Why Men Won't Ask for Directions: The Seductions of Sociobiology

by Richard C. Francis

Book Overview

Much of the evolutionary biology that has grabbed headlines in recent years has sprung from the efforts of sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists to explain sexual features and behavior--even differences between how men and women think--as evolutionary adaptations. They have looked to the forces of natural selection to explain everything from the mimicry of male mockingbirds to female orgasms among humans. In this controversial book, Richard...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691124051
• ISBN13: 9780691124056
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

an important, early book... needs better editing... read it anyway!

I read this book because I am interested in explanations of differences and similarities in females and males that can be SUBSTANTIATED (repeatable experimental results and accurate predictions). This book talks about experimental results, observations, and explanations of sexual behavior and sexual change in fish, frogs, hyenas, baboons, and (somewhat) humans. I gave this book 4 stars because I think it could have been further edited for clarity. Its strengths are that it cites lots of fascinating experimental results and shows where popular explanations for sex differences ARE and ARE NOT substantiated. Its weakness is that it could have been better edited before release to a popular audience. My pet peeves were: straightening out the missequenced footnotes in Chapter 2 ("Orgasm"), and summarizing the author's key points in each chapter in ONE PLACE, versus repeating them in the middle of long discussions that are tortuous to follow. The discussions include both EVIDENCE and DIFFERING INTERPRETATIONS and it's easy to get a bit lost on what the author is arguing FOR, factually, vs. FOR, explanation wise. It reminds me of listening to (or reading the book by) a brilliant professor who's going just a LEETLE fast for (me) the student. NEVERTHELESS... It's GOOD STUFF. I think this is a critically important, early book in the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology and I recommend reading it ANYWAY. It cites EVIDENCE and demonstrates critical thinking to counter/filter/evaluate sex difference evidence and interpretations now and in the future. NOTE: An easier to follow book regarding how organisms evolve is "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" (reviewed separately), but this book doesn't address the sex evolution issues. NOTE: An example of a book clearly explaining and summarizing competing scientific explanations vs. evidence is "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe" (reviewed separately), but this book is about physics not biology.

The Problem with Teleological Thinking

When I was a graduate student I cut my teeth on books by George C. Williams and Ernst Mayr, as well as having several important aspects of scientific methodology drummed into my head. I learned that the individual phenotype was the target of selection, because it was the visible manifestation of the organism in the real world. I was also taught, emphatically, that you had to follow the evidence, not let your hypotheses run wild. You just did not extrapolate beyond your data! J. Henri Fabre (the 19th Century French entomologist) took that last idea to an extreme and denied the utility of even solid theory, thus refusing to accept Darwin's ideas on the basis that they were too speculative. In that Fabre was wrong (as he was in his insistence that insects were totally automatons.) Still one can easily go too far in the other direction and (unfortunately) some biologists, especially sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists, have done so. Richard C. Francis in his new book "Why Men Won't Ask for Directions" has made several pointed criticisms of teleological answers to why question (as opposed to how questions) in biology. In some ways I think that he has been a little too hard on the sociobiologists, who have certainly added to our knowledge- particularly in regard to how social insect societies work- and have brought up some important aspects of human behavior, but the points he makes are well taken. A few more strident evolutionary psychologists have indeed gone off on a teleological binge! Some of their "just so" stories are no more convincing to me than the creation story involving a god or gods making species. Evolution is not purposeful. It is in essence a tinkerer (more like a farmer using bailing wire to fix a tractor), not a designer (an engineer drawing up plans for a new bridge), and evolutionary events are not planned by gods or nature substituting for gods, but are driven by contingency. Also, organisms are more plastic in their behavior than we generally give them credit for and we have to be very careful in using anthropomorphic (unfortunately rampant in some sociobiological writings) or teleological language to describe their behaviors, and the origins of behaviors, or we tend to bias our interpretation. One of Fabre's flaws in his studies of hunting wasps was that he insisted on the absolute rigidity of the behavior of his subjects (Sphecidae, Scoliidae and Pompilidae), while ignoring any evidence to the contrary. This was eloquently pointed out by George and Elizabeth Peckham in their later studies of wasp behavior. Like Fabre, sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists tend to be absolute in their view of all organisms being totally the result of an adaptation (driven by genes) to a given environment. I think in order to make a case for such an interpretation you must, like Fabre, throw out any data that does not agree with your hypothesis. Teleology is fine, as long as you don't get caught up in the idea

Isn't Life Strange?

(...)The appeal of Richard Francis' book is simple - the author offers a much-needed corrective to today's popular writings about biology. Let me elaborate. Though evolutionary biology is but one of several vibrant sub-fields in the life sciences - the others include molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, and developmental biology - it is far and away the most written about. Blessed with a group of fine scientists who can write for general readers, equally gifted journalists who are authoritative, and subject matter that lends itself to engrossing stories, evolutionary biology has become part of the intellectual landscape of the 21st century. Even the most casual reader/viewer of newspapers, magazines, and TV has heard about the power of evolution to explain all sorts of intriguing physical forms and behaviors in the animal kingdom, which includes us, human beings. By comparison, the latest discoveries and advances in, for instance, biochemistry and cell biology are almost certainly not known by anyone outside of those fields. And no one can deny to amazing power of the forces of evolution. However, as often happens with ideas and theories that galvanize individuals across a broad spectrum (past examples include artificial intelligence, chaos theory, and now the genome), many get carried away and the idea is pushed to extreme limits where its application becomes misplaced and its results misleading. This has certainly happened with evolutionary biology, where in some circles adaptation by natural selection has been called upon to explain EVERY physical form, behavior, instinct, etc. Here is where Francis's book is important and provides needed balance. The overall theme of WHY MEN WON'T ASK FOR DIRECTIONS is that evolution explains a lot, but not everything. The second underlying theme is that the latest advances in Developmental Biology (the science that studies how fertilized eggs "develop" into mature organisms) can sometimes better explain behaviors, forms, and features that have either stymied evolutionists, or caused them to promote particularly strained theories.What makes the book such an enjoyable read is Richard Francis's ability to pick irresistible animals as the focus of his discussions (my personal favorite is the "cleaner wrasse", which is a small fish that spends most of its time "cleaning" the gills of larger fish for food, with the permission of the larger fish, as it were). Each chapter begins with a dilemma that a behavior or form poses for scientists, it continues with ideas that evolutionists have proposed to explain the phenomenon in question, and then concludes with what Developmental Biology has to say about the puzzle. Francis has a bit of an attitude to him (plus he is funny in print, which is a rare talent), but I think that adds to the book -- many of the scientists, social scientists, and writers who embrace the vision of strict adaptationism are so strident in their own

A truly fascinating book

This book does three things at once. One might not think it was possible to successfully combine all three in one book, but Francis does succeed. First, it contains a very accessible and lively introduction to recent biological work about sex and sex differences, especially in the vertebrates (animals with backbones, like us). Some of the details and anecdotes here are extremely surprising and strange -- in the animal kingdom sex *is* often strange. The book goes quite deeply into the biology here, but remains vivid and readable throughout. Secondly, the book contains a fairly intense and sustained criticism of some of the current strategies and habits of thought that are applied to these questions in some parts of biology and psychology. Francis thinks that there is far too much emphasis on 'functional explanation,' on the search for the answer to 'why?' questions as opposed to 'how?' questions. Here the book is quite unorthodox and challenging. It is common to think that there is now, in biology, a harmonious division of labor between work on 'how?' questions (work on mechanisms), and work on functional explanations that seek to tell us 'why' the biological world works as it does. It is thought by many that ordinary Darwinism provides us with a straightforward integration of the two kinds of investigation. Francis, in contrast, thinks that many people allow the search for functional explanation to dominate their work. If we understood the 'how' better, we would see that many 'why' questions are transformed or even dissolved.Thirdly, the book is in many ways a contribution to the philosophy of science. Francis thinks that we need to be much more suspicious of a set of ideas, concepts and strategies that have been embraced by many philosophers of science. Francis thinks that some parts of science have allowed themselves to depart from the materialist pattern of explanation that is appropriate for biology and related sciences. In particular, he thinks that the current enthusiasm for abstact informational and functional concepts is far more antagonistic to materialist and naturalistic projects than people realize. On these more theoretical and philosophical issues, it is very hard to work out whether Francis is right. I tend to think that he goes too far. (Here I might add that I know the author and have discussed these issues with him, though my own work does not figure in the book.) But the book is extremely valuable as a challenge to some very popular ways of thinking in these areas. So although the book can be read just as a lively, vivid introduction to the strange sex lives of animals closely related to us, it is also a very deep and careful piece of argumentation. Sometimes Francis is rather polemical in his style, and I can see why some readers (and reviewers) might find the tone a little combative in places. But to me, this makes the book all the more enjoyable to read. I recommend it to anyone interested in sex who also enjoys an intellec

Thought-provoking and entertaining

The title of this book gives an excellent preview of how this book first catches your attention, "Why Men Won't Ask For Directions", and then cogently discusses the weaknesses of sociobiology, "The Seductions of Sociobiology".Each chapter begins with a clever, and frequently humorous, story that serves as an example and basis for the thoughtful exploration of the chapter's topic. The author makes a compelling argument for why the sociobiologist's use of natural selection to explain every aspect of behavior or cognition is a dangerous road to go down. In particular, the book focuses on sex differences in a wide number of species ranging from differential body sizes and morphs to courtship behavior to cognition. All of these sex differences have had the attention of sociobiologists who have tried to account for the differences by ascribing particular benefits to the difference and thereby invoking natural selection as the reason for "why" the differences exist. However, Francis argues that it is not always appropriate to ask "why" the differences exist, but rather "how" the differences came to exist; that is, how the brain and body develop and perform as the basis for the sex differences. The author goes on to argue that not every sex difference is functional or useful if the "how" questions are asked. And this releases scientists from ever increasing theoretical gyrations to come up with reasons for why sex differences have occurred.While the above description may serve to dissuade some people from reading the book, the tone and style is eminently readable and approachable for everyone. The more technical parts of each chapter are contained within endnotes at the back of the book, so that the main idea in each chapter is presented without interruption. It is most definitely a book that is both thought-provoking and entertaining.