wished to impress potential mates; who does not? It is a long way from there to "Parsifal."What Comes Naturally Louis Menand (November 17, 2002) The New Yorker)
===Dog breeds and human natures===
Convinced that humans could be classified like breeds of dogs, Freedman conducted tests with the goal of showing humans were like breeds of dogs.
A curious aspect of the studies, reflecting the typical carelessness of hereditarian racial claims, is that the "breeds" that Freedman selected were from different geographical scopes. He compared children with ancestry from China, a single country, against children with ancestry from a continent, Europe. To be fair, he does specify in his book that the Chinese children selected to be studied were from southern China while the "Caucasian" children had Northern European ancestry, although he doesn't say how exactly he determined that. But a region of a country versus a region of a continent still represents two different geographic scopes. The choice of ancestries to study was likely due to Freedman's personal situation, which he admits was the inspiration for his studies: his wife was Chinese and he considered himself "Caucasian." 
Continuing the incoherent categorization system, Freedman then compares individuals from China, a country, to individuals from the Navaho, classified as "a people" related to the Apache.Navajo people Encyclopedia Britannica The Navaho were living on reservations under the jurisdiction of the United States, which had a history of attempting to "assimilate" Native Americans through the boarding school system, which was active from 1860-1978.Death by Civilization Mary Annette Pember (March 8, 2019) The Atlantic 
During the system, "Wherever they were located or whoever ran them, the schools largely shared the mission of assimilating Indigenous students by erasing their culture. Children’s hair was cut off; their clothes were burned; they were given new, English names and were required to attend Christian religious services; and they were forced to perform manual labor, both on school premises and on surrounding farms. Those who dared to keep speaking their ancestral languages or observing their religious practices were often beaten."The Native American Boarding School System Zach Levitt, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Simon Romero and Tim Wallace (August 30, 2023) The New York Times
Unconcerned about geographic scope or historical context, Wilson included Freedman's studies in the "Heredity" chapter of On Human Nature as evidence for the hereditarian hypothesis of innate racial differences in behavior. 
The extreme hereditarian preference for nature over nurture explanations for human behavior is apparent in the next paragraph. Freedman claims, and Wilson agrees, that cradleboarding was invented by the Navaho to accommodate the natural quiescence of their infants:
===Trolling the critics of sociobiology===
Wilson, believing he has made a convincing case for genetic racial traits, calls skeptics of the hereditarian hypothesis anti-intellectual:
Then Wilson attempts to wave away concerns over poorly-supported claims that, genetically, Navahos are "quiescent" and Chinese are unemotional, with this:
Wilson used the handwaving "hope and pride" passage again, in a letter to Steven Rose in Nature in 1980 (emphasis added):
Wilson, waxing pious himself, is shocked that Rose would suggest that sociobiology could possibly be used to argue for racist ideology. Seven years later Wilson would be with "Press ahead!"
====Wilson's hypotheticals====
Wilson finishes the chapter by trolling his archenemies at the time, theologians and Marxists, with hypothetical scenarios.
What is Wilson's point with this? That Homo sapiens are all the same species, and Maxists would be presented with an insoluble quandary for how to incorporate other species of human into their theories? It seems certain that any political group would struggle with the implications of "man-apes." So why single out Marxists, other than because one of Wilson's most influential critics, Richard Lewontin was an avowed Marxist? 
The hypotheticals are even more interesting, knowing as we do now, that nine years later Wilson would cheer Rushton's application of Wilson's own r/K selection model to humans. Rushton's claim was that White people and Black people were essentially different species with differently-evolved reproduction strategies.
===Pulitzer Prize===
And once again, Wilson would achieve acclaim from his contemporaries for promoting the hereditarian hypothesis, this time a Pulitzer Prize.The 1979 Pulitzer Prize Winner in General Nonfiction: On Human Nature, by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard Univ. Press) The Pulitzer jury consisted of three white men. One, , grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, and Larry Swindell grew up in Jim Crow Texas.
Wilson saw his Pulitzer Prize as a triumph over his critics:
==The water incident==
The month after Human Nature was published, at the February 1978 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science it seems certain that E. O. Wilson was involuntarily hydrated. But the gender and quantity of hydrator(s), hydrator utterance(s) and the volume, type and quantity of container and water temperature vary from one recounting to another.
Richard Dawkins, who claimed to be an eyewitness to the event, called the hydrator a "bearded man" who "tipped water over Wilson" and said that there was also cup-throwing:
Carl Zimmer said, "A woman dumped ice water" while shouting. 
 
Michael Shermer, apparently using the same source as Zimmer, said it was a cup of waterWas the Great Scientist E. O. Wilson a Racist? NO! Michael Shermer (April 27, 2022) Skeptic on Substack, but back in 2000 Shermer said it was "a jug of ice-water."Biology, Destiny and Dissent] Michael Shermer (June 25, 2000) The Washington Post
But according to evolutionary psychologist Helen Fisher,Wide-Angle Thinker: Evolutionary Psychologist Helen Fisher Discusses Film’s Role Sundance Institute. "demonstrators" hydrated while chanting, and it was a pitcher of ice water.'Wilson,' They Said, 'Your All Wet!' Helen Fisher (October 16, 1994) The New York Times
Kevin Drum, former Mother Jones writer,Mother Jones: Kevin Drum and defender of QuilletteNobody Is Defending Phrenology Today Kevin Drum (June 6, 2019) Mother Jones used the incident to tar "liberals" (he does not like liberalsIf you hate the culture wars, blame liberals Kevin Drum (July 3, 2021) jabberwocking.com), while declaring victory for sociobiology. Drum appeared to use the same source as Zimmer and Shermer, but in his telling it was "some protesters" who did the hydrating. He also claimed that Ullica Segerstråle's Defenders of the Truth was "the definitive work on the sociobiology wars."E.O. Wilson died on Sunday, but sociobiology lives on Kevin Drum (December 27, 2021) jaberworking.com
Alice Dreger claimed several members of the “International Committee Against Racism” did the hydrating.Galileo's middle finger : heretics, activists, and the search for justice in science Alice Dreger (2015) New York : Penguin Press
Writing in The New Atlantis, Whitley Kaufman said it was a cup of water and that the "full pitcher of ice water" was an embellishment. Kaufman also scoffs at the idea that Wilson could be a racist, then mentions that Wilson supported eugenics:
Eyewitness David Hull wrote:
===The only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea===
Whoever did the hydrating and whatever the quantity, E. O. Wilson loved that story and brought it up during interviews in his later years, saying that he was the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea.The Last Word: E.O. Wilson Erik Olsen, James Gorman and Robin Stein (December 27, 2021) The Last Word - The New York Times
In a video excerpt from the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Wilson says: "I got (water) dumped on me, I said to myself immediately: "This is interesting, and also it's a bit of history to reflect on later. I believe I'm going to be able to claim that I was the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea."E.O. Wilson: Attacked for an Idea EOWilson Biodiversity Foundation - VIMEO 
Wilson liked it so much, he used that water in a Great Man of Science pissing match with famous for co-discovering DNA and infamous for his bigoted public comments.DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments Julia Belluz (January 15, 2019) VoxDNA Pioneer James Watson Loses Honorary Titles Over Racist Comments: The renowned scientist has a long history of controversial commentary on not only race, but issues spanning gender, religion and sexuality by Meilan Solly (January 15, 2019) Smithsonian Magazine was surprised:
Wilson often mentioned the leftist or Marxist affiliation of his two most prominent critics: the paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science Stephen Jay Gould. and the evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator and even presented the controversy as sociobiology vs. Marxist philosophy.Race unmasked: biology and race in the twentieth century Michael Yudell (2014) New York : Columbia University Press - "Wilson’s use of Marxism as an intellectual foil to Sociobiology holds great irony..." But many of the critics of sociobiology were not Marxists, and their followers had nothing to do with cups, jugs or buckets of water. In Naturalist Wilson recounts:
Anthropologist proponent of the research strategy was not a Marxist, and was a strong critic of human sociobiology.Anthropologist Criticizes Sociobiology For Genetic Theory of Human Society Gregory M. Lewis (April 29, 1976) The Harvard Crimson and its descendant, evolutionary psychologyTheories of culture in postmodern times Marvin Harris (1999) Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press But Wilson almost never mentions the "no-takeover" debate with Harris, probably because it would not support the sociobiologist vs. water-flinging Marxist narrative that Wilson preferred.
All of this would seem to be molehill mountaineering by Wilson, except that it is counterfactual. Was Wilson really "the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea"? First, one would have to define "modern times" in a rather peculiar way, it would have to postdate the Nazi persecution of Jewish scientists (1930s), the Stalinist purges of Soviet geneticists,Stalinist Science by Nikolai Krementsov (1997) Princeton University Press. ISBN 069102877X. and the persecution of scientists during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Yao was beaten to death by Chinese revolutionary guards in 1968. Even with that date cutfoff, could Wilson be considered the only such scientist? At the time of the incident, perhaps, but certainly not in his frequent retelling of the story: the Unabomber targeted scientists (among others) during his bombing campaign (1978-1995).
==Wilson to Lumsden to Rushton==
Wilson recounted that it was obvious to him that "human sociobiology would remain in trouble, both intellectually and politically, until it incorporated culture into its analyses." And so he turned to who was at that time a theoretical physicist. "His interests had lately turned to biology, and he saw great opportunity in the analysis of social behavior."
With Lumsden, Wilson wrote two books, Genes, Mind and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process in 1981Genes, mind, and culture : the coevolutionary process Charles Lumsden and E. O. Wilson (1981) Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press and Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of MindPromethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind Charles Lumsden and E. O. Wilson (1981) Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press in 1983.
Biologist slammed Genes, Mind and Culture in The New York Review of Books, writing:
Continuing the gene-culture theory, Lumsden co-authored a paper with J. Philippe Rushton and Christina H. Littlefield, Gene-Culture Coevolution of Complex Social Behavior: Human Altruism and Mate Choice.Gene-Culture Coevolution of Complex Social Behavior: Human Altruism and Mate Choice Charles Lumsden, J. Philippe Rushton, Christina H. Littlefield (1986) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The paper includes the line "Communicated by E. O. Wilson, June 1986" which means it was submitted on behalf of the authors by Wilson, as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The Academy ended that type of submission in 2010.PNAS will eliminate Communicated submissions in July 2010 Randy Schekman (September 15, 2009) PNAS Communicated submissions bypassed the normal peer-review process, and instead relied on the authority of the member of the NAS who 'communicates' the paper to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).PNAS: Tighter Editorial Policy Improves NAS Papers by Phil Davis (Jan 14, 2016) The Scholarly Kitchen.
==Sociobiology to evolutionary psychology==
In the afterward of the 2006 edition of his autobiography, Wilson explained what happened to sociobiology:
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "The 'descendants' of sociobiology include human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology (Cosmides and Tooby, 1987) and more recently, dual inheritance theory (Boyd and Richerson, 1985; Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, 1981). These projects as a group are now sometimes referred to as the "evolutionary social sciences" (Smith et al., 2001).Sociobiology (First published Mon Nov 11, 2013; substantive revision Thu May 12, 2022) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
In a 1998 interview in Skeptic magazine, Wilson discussed evolutionary psychology versus sociobiology with who is "…best known for his advocacy of the concept of race, as well as defending the hereditarian hypotheses in its relation to race and intelligence… While an undergraduate, he became a regular contributor to Mankind Quarterly and collaborated with Donald A. Swan and A. James Gregor. He has also worked as a research assistant and consultant for Richard Lynn."
In Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer, Cosmides and Tooby wrote "there is no such thing as 'race'".Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer Leda Cosmides & John Tooby Center for Evolutionary Psychology The reason that evolutionary psychology was "a little bit more politically correct" than sociobiology is likely because its leading proponents removed discussion of racial differences from their research strategy.
Steve Sailer, promoter of sociobiology under the name human biodiversity, concurs. In his discussion of Steven Pinker's changing views he said, "He started out completely under the spell of Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, the founders of evolutionary psychology, which has succeeded on politically-correct campuses by stripping from Edward O. Wilson's discipline of sociobiology its emphasis on explaining human differences.Pinker's Progress by Steve Sailer (December 2, 2002) archive of VDARE By "human differences", Sailer means race. And Sailer appears to be correct about Pinker, who is often referred to as an "evolutionary psychologist."Pinker takes no prisoners in defense of evolutionary theory Bruce Ramsey (October 13, 2002) Seattle Times Pinker believes the opposite of Cosmides and Tooby, tweeting in 2013 "Every geneticist knows that the "Race doesn't exist" dogma is a convenient PC 1/4-truth" while providing a link to a New York Times Science column by Nicholas Wade.Every geneticist knows that the "Race doesn't exist" dogma is a convenient PC 1/4-truth. Steven Pinker (February 18, 2013) Twitter (archived from December 23, 2018). Pinker appears to have switched from evolutionary psychology to E. O. Wilson-style sociobiology.
==Obituaries==
Wilson died December 26, 2021 and the tributes poured in as if from many buckets of water. A KQED tribute called him "…a beloved professor at Harvard University for 46 years, throughout which he inspired a generation of aspiring scientists to care for the earth as he did."A Tribute to E.O. Wilson (January 16, 2022) City Arts Carl Zimmer wrote:
National Geographic took the obituary as an opportunity to proclaim victory for sociobiology:
Nature said: "His accessible writing extended his impact far beyond academia and inspired countless readers to follow a career in science. He did this while always retaining the kindness and generosity of a true ‘southern gentleman’.Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021) Corrie S. Moreau and Naomi E. Pierce (February 3, 2022) Nature
Anthropologist Michael Balter commented: "Nearly all the obituaries of Wilson emphasize his roots in Alabama and the segregated University of Alabama, and depict him as a southern gentleman scientist — without any examination of the possibility that the prejudices of growing up in the south might have left their mark on Wilson’s psyche…"Michael Balter: When the Hagiography Stops and the Truth-Telling Begins: The Legacy of E.O. Wilson (08/02/2022) Uma (in)certa antropologia
===The complicated legacy===
In the tiny minority, Monica R. McLemore published a critical piece about Wilson in 2021 in Scientific American, "The Complicated Legacy of E. O. Wilson".The Complicated Legacy of E. O. Wilson Monica R. McLemore (December 29, 2021) Scientific American McLemore wrote: 
McLemore was referring here to Lewontin's "False Metaphor" criticism of sociobiology.
The hereditarians were outraged:
* Razib Khan wrote a rebuttal and got his friends to sign it.Setting the record straight: open letter on E.O. Wilson's legacy Razib Khan (January 18, 2022) Khan's Substack Unsupervised Learning
* Steve Sailer and his racist fans were madScientific American: How to Fix E.O. Wilson's Racist Legacy Steve Sailer (December 29, 2021) The Unz Review
* Steven Pinker tweeted his outrage with a link to Razib Khan's rebuttal.Scientific American, after inviting a multiauthor letter replying to their inane posthumous condemnation of EO Wilson, rejected it; here it is. (I suggested edits on a draft, but kept my name off the list of signatories to make room for others) @razibkhan Steven Pinker (January 20, 2022) Twitter (archived from February 7, 2022).
* Jerry Coyne griped "asinine hit job".Scientific American does an asinine hit job on E. O. Wilson, calling him a racist Jerry Coyne (December 30, 2021) Why Evolution is True&nbs;— Coyne's blog
* Michael Shermer tweeted "what a calumny against one of the least racist..."E.O. Wilson, scientific racist, racist scientist. Seriously @sciam What a calumny against one of the least racist (or race science enthusiasts) of our time. Shame on you. Michael Shermer (December 30, 2021) Twitter (archived from March 30, 2022).
* Writing for the far-right American Conservative, Rod Dreher cried "How does garbage like this get approved at a publication like Scientific American?"The ‘Problematic’ E.O. Wilson Rod Dreher (December 30, 2021) American Conservative
* Lee Jussim railed, "Silencing by the left is a myth." Not counting the ridiculous attempts to silence E.O. Wilson for his groundbreaking work on the evolution of behavior." and linked to Khan's rebuttal.Silencing by the left is a myth." Not counting the ridiculous attempts to silence E.O. Wilson for his groundbreaking work on the evolution of behavior. Lee Jussim (March 6, 2022) Twitter (archived from March 7, 2022).
==The Wilson Papers==
===Wilson's alignment with Rushton===
In its obituary of Rushton, The Globe and Mail describes Wilson's influence on Rushton, including the political implications of sociobiology: "The publication a few years later of E.O. Wilson's book Sociobiology supplied a theoretical template for his shifting worldview by describing the biological roots of behaviours previously thought to be determined by cultural influences. In any analysis of life forms, evolution now became the beginning of understanding. Well-meant social programs, in this deterministic analysis, weren't likely to change or challenge more deep-seated genetic influences."Philippe Rushton, professor who pushed limits with race studies, dead at 68 John Allemang (November 2, 2012) The Globe and Mail
The Peter Thiel-funded Big ThinkPeter Thiel - Big Think ran an obituary of Rushton written by Satoshi Kanazawa that called Rushton a "Modern-Day Galileo."Modern-Day Galileo: J. Philippe Rushton (1943-2012) Satoshi Kanazawa (October 10, 2012) Big Think
Well before Wilson's death, his alignment with Rushton and other promoters of race pseudoscience had been discussed.
In 1991, thirty years before Wilson's death, in A mirror to nature: reflections on science, scientists, and society, Peter Knudtson made the connection between Wilson and Rushton:A Mirror to Mature: Reflections on Science, Scientists, and Society by Peter Knudtson (1991) Stoddart. ISBN 0773724672.
And then later Knudtson wrote:
In 2019, Gavin Evans wrote:
In Undark Magazine, Michael Shulson noted:
In spite of all the evidence of Wilson's racialist beliefs, the mainstream press and the world at large did not want to hear it and instead adored Wilson as a Great Man of ScienceEdward O. Wilson’s special connection to Alabama Mark Kelly (January 18, 2022) Alabama News CenterE. O. Wilson TEDE. O. Wilson's Theory of Everything Howard W. French (November 2011 Issue) The AtlanticA Conversation with E. O. Wilson Jason Mark (December 28, 2019) Sierra
And then one glorious morning…Video excerpt: Pete Davidson learns of the accusations against Louis C. K. by Alessandro Collins YouTube
===Science for the People===
According to the Science for the People archives page: "In 1969, a group of scientists and activists committed to the practice of science to end oppression and violence began publishing Science for the People, a flagship publication of the radical science movement for 20 years." The publication relaunched in 2019.Science for the People Archives
All claims about "" that mention a group affiliation, mention the but the Nature obituary for Wilson claimed it was "'a group of protestors from the organization " This is likely a reflection on Nature's journalistic standards, as there is no evidence for its claim. In 1995, Wilson wrote an article, "Science and ideology", in which he recounted the water incident, and while he certainly does not like Science for the People, he does not say they were the hydrators.Science and ideology Edward O. Wilson Vol. 8, Academic Questions, 06-01-1995
Science for the People was undeniably a harsh critic of Wilson and sociobiology. In the November 6, 1978 issue of Science for the People, the unsigned introduction to a book review for Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, titled "Sociobiology - Skewed Synthesis" says:
==="Anti-racism is the last refuge of scoundrels"=== 
On February 1, 2022 the relaunched Science for the People published an article by Stacy Farina, Assistant Professor of Biology at Howard University and Matthew Gibbons a health researcher, about what they had found in the papers that Wilson had donated:
Later, Farina and Gibbons commented, "Wilson pontificated that arguing for equity among groups of people was ideologically similar to racism, adding the evocative phrase my way of putting it would be that anti-racism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”
===The New York Review of Books: Ideology as Biology===
Mark Borello, Director of the Program in the History of Science and Technology and an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of MinnesotaMark Borrello Contributor page The New York Review of Books and David Sepkoski, Thomas M. Siebel Chair in History of Science at the University of IllinoisDavid Sepkoski Department of History University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign published an article in The New York Review of Books, "Ideology as Biology":
===E. O. Wilson Foundation response===
===Hereditarian response===
Unsurprisingly, once the correspondence between Wilson and Rushton was published, hereditarians claimed that publicizing Wilson's warm relationship with Rushton was unfair to Wilson. Steven Pinker called it "slander". David Sepkoski, co-author of The New York Review of Books article on Wilson, had a strong reaction, calling Pinker "this moron — and I do mean that in the medical sense."And this moron--and I do mean that in the medical sense--seems not to understand that these papers were donated BY WILSON with the understanding they would be read by scholars. He had every right to keep them "private" and chose not to. Sheesh. by David Sepkoski (April 27, 2022) Twitter (archived from April 27, 2022). Sepkoski pointed out that far from invading Wilson's privacy, as Pinker implied, Wilson had voluntarily shared his Rushton correspondence with the public.
Sepkoski had run-ins with Michael Shermer, who even defended Rushton against charges of racism, tweeting "Of course you think Rushton was a racist. I thought so too until I looked at the evidence."On the day of Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic confirmation, @michaelshermer has announced that he's going to vindicate a researcher who argued that Black people are less intelligent and more prone to violence than White people. Let that sink in for a moment. by David Sepkoski (April 7, 2022) Twitter (archived from April 7, 2022). Demonstrating how extremely "race realist" or some might simply say "racist" Michael Shermer is.
Later Sepkoski accused Shermer of conducting a smear campaign, tweeting:
Sepkoski also had an unpleasant run-in with Alice Dreger, who had tweeted, "A sad day in the history of science when we've gone from problematic "great man" intellectual histories to problematic "evil man" intellectual histories." A sad day in the history of science when we've gone from problematic "great man" intellectual histories to problematic "evil man" intellectual histories. by Alice Dreger (April 8, 2022) Twitter (archived from April 8, 2022). 
Sepkoski responded: "This is the same Alice Dreger who sat with Wilson for an interview in which she freely editorialized about Wilson's "mistreatment," suggesting that I'm being overly personal in my work. And tweeted this. (link to Quillette)This is the same Alice Dreger who sat with Wilson for an interview in which she freely editorialized about Wilson's "mistreatment," suggesting that I'm being overly personal in my work. And tweeted this. David Sepkoski (April 8, 2022) Twitter (archived from April 8, 2022). Sepkoski included a tweet by Dreger that says: "Ed Wilson was not just a scientific great, he was a moral great. Here are a few pages from "Galileo's Middle Finger," excerpting the conversations I had with him about being attacked.Ed Wilson was not just a scientific great, he was a moral great. Here are a few pages from "Galileo's Middle Finger," excerpting the conversation I had with him about being attacked. by Alice Dreger (2022) Twitter (archived image).
In reference to Jerry Coyne's response, Sepkoski wrote: "Ah, now Jerry Coyne is parroting Shermer's lies and straw men about our essay on Wilson. Apparently "truth" and "evidence" only matter when they don't make you uncomfortable."Ah, now Jerry Coyne is parroting Shermer's lies and straw men about our essay on Wilson. Apparently "truth" and "evidence" only matter when they don't make you uncomfortable...? David Sepkoski (April 6, 2022) Twitter (archived from 10 Sep 2023 06:20:49 UTC).
====Ullica Segerstråle====
In response to an inquiry from Undark Magazine for its article on the new revelations of Wilson, Segerstråle said she "challenges characterizations of Wilson as a racist thinker, and argues that his critics often failed to engage with the actual substance of his work. 'I stand by my general analysis in that book regarding the thinking and behavior of both E.O. Wilson and Science for the People,'"
Sepkoski had discovered something about Segerstråle's relationship with Wilson among Wilson's letters, "I would point out that another feature of the Wilson archive are letters showing that Wilson was coaching Segerstråle as she was writing her dissertation and book, with a lot of back-and-forth personally attacking Gould and Lewontin. I do not regard this as an impartial source."I would point out that another feature of the Wilson archive are letters showing that Wilson was coaching Segerstrale as she was writing her dissertation and book, with a lot of back-and-forth personally attacking Gould and Lewontin. I do not regard this as an impartial source. by David Sepkoski (February 6, 2022) Twitter (archived from February 7, 2022).
===Wilson-Rushton Correspondence timeline===
This timeline was assembled based on the Science for the People article, and an image of a Wilson letter (August 25, 1987) that was shared by David Sepkoski on Twitter.To be very clear: @michaelshermer alleges that his selective reproduction of Wilson-Rushton correspondence is the complete story. Here are a couple of items he doesn't reproduce, perhaps because they don't fit his disingenuous narrative. David Sepkoski (April 27, 2022) Twitter (archived from April 27, 2022).
====August 25, 1987====
Wilson to Rushton, in reference to Rushton's theory that Black people are "r-selected" using Wilson's own r/K concept, which Rushton used to justify his belief that Black people evolved to be less intelligent than white people.
==== September 1987 ====
Wilson explains to Rushton why he can't sponsor an article on racial differences.
====December 5, 1989====
Wilson tells Rushton, "your critics simply will not be able to convict you of racism."
====April 4, 1990====
Wilson to the Appeals Committee at the University of Western Ontario to support Rushton’s appeal of his Unsatisfactory rating.
====July 3, 1990====
Wilson defends Rushton's racialist claims with "some noted specialists in human genetics and cognitive psychology have judged them to be sound and significant".
====July 17, 1990====
Rushton expresses appreciation to Wilson for his help in the battle to treat Rushton's views on race as "normal science".
====October 18, 1991====
Rushton crows that thanks to Wilson, his rating is now 'Good' in spite of an even greater obsession with race differences:
==Wilson's hereditarian legacy==
Wilson's development of sociobiology was part of the hereditarian tradition, often used to maintain the racial status quo in the United States. Wilson was influenced by the arguments of political hereditarians like Richard Herrnstein and tempted by the prospect of achieving fame through publicizing hereditarian arguments.
In Undark Magazine, C. Brandon Ogbunu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University writes that with the publication of Sociobiology:
===Hereditarian politics===
It is evident that the driving force of hereditarianism in the United States is right-wing politics. 
Prominent hereditarians such as Henry Garrett were blatant in their attempts to use "scientific" hereditarian claims to prevent Black and White children from attending the same schools. 
In 1970, Arthur Jensen, claiming to be in favor of desegregation while at the same time opposing actual methods of desegregation such as busing, entered the "reasonableness" of the hereditarian hypothesis into the Congressional Record:
In 1975, Elizabeth Allen and fifteen co-signers sent a letter to The New York Review of Books called "Against Sociobiology" and because they did not discuss the letter with Wilson before publication, Wilson accused them of "vigilantism" that "diminishes the spirit of free inquiry."For Sociobiology E. O. Wilson (December 11, 1975) The New York Review of Books Wilson would often imply that critics of sociobiology were motivated by politics,Intelligent Evolution E. O. Wilson (November 2005) Harvard MagazineAnatomy of a Fierce Academic Feud Colin Campbell (November 9, 1986) The New York Times a claim repeated by Wilson's hereditarian allies such as Nicholas Wade at The New York Times.Taking a Cue From Ants on Evolution of Humans Nicholas Wade (July 15, 2008) The New York Times
Wilson was a defender of Herrnstein, and cited him in Sociobiology. Herrnstein would go on to co-author The Bell Curve with Charles Murray. Thanks to evolutionary psychology, the hereditarian theories taught in colleges and discussed in newspapers during the mid-1980s to mid-1990s avoided the racial implications of the hereditarian assumption. But The Bell Curve, championed by Andrew Sullivan in The New RepublicI’m Still Reading Andrew Sullivan. But I Can’t Defend Him. Ben Smith (August 30, 2020) The New York Times in 1994, changed that.
====The American hereditarian assumption====
The Bell Curve began the public revival of race-focused sociobiology that had been tempered by the "race does not exist" creed of the evolutionary psychologists. Murray would continue a well-remunerated career as a well-known hereditarian thanks to the largess of funders like Charles and David Koch, (David died in 2019) and the Bradley Foundation,SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR CHARLES MURRAY TO RECEIVE 2016 BRADLEY PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT (April 26, 2016) Bradley Foundation Press Release right up to the present time. Soon Murray would be joined by others, funded by the Kochs and other right-wing racist plutocrats. 
All would continue to promote the traditional hereditarian racial assumption in America, which can be boiled down to this:
In spite of 250 years of slavery, followed by more than one hundred years of anti-Black terrorism, including organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, periodic "race riots" such as the Tulsa Race Massacre, and lynchings, Jim Crow, voter suppression, redlining,The Jim Crow South? No, Long Island Today The Editorial Board (November 21, 2019) The New York Times segregation and theft of Black property and wealth,The Contemporary Relevance of Historic Black Land Loss Dr. Dania V. Francis, Dr. Grieve Chelwa, Dr. Darrick Hamilton, Thomas W. Mitchell, Nathan A. Rosenberg, and Bryce Wilson Stucki (January 6, 2023) American Bar Association the most plausible explanation for Black inability to thrive in the United States is the Black genome. 
====Libertarians and hereditarianism====
Most libertarians are opposed to any government spending except for policing, a legal system, and external defense, so hereditarianism is perfect for libertarian political goals, especially the goal of destroying social safety nets in the United States. Hereditarians have argued that those who are poor and who have poor IQ test scores are not the victims of systemic racism or historical events or economic influences, but rather the victims of their own incompetent genes. And therefore, the argument goes, the poor and disadvantaged cannot be helped by government programs. 
Charles Murray, long associated with the right-wing libertarian think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Charles Murray's AEI profile page published a book in 1997 called What it Means to be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation.Charles Murray’s Libertarian Vision (March 01, 1997) AEI
====Herrnstein, Murray and The Bell Curve====
 Richard Herrnstein died the month The Bell Curve was published, but his co-author Murray would go on to a long career funded by right-leaning libertarians via the Manhattan Institute.Intellectual Stock Picking" by James Traub the New Yorker January 1994 The Manhattan Institute had given Murray's career a boost in 1984 by commissioning his anti-welfare book, Losing Ground. Murray and Herrnstein would then combine the anti-social safety net policies of the Republican Party with the hereditarian race tradition of Herrnstein, bolstered by the "science" of Wilson's partner in racialist theories, Rushton.
The contemporary view of The Bell Curve was that it was a targeted attack on Black intelligence, as when Al Franken joked at the 1996 White House Correspondents Dinner: 
"By the way, also here tonight is Charles Murray who I understand has been hard at work on a sequel to "The Bell Curve" entitled "Jazz, the Music Created by Morons." By the way, also here tonight is Charles Murray who I understand has been hard at work on a sequel to The Bell Curve entitled Jazz, the Music Created by Morons. Al Fraken at the 1996 White House Correspondent's Dinner YouTube
E. O. Wilson defended The Bell Curve in an interview on C-Span in 2007, saying: "I think it was attacked unfairly because if you actually read the book and so many people who wrote editorials and critiques and so on hadn't really read it, you find that the authors themselves considered the evidence at that time, uh, somewhat ambiguous and needing further research on differences between different, you know, different geographical groups, ethnic groups and so on. And that they themselves ensured that would be no criterion for, you know, morally acceptable discrimination."In Depth Edward O. Wilson C-Span
In fact, in its appendix, The Bell Curve provides a vigorous defense of its eleven Rushton citations, claiming that Rushton is "not a crackpot or a bigot":
Considering how often they cite Rushton, and considering Herrnstein's statements on race before the publication of The Bell Curve and Murray's statements after, it's very unlikely they had any doubt who was "more nearly right as a matter of science, Rushton or his critics."
In 2021 Charles Murray took hereditarian politics to their logical conclusion, calling job discrimination (currently illegal) against Black applicants "economically rational" based on the hereditarian arguments in his book Facing Reality. Razib Khan wrote a glowing review of Facing Reality in Quillette, expressing his full agreement with Murray's warning that America was endangered by the genetically-endowed criminality of Black Americans.Review of Charles Murray's Facing Reality Razib Khan (July 29, 2021) Quillette
When the realities of Black American history are pointed out to hereditarians, they sometimes point to immigrant groups' success as evidence that there is something particularly deficient about Black people, as when Ben Winegard implied that Asian and Jewish groups have had comparable experiences, or when Andrew Sullivan and Charles Murray attribute Asian American success to genetics.(As I frequently tell you Andrew Sullivan is a racist pos.) Soledad O'Brien retweeting Tom Scocca retweeting Andrew Sullivan (May 30, 2021) Twitter
=====Charles Murray and Peter Thiel=====
Murray and Thiel teamed up in 2011 to support the proposition "Too Many Kids Go To College"Too Many American Kids Go To College Elizabeth Weingarten (October 11, 2011) Slate
=====Charles Murray funding racialist extremists=====
In 2020 Murray claimed to have contributed to fundraising campaigns for racialist extremists Emil Kirkegaard and Bo Winegard for a human biodiversity fundraiser.
====Rushton again====
Switching from "science" to politics, J. Philippe Rushton became president of the Pioneer Fund in 2002. Rushton was a favorite of the International Society for Intelligence Research, appearing and having his work represented at its conferences every year between 2000 and 2010 (Rushton died in 2012).ISIR conference program 2000ISIR conference program 2001ISIR conference program 2002ISIR conference program 2003ISIR conference program 2004ISIR conference program 2005ISIR conference program 2006ISIR conference program 2007ISIR conference program 2008ISIR conference program 2009ISIR conference program 2010
Rushton's racial theories were promoted by Steve Sailer and Razib KhanRazib Khan blog posts Razib Khan (2002) Gene Expression on their websites, including in their columns on Ron Unz's platform The Unz Review.
====Ron Unz====
Ron Unz is a politically-active multimillionaire who funded a California proposition to outlaw bilingual education in 1998The Man Behind Prop. 227 Margot Hornblower/Los Angeles (June 8, 1998) CNN
Ron Unz is also a former student of E. O. Wilson.Does Race Exist? Do Hills Exist? Ron Unz (May 22, 2014) Ron Unz – Writings and Perspectives His Unz Review' has always promoted race pseudoscience. In his Unz Review column in 2000, Steve Sailer celebrated the 25th anniversary of Sociobiology.Sociobiology at Age 25 Steve Sailer (June 19, 2000) The Unz Review Unz also outright gave money to Sailer, Khan and Gregory Cochran.
===Mainstreaming biological determinism in the 21st century===
====Steven Pinker====
Steven Pinker, "celebrity intellectual",How a Famous Harvard Professor Became a Target Over His Tweets Michael Powell (July 15, 2020) The New York Times promoted the career of Steve Sailer from approximately 2002 to 2012 and has promoted the career of Razib Khan from about 2006 to the present. Pinker has probably done more than any individual, besides possibly Andrew Sullivan, to mainstream hereditarianism. In 2002, The New York Times' review of Pinker's The Blank Slate made the connection between Pinker's book and Wilson's sociobiology.The Evolutionary War Robert J. Richards (October 13, 2002) The New York Times Pinker has been an advisor of the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity FoundationE.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Strengthens Governance with Addition of New Board Members (October 2, 2012) E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
=====Richard Hanania=====
Pinker is a supporter of racist Richard Hanania,Why Rationality Requires Incentives | Steven Pinker & Richard Hanania Hanania interviews Pinker (September 27, 2021) Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology so much so that he only has a single subscription on his Twitter (X) account and that is to Richard Hanania.Steven Pinker's Twitter (X) account (archived from March 22, 2023).i knew pinker followed hanania which is bad enough but oh my god hanania’s is THE ONLY ACCOUNT HE SUBSCRIBES TO Dr. Caitlin Green (August 6, 2023) Twitter (archvied from 12 Sep 2023 03:21:29 UTC). Hanania became notorious when it was discovered that he previously had an online extremist career under a pseudonym.Our Journey Into Extremism The revealing case of the anti-woke crusader Richard Hanania Zak Cheney-Rice (August 12, 2023) New York Magazine Intelligencer Pinker continued to support him, even after his extremist activities were revealed.
But as journalist Jonathan Katz pointed out, Hanania's opinions under his own name are not much less extreme. Hanania agreed with Charles Murray about Black Americans and job discrimination. Katz wrote, "Through his non-apology, Hanania was trying to strike a distinction between calling for violence in the name of “natural” hierarchy and instead proposing other policies — such as allowing discrimination in hiring and public accommodations — based on the same." The Anti-Wokes are Doing us a Favor Jonathan M. Katz (August 28, 2023) Substack - The Racket
And according to Hanania, "The reason I’m the target of a cancellation effort is because left-wing journalists dislike anyone acknowledging statistical differences between races…"Why an Unremarkable Racist Enjoyed the Backing of Billionaires Jamelle Bouie (August 12, 2023) The New York Times
Matthew Yglesias justified his support for Richard HananiaNever answer mailbag questions angry! Matthew Yglesias (January 20, 2023) Substack - Slow and Boring, although he freely admitted he knew Hanania was a racist, because sometimes he wrote well.Yglesias’ tweet here is a great example of what @drvolts is talking abt in thread. “It’s important to read conservatives” means implicitly: Hanania cannot be beyond the pale by virtue of being “conservative” in the abstract. He would not say “It’s impt to read white supremacists” Neil Stenhouse retweeting Yglesias (August 6, 2023) Twitter (archived from 12 Sep 2023 03:28:22 UTC).
Tom Scocca noted: 
Other supporters of Hanania include Harlan Crow, Vivek Ramaswamy, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen and David Sacks.
====Intellectual Dark Web and Quillette====
In 2018, New York Times columnist Bari Weiss published an article "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web"Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web Bari Weiss (May 8, 2018) The New York Times The members of the Intellectual Dark Web, especially those featured in photographs standing in the dark or in bushes, all except Joe Rogan, had well-known connections to hereditarian politics and racist plutocrats:
* Eric Weinstein: works for Peter Thiel
* Christina Hoff Sommers: long-time employee of the Koch brothers
* Michael Shermer: long-time promoter of race pseudoscience
* Sam Harris: apologist of Charles Murray
* Bret Weinstein: Bret Weinstein Game Theory (parody)
* Heather Heying: promoter of evolutionary psychology and Ivermectin
* Dave Rubin: Koch-funded
In the article Weiss called Quillette "the publication most associated with this movement." Quillette is a quasi-respectable magazine, devoted to hereditarianism. And the biography of Peter Thiel Contrarian credibly claimed that Thiel had "secretly" funded Quillette.Contrarian - Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power Max Chafkin (2021) Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
===Biosocial criminology===
Biosocial criminology is a subset of criminology and is promoted in academia by individuals such as Kevin Beaver, who can be seen here giving an interview with Stefan Molyneux in a video entitled "What You Didn't Know About IQ".What You Didn't Know About IQ | Dr. Kevin M. Beaver and Stefan Molyneux (May 26, 20150 YouTube (archived from June 11, 2015). Of note is that Kevin Beaver is the Judith Rich Harris Professor of Criminology at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Steven Pinker was an important promoter of the career of Judith Rich Harris.She Persisted: Lessons From the Life of Judith Rich Harris David Myers (January 10, 2019) Macmillan Learning
Just as Rushton used Wilson's sociobiology theories to claim (with Wilson's support) that Black people are so different from White people as to constitute a separate species, the academic field of biosocial criminology took that belief and argued that Black people are genetically more inclined to criminality than other "races".
====John Paul Wright====
The political implications of biosocial criminology are made clear in the Beaver-edited book Biosocial Criminology: New Directions in Theory and Research published in 2009.Biosocial Criminology: New Directions in Theory and Research Editors: Anthony Walsh and Kevin M. Beaver (2009) Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. The book includes a chapter by Beaver's doctoral advisor Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Division of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati.John Paul Wright Professor University of Cincinnati
The chapter, "Inconvenient Truths" cites Rushton, Jensen and Lynn to explain the biosocial criminology beliefs about race:
====Wilson to Rushton to Wright to Trump====
In the E. O. Wilson tradition, Wright claims the hereditarian position to be the pure scientific one, while accusing critics of having political agendas. In 2019 Betsy DeVos, the Trump Administration's Department of Education Secretary, attempted to revoke Obama-era policy on school discipline practices using Wright's work to argue that African American children are inherently more disruptive.Clark calls for resignation of Secretary Devos over use of racist policy Kathrine Clark Press Release (April 1, 2019) Katherine Clark 5th District of Massachusetts
==="If we removed all the history"===
Wilson's promotion of the hereditarian assumption on race, promoted publicly through Sociobiology and On Human Nature and stealthily through encouraging the racialist claims of Rushton, led ultimately to hereditarians attempting to downplay or even erase all knowledge of the struggles of Black Americans. After all, if you completely remove the historical record of the injustice and brutalities of the Black American experience, the only remaining explanation for Black American inability to thrive is "genetics."
Razib Khan, a longtime admirer of Rushton and the direct financial beneficiary of Unz,The Unz Foundation Tax Form 990-PF (2009) offers an example of the hereditarian attempt to deny history. In 2014, in an article objecting to a Carl Zimmer piece in The New York Times. Khan wrote: 
If we "removed all the history" we wouldn't know about the frequent rape of enslaved people, the one-drop rule or how the indigenous peoples were almost wiped out by European diseases, Native American genocides, and American expansionist policies. 
====Sam Harris vs. Ezra Klein====
In a debate with Ezra Klein over The Bell Curve, Sam Harris demonstrates how far hereditarians are willing to go to deny the importance of history:
Harris defended The Bell Curve by providing a link to a Quillette article written by Bo Winegard and Ben Winegard A Tale of Two Bell CurvesEZRA KLEIN: EDITOR-AT-LARGE Sam Harris (March 27, 2018) Sam Harris blog that literally presents the American hereditarian assumption:
The late Michael Brooks offered an informative and amusing view of the Harris-Klein debate.Sam Harris Lights Career On Fire In Ezra Klein Debate (April 11,2018) The Michael Brooks Show - YouTube
But hereditarians aren't just idly speculating on the advantages, to the hereditarian project, of removing history. In the early 2020s they began to remove all the history through the American political system.
In 2022-2023 Republican governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, a favorite of Republican donor Peter ThielPeter Thiel says Ron DeSantis would 'make a terrific president' Cheryl Teh (May 4, 2023) Business Insider the funder of the quasi-respectable hereditarian online magazine Quillette, has "Used Frederick Douglass to Rationalize Slavery",Using Frederick Douglass to Rationalize Slavery? In Florida, Yes! Charles M. Blow (August 16, 2023) The New York Times banned African American studiesRon DeSantis bans African American studies class from Florida high schools Abené Clayton (January 19, 2023) The Guardian and Critical Race Theory coursesMuzzled by DeSantis, Critical Race Theory Professors Cancel Courses or Modify Their Teaching Daniel Golden (January 3, 2023) ProPublica.
===Lawrence Summers===
One of the best-known political applications of hereditarian claims occurred in 2005. 
In 2004 president of Harvard, participated in an Edge "end-of-summer event." Other participants included E. O. Wilson, Steven Pinker and Jeffrey Epstein.A Full-Force Storm With Gale Winds Blowing (October 16, 2004) Edge
Epstein was a fan of Wilson, according to New York Magazine in 2002:
 "On the 727 these days, he has been reading a book by E. O. Wilson, the eminent scientist and originator of the field of sociobiology, called Consilience, which makes the case that the boundaries between scientific disciplines are in the process of breaking down. It’s a view Epstein himself holds.Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery by Landon Thomas Jr. (2002) New York Magazine )
Summers was invited to the January 2005, Science and Engineering Workforce Project (SEWP) conference of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The conference had been convened to discuss issues of diversity in the S&E workforce. "Approximately fifty people attended, comprised of economists, physical scientists, mathematicians, psychologists, policy makers, program directors, sociologists, students, a lawyer, and a recruiting director from a Fortune 500 company. The presentations reflected the diverse backgrounds of the attendees, with talks ranging from highly abstract models of achievement, to tales of successful program efforts to address representation, to personal accounts of gender discrimination in the sciences."Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce Lawrence H. Summers (January 14, 2005) Office of the President
Influenced by Pinker,Steven Pinker: “I Manage My Controversy Portfolio Carefully” Interview by Steven D. Levitt (August 21, 2020) Freakonomics Podcast Summers gave a speech at the SEWP conference in which he suggested that the most important reason for women's under-representation in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) was the genetic inferiority of women in comparison to men on those subjects.
Understandably, the conference attendees did not appreciate the president of Harvard University informing them that their primary difficulty in STEM fields was their own mental insufficiencies. Summers, holding a political role in academia, represented an institutional threat to women seeking jobs in those fields.
One of the most far-fetched alternative explanations promoted by hereditarians for the reaction to Summers' speech was presented by evolutionary psychologist Carole Hooven:
Somehow the most obvious reason for the reaction to Summers' claims, institutional threat, escapes hereditarians and they have to invent one more just-so story to explain the behaviors of human beings.
Not long after Summers resigned as president of Harvard, after a "stormy five-year tenure,"President of Harvard Resigns, Ending Stormy 5-Year Tenure Alan Finder, Patrick D. Healy & Kate Zernike (February 22, 2006) The New York Times he went to work for the Obama Administration.
In 2022 Summers was seen on Twitter (now X) promoting a Quillette article by racialist extremist Bo Winegard.I hope that university presidents will defend academic freedom by echoing these sentiments. Leading journals like @Nature gatekeep tenure for young scholars and publications in them can determine career paths for older scholars. Lawrence H. Summers, retweeting a Quillette article by Bo Winegard (August 28, 2022) Twitter (archived from August 29, 2022).
===Was E. O. Wilson a racist?===
When Wilson was born in Alabama, in 1929, slavery was still within living memory: the Federal Writers Project was interviewing former slaves through at least 1938, when Wilson was nine years old.Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 Library of Congress The last Civil War soldier died in 1956.Minnesotan Albert Henry Woolson was the last surviving Civil War veteran (September 23, 2019) Mary Laine Minnpost Jim Crow laws were in place from before Wilson's birth through his early adulthood.A Brief History of Jim Crow Constitutional Rights Foundation
In an interview, Wilson's biographer, Richard Rhodes, reveals how little contact Wilson had with Black people when he was growing up: "…one of the things that was really great for him was when he went to Harvard for his graduate study, his roommate was from I think, Ghana or Liberia. And it gave him a chance to expand his understanding of other human beings from other cultures and other ethnicities."Interview of Richard Rhodes by Simon Winchester Leon Levy Center for Biography.
David Sepkoski was not impressed by Rhodes' scholarship, pointing out that Rhodes didn't bother to review the Wilson papers for the biography, and said: "Somehow he manages to rewrite Naturalist (Wilson's autobiography) but make it less interesting. This kind of hagiography is what happens when you only refer to published statements and believe everything they say."I wanted to point out that Pulitzer-winning historian Richard Rhodes just published a biography of Wilson with @penguinrandom that missed Wilson's views of race because he didn't visit the archive. Something we would require a beginning PhD student to do. David Sepkoski (February 10, 2022) Twitter (archived from February 10, 2022).
In an interview with Bill Moyers, Wilson revealed an affinity for Christian conservatives in the South — he agreed with them on everything but the Christian part, "I could go down, you know, and pick a pastor from some small country church along the byway of the high of Alabama and I'll bet we'd… as I suggested in that book… we sat down and talked about our deepest beliefs together, we'd come up with more agreements. Agreements on more things than disagreements."Interview with E. O. Wilson Bill Moyers Journal (July 6, 2007) PBS.
At the present time, 94% of Americans approve of marriage between Black and White people.U.S. Approval of Interracial Marriage at New High of 94% by Justin McCarthy Gallup (September 10, 2021) But when Wilson was a young man, only 4 percent of Americans approved and by the time Sociobiology was published in 1975, approval was still only about 31% — so it was normal and acceptable to tell pollsters you had a problem with "mixed" marriages. And in spite of Wilson's claim that being called a racist was "a death sentence" in the 1970s, throughout the first half of Wilson's life it was acceptable to hold views that are now considered racist.
Wilson probably didn't think twice, during yet another Great Man of Science hagiography when the interviewer observed, "Native Americans traditionally had that kind of intimacy with the landscape and its wildlife…" and Wilson replied "They never tire of telling us, do they? [laughs]"A Conversation With E.O. Wilson (March 31, 2008) NOVA, PBS.
As the letters exchanged between Wilson and Rushton show, Wilson was aware of the racialist implications of his own sociobiology theories and encouraged Rushton to take them even further. He was also aware that he had to keep that encouragement secret. But it's possible Wilson did not consider himself a racist, but rather a "race realist", that is, someone who is able to accept the inferiority of Black people based on sociobiology claims, while still being fair-minded enough to approve of their right to vote.
This attitude has likely carried over to contemporary advocates of sociobiology, which is why hereditarians continued to defend Wilson even after the Rushton letters were publicized. If Wilson was a racist, that meant they were racists too. And this is demonstrated by one of Wilson's loudest champions, Michael Shermer.Was E. O Wilson a Racist? No! by Michael Shermer (Apr 27, 2022) Skeptic. Rushton was the president of the Pioneer Fund and presented his race claims at American Renaissance conferencesJean-Philippe Rushton Southern Poverty Law Center but because Shermer believes that Rushton was right.
Like his hereditarian followers, Wilson likely redefined the concept of "racist" for himself into extinction. The belief in intelligence and criminal-tendency racial hierarchies and "reproductive differences" based on nothing more than speculation and Rushton's "dubious studies"Journal retracts more articles for being "unethical, scientifically flawed, and based on racist ideas and agenda" (2021) Retraction Watch is justified as "science" and they present themselves as simple pilgrims of empiricism, untainted by political views (unlike their critics) and who must, whatever the cost, present "inconvenient truths."
 said it well:
==Criticisms of sociobiology==
===Sociobiology===
Wilson's sociobiology — the book and the concept was immediately criticized for a variety of reasons, and contrary to Wilson's preferred scientists vs. water-flinging Marxists narrative, most of the critics were not Marxists.
====Against Sociobiology letter, The New York Review of Books====
In response to a review of Sociobiology published in The New York Review of Books, a group of university faculty and scientists, high school teachers, doctors, and students published a letter, also in The New York Review of Books. One of the points of the letter was that Wilson claimed too much for the nature side of the nature/nurture equation, and they claimed Wilson's biological determinism was a tool to serve those in power.
====Marvin Harris====
In his book Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture, anthropologist Marvin Harris thought that human sociobiology would have value if it focused on why humans have an exponentially more complex cultural repertoire than any other species. He thought that sociobiology as conceived by Wilson was a misdirected attempt to explain the genetic components of cultural traits.
====Richard Lewontin====
====Stephen Jay Gould====
The Washington Post obitiuary said "Gould's politics were solidly left of center. He forcefully argued against the teaching of creationism in schools, a position that drew a great deal of fire. His book The Mismeasure of Man is perhaps the most influential critique of racist theories in the study of human intelligence. Critics sometimes called him a Marxist."The Scientist Who Wrote Rings Around The Earth by Joel Achenbach (May 21, 2002) The Washington Post.
Among Gould's many criticisms of sociobiology was that it confused cultural and genetic adaptation:
===Evolutionary psychology===
====Gould vs. Pinker====
As Wilson himself admitted, sociobiology continued under the name evolutionary psychology. And under that name, the argument continued between hereditarians and opponents of heredtarianism. Especially notable was an exchange between Gould and Pinker. In 1997 Gould wrote a review of Daniel C. Dennett's book Darwin's Dangerous Idea for The New York Review of Books. Gould suggested that evolutionary psychology was a type of Darwinian fundamentalism with an over-reliance on one component of evolutionary theory, adaptation.Darwinian Fundamentalism Stephen Jay Gould (June 12, 1997) The New York Review of Books Steven Pinker responded with a letter, also published in The New York Review, and Gould responded by claiming Pinker misunderstood the concept of spandrels.Evolutionary Psychology: An Exchange Steven Pinker, Werner Kalow, and Harold Kalant, reply by Stephen Jay Gould (October 9, 1997) New York Review
====Myers vs. strict adaptationism====
Twenty-two years later, biologist PZ Myers posted a video on his YouTube account, "The Problems with Evolutionary Psychology," that made similar arguments against the over-reliance on adaptation by evolutionary psychology.The Problems with Evolutionary Psychology P. Z. Myers (2019) YouTube
====David Buller====
In 2006 David Buller published a book, Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature, which demonstrated that evolutionary psychology was so reflexively on the side of nature over nurture, for any explanation about human culture, that "one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology," conflated female sexual slavery with female choice:
==Why did Wilson share his Rushton correspondence?==
In spite of Pinker's reaction to reports of Wilson's correspondence with Rushton, claiming the reports were "slander" and an invasion of privacy, Wilson had voluntarily shared his Rushton correspondence with the public. Considering how damning the correspondence is, why did Wilson share it?
Probably because Wilson believed he and Rushton were correct concerning race. It's likely that Wilson agreed with Murray and Herrnstein's statement in The Bell Curve, "As science, there is nothing wrong with Rushton's work in principle; we expect that time will tell whether it is right or wrong in fact." 
In 2014 Wilson praised New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade's book A Troublesome Inheritance. The New York Times review panned it. Wade's political hypocrisy and attempt to "" to make way for genetic explanations were noted in the review:
…He indulges in circular logic. He tells just-so stories. While warning us to avoid filtering science through politics, he draws heavily from conservative historians who minimize the roles played by political power, geographic advantage, momentum, disease and dumb luck. Conveniently, this leaves more historical questions for genetics to answer.
And despite his protests to the contrary, Wade often sounds as if he sees the rise of the West as a sort of stable endpoint of human history and evolution — as if, having considered 5,000 years in which history has successively blessed the Middle East, the Far East and the Ottoman Empire, he observes the West’s current run of glory and thinks the pendulum has stilled.
If Wade could point to genes that give races distinctive social behaviors, we might overlook such shortcomings. But he cannot…The Fault in Our DNA David Dobbs (July 10, 2014) The New York Times
But Wilson wrote, "Nicholas Wade combines the virtues of truth without fear and the celebration of genetic diversity as a strength of humanity, thereby creating a forum appropriate to the twenty-first century." Charles Murray was also a fan, "[A Troublesome Inheritance] is a delight to read& — conversational and lucid. And it will trigger an intellectual explosion the likes of which we haven’t seen for a few decades."A Troublesome Inheritance Nicholas Wade (2014) Penguin Random House Steve Sailer, writing in racist Taki's Magazine loved it and sympathized with Wade over their mutual anti-hereditarian opponents.The Liberal Creationists Steve Sailer (April 30, 2014) Taki's Mag (archived)
After Wilson died, Wade rushed to his defense, attacking Monica McLemore in the right-wing, Koch-funded Manhattan Institute'sManhattan Institute for Policy Research City Journal:
The great biologist Edward O. Wilson died on December 26. Few readers of Scientific American could be unaware of Wilson’s towering contributions to biology and conservation, or of his rare gifts as a synthesizer and writer. They surely didn’t expect that the oeuvre of this globally renowned scientist would be labeled by Scientific American, just three days after his death, as "built on racist ideas."The New Lysenkoism Nicholas Wade (January 28, 2022) City Journal
How dare McLemore make an issue of the ethnic essentialist claims of the "great biologist" — claims based on speculation and just-so stories.
Throughout his life Wilson promoted and defended hereditarianism and often proclaimed victory for sociobiology, including its claims about race, and this never prevented him from being rewarded by his society with ever-greater prizes and praise. It's likely that Wilson believed his views would be vindicated, and he would not be condemned as a dishonorable racist, but rather, be hailed as a prophet and one of the greatest of the Great Men of Science.
==See also==
For more critiques on topics associated with biological determinism and sociobiology see these articles:
* Eugenics
* Hereditarianism
* Heritability
* Pseudoscience
* Racialism
==External links==
*Sociobiology: Laying the Foundation For a Racist Synthesis - The Harvard Crimson
* Press Release October 14, 2010: Harrison Ford and E.O. Wilson Join With PEN to Create New Literary Award
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Authors
Category:Biologists
Category:Deists
Category:Racialism pseudoscientists