Essay about two related chapters from David Sloan Wilsons Evolution

About two related chapters from David Sloan Wilsons Evolution for Everyone - Essay Example Besides attempting to provide a plausible explanation for the origin of life, evolution also heavily impacts the behavior of species. Evolution holds the key to understanding the behavior of all species including the bizarre infanticide tendencies of particular species. The third chapter of Wilson’s Evolution for Everyone lays foundation for â€Å"the power of natural selection thinking† (Wilson 19). To demonstrate the power of this line of thinking, Wilson dwells on the socially undesirable practice of infanticide. Since the concept of natural selection is driven by the need to have off springs, then killing the off springs is automatically out of question (Wilson 19). However Wilson reveals that there exist certain environmental situations which make infanticide to be desirable. According to Wilson such possibilities like uncertain parentage, poor offspring and lack of sufficient resources create justification for infanticide among some species. In the fourth chapter of the text, Wilson proceeds to justify what he termed as the â€Å"third way of thinking† in the previous chapter. The third way of thinking is just but a simple phrase that Wilson uses to urge the reader to be flexible enough in their thinking to accommodate even the most remote of thoughts that indeed natural selection is responsible for the formation of the world as it currently is through contributing to all the behavioral outcomes of all the species in the universe. While still pursuing possible reasons that make infanticide to be a rational outcome, Wilson eventually derive his proof from the behavior of burying beetles. The Prove It chapter explains the possible reasons behind the actions of infanticide by a species – the burying beetles. Wilson reveals that this specie opts to regulate its brood size purely based on the food resources that are available. The parent beetle opts to kill some of its young ones so as to ensure that the rest c an comfortably thrive. This is one of