Jeffrey Davis: California State University Long Beach Department of Sociology

Fisher is widely known for his extraordinary contributions to population genetics and evolutionary biology. His sociological insights have received far less attention, even though five of the twelve chapters of The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection are devoted to developing a theory of the evolutionary consequences of human social organization. For my presentation, I will review Fisher’s sociology and the parameters of his model of social organization. I also offer some extensions to Fisher’s model. In conclusion, I contend that Fisher’s insights provide the basis of a rich theoretical research program in evolutionary sociology.