person1960s-2000

William Hamilton

Disciplines:

Summary

British evolutionary biologist who derived the mathematical theory of kin selection — Hamilton's rule — solving the problem of altruism that had troubled Darwin, and who was arguably the greatest evolutionary biologist since Darwin.

Core Contribution

Hamilton's rule (rb > c): altruism evolves when the relatedness-weighted benefit to the recipient exceeds the cost to the actor. Inclusive fitness: an organism's fitness includes its effect on the fitness of relatives. Kin selection: the mechanism by which altruism evolves. This solved Darwin's problem of sterile worker insects and altruism generally. Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (with Maynard Smith): game theory applied to evolution. The evolution of sex (the red queen).

Key Spikes & Highlights

Derived his kin selection papers alone, as a graduate student, after his supervisor refused to engage with the topic — he worked in libraries and on the London Underground, rejected by the institutional support of Cambridge.
Died from cerebral malaria contracted during a Congo expedition to test his hypothesis that AIDS originated in a contaminated polio vaccine trial — a tragic irony that he died pursuing a scientific question.

Notable Works & Achievements

The genetical evolution of social behaviour I & II

Innate Social Aptitudes of Man

Narrow Roads of Gene Land

Historical Influences

Ronald Fisher John Maynard Smith

Intellectual Lineage

Evolutionary Biology

Contemporaries & Peers

George Williams John Maynard Smith

Minds Influenced

E.O. Wilson Robert Trivers Richard Dawkins

Intellectual Posterity

Kin Selection Inclusive Fitness Sociobiology

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