Background
Dunbar, Robin Ian MacDonald was born on June 28, 1947 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Son of George MacDonald and Betty Lilian Dunbar.
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(This book grew from small beginnings as I began to find u...)
This book grew from small beginnings as I began to find unexpected patterns emerging from the data in the literature. The more I thought about the way in which primate social systems worked, the more interesting things turned out to be. I am conscious that, at times, this has introduced a certain amount of complexity into the text. I make no apologies for that: what we are dealing with is a complex subject, the product of evolutionary forces interacting with very sophisticated minds. None the less, I have done my best to explain every thing as clearly as I can in order to make the book accessible to as wide an audience as possible. I have laid a heavy emphasis in this book on the use of simple graphical and mathematical models. Their sophistication, however, is not great and does not assume more than a knowledge of elementary probability theory. Since their role will inevitably be misunderstood, I take this opportunity to stress that their function is essentially heuristic rather than explanatory: they are designed to focus our attention on the key issues so as to point out the directions for further research. A model is only as good as the questions it prompts us to ask. For those whose natural inclination is to dismiss modelling out of hand, I can only point to the precision that their use can offer us in terms of hypothesis-testing.
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(Examining the widespread sense of the "difficulty" of sci...)
Examining the widespread sense of the "difficulty" of science, this work considers why many people find it so hard to grasp how science works, why there is so much suspicion of its success, and why many still seek refuge in religion or New Age spirituality. The author draws on anthropological and psychological material, as well as physics, astronomy and chemistry, and provides a wealth of detail and scientific information.
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(In The Trouble with Science, Robin Dunbar asks whether sc...)
In The Trouble with Science, Robin Dunbar asks whether science really is unique to Western culture, even to humankind. He suggests that our "trouble with science"--our inability to grasp how it works, our suspiciousness of its successes--may lie in the fact that evolution has left our minds better able to cope with day-to-day social interaction than with the complexities of the external world.
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(Reproductive biologists, evolutionary biologists, demogra...)
Reproductive biologists, evolutionary biologists, demographers and social scientists all have a common interest in the business of human reproduction. Their perspectives, however, are very different and have traditionally prevented them from having much to do with each other. The conference on which this book is based brought together contributors from each of these disciplines in an attempt to explore the common ground that they share and so generate a better understanding of the factors that influence human fertility.
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( Robin Dunbar uses economic models to explore the social...)
Robin Dunbar uses economic models to explore the social behavior of the gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada), a unique species, whose social system is one of the most complex among the primates. His work illustrates the value of an approach that views social behavior as being ultimately concerned with reproduction and with the maximizing of an individual's contribution to its species' gene pool. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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Dunbar, Robin Ian MacDonald was born on June 28, 1947 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Son of George MacDonald and Betty Lilian Dunbar.
Bachelor, Oxford (England) University, 1969; Doctor of Philosophy, Bristol (England) University, 1974.
Research fellow, U. Cambridge, England, 1977-1982; docent, U. Stockholm, Sweden, 1983; research fellow, U. Liverpool, England, 1985-1987; lecturer, U. College London, 1987-1992; professor, U. College London, 1992-1994; professor, U. Liverpool, since 1994. Munro lecturer U. Edinburgh, 1996.
(Examining the widespread sense of the "difficulty" of sci...)
( Robin Dunbar uses economic models to explore the social...)
(Reproductive biologists, evolutionary biologists, demogra...)
(In The Trouble with Science, Robin Dunbar asks whether sc...)
(This book grew from small beginnings as I began to find u...)
Member Home Office Animal Procedures Committee, London, since 1997. Fellow Royal Anthropol. Institute (former county member), Galton Institute (former county member).
Member Association for Study of Animal Behavior (former coun.mem.), Primate Society Great Britain (former president, Osman Hill medal 1994), British Ecological Society, Fauna & Flora International.
Married Eva Patricia Melvin, January 2, 1971. Children: Zaila Yvette, Jared Ian MacDonald, Arran Joseph William.
