BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

KIN SELECTION 4)

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A mechanism leading to the constitution of social groups based on genetic relationships

This process is observed mainly, but not exclusively in insect societies.

W.D. HAMILTON showed that "… the total fitness of individuals was actually the sum of two different sources: a direct component stemming from an individual's reproductive effort and an indirect component stemming from the reproductive effort of relatives. The magnitude of the indirect component depends on the degree of genetic relationship to those relatives, and there are thus conditions under which it may pay to forgo reproducing yourself and instead assist in the rearing and defense of relatives". (J.T. COSTA, 1997, p.151)

COSTA observes: "… social behavior may have evolved independently several times, with varying patterns of gain and loss of particular social characteristics" (Ibid).

Socialization through kin selection implies other significant aspects as: recruitment communication (in insect societies, mainly through pheromones), aggregation, patch restriction and boundaries marking.

Similar processes are very probably at work in human societies. Archaic ones were generally based on specific forms of kinship. In modern ones one may wonder if ideologies or common interest do not substitute kin selection and be a new type of aggregation factor.

The importance of kin selection and the way it leads to wider and more complex social behavior have been explored by D.C. QUELLER (1985, p. 366-67)

→ Meme; Memetics

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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