Williams Revolution - Definition and Overview

Named in honour of George C. Williams, the Williams Revolution is the phrase sometimes used to characterise the paradigm shift which is asserted to have occurred in theoretical biology in the mid-1960s.

Although population genetics was largely the basis for the modern evolutionary synthesis and described in terms of genes, verbal arguments were nearly always couched in terms of "survival of the species", i.e. group selection. This was replaced by using a gene-centric view of evolution, epitomised by kin selection. Theorisation showed that group selection was severely limited in its strength.

The book by Williams that was important in this process was Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966), though other researchers, including W. D. Hamilton, John Maynard Smith and Robert Trivers, contributed to the shift in biological thinking at this time. Richard Dawkins popularised the revolution in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. The work can be seen as being built on the work of Ronald Fisher and particularly his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection.