Books
The Evolution of Medicare; From Idea to Law, (1969). Office of Research and Statistics, Social Security Administration (Research Report No 29), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution, (1983). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Peter A. Corning and Susan P. Corning, Winning with Synergy: How America Can Regain the Competitive Edge, (1986). New York: Harper & Row.
Nature’s Magic: Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind, (2003). Cambridge University Press.
Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics and the Bioeconomics of Evolution, (2005). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice, (2011). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind, (2018). World Scientific.
Superorganism: Toward a New Social Contract for Our Endangered Species, (2023) Cambridge University Press.
Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems, (2023) The MIT Press (Co-editor with Stuart Kauffman, Denis Noble, James Shapiro, Richard Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross).
Articles, Book Chapters
“The Biological Bases of Behavior and Some Implications for Political Science” (1971). World Politics, 23: 321-70.
“Toward a General Theory of Violent Aggression,” (1972). Social Science Information, 11(3): 7-35.
St. John, R.D. and P.A. Corning, “Maternal Aggression in Mice,” (1973). Behavioral Biology, 9: 635-639.
“Human Violence: Some Causes and Implications,” (1973). In Peace and War, Charles R. Beitz and Theodore Herman, eds., pp. 119-143. San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman and Company.
“Politics and the Evolutionary Process,” (1974). In Evolutionary Biology, (Vol. VIII), Theodosius Dobzhansky, Max K. Hecht and William C. Steere, eds., pp. 253-293. New York: Plenum Press.
“Biologische Grundlagen des sozialen Verhaltens,” (1974). In Reduktionisteische Sozologie, Walter L. Buhl, ed., pp. 266-323. Munich: Germany: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung GmbH.
“An Evolutionary Paradigm for the Study of Human Aggression,” (1975). In War, Its Causes and Correlates, Martin A. Nettleship, R.Dale Givens, and Anderson Nettleship, eds., pp. 359-387. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
“Toward a Survival — Oriented Policy Science,” (1975). In Biology and Politics, Recent Explorations, ed., Albert Somit, pp. 127-154. The Hague, Paris: Mouton.
“Toward a Survival-Oriented Policy Science,” (1975). Social Science Information, 14(5): 59-86.
“Human Nature Redivivus,” (1977). In Human Nature in Politics, (Nomos XVII), J. Roland Pennock and John W. Chapman, eds., pp. 19-68. New York: New York University Press.
Peter A. Corning, S. Kessler, and R. Kakihana, “Three Kinds of Aggressive Behavior in Laboratory Mice,” (1977). Behavior Genetics, 7(1): 51-52.
“Durkheim and Spencer,” (1982). The British Journal of Sociology, 33(3): 359-382.
“Politik und Evolution: Kybernetik un Synergismus in der Enstehung komplexer Gesellschaften,” (1983). In Politik und Biologie,” Heiner Flohr and Wolfgang Tönnesmann, eds., pp. 38-60. Berlin and Hamburg: Verlag Paul Parey.
“Evolution and Political Control: A Synopsis of a General Theory of Politics,” (1983). In Evolutionary Theory in Social Science, Michael Schmid and Franz M. Wuketits, eds., pp. 127-170. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel.
Peter A. Corning and Samuel M. Hines, Jr. “Political Development and Political Evolution,” (1988). Politics and the Life Sciences, 6(2):140-172.
“Synergy,” (1994). In Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life, Connie Barlow, ed., pp. 110-117. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
“Synergy and Self-Organization in the Evolution of Complex Systems,” (1995). Systems Research, 12: 89-121.
“The Co-operative Gene: On the Role of Synergy in Evolution,” (1996). Evolutionary Theory, 11: 183-207.
“Synergy, Cybernetics and the Evolution of Politics,” (1996). International Political Science Review, 17: 91-119.
“Evolutionary Economics: Metaphor or Unifying Paradigm,” (1996). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 18: 421-435.
“Evolution and Ethics … An Idea Whose Time Has Come?” (Part One), (1996). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 19: 277-285.
“Evolution and Ethics … An Idea Whose Time Has Come?” (Part Two), (1997). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 20(3): 323-331.
“The Co-operative Gene: On the Role of Synergy in Evolution,” (1997). Evolutionary Theory, 11: 183-207.
“Holistic Darwinism: ‘Synergistic Selection’ and the Evolutionary Process,” (1997). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 20: 363-400.
“Biopolitical Economy: A Trail Guide for an Inevitable Discipline,” (1997). In Research in Biology and Politics (Vol. 5), Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson eds., pp. 247-277. Stamford, CT. and London: JAI Press.
“Synergy: Another Idea Whose Time Has Come?” (1998). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 21(1): 1-6.
“The Synergism Hypothesis,” (1998). Journal of Social Evolutionary Systems, 21(2): 133-172.
“Holistic Darwinism: Synergy and the New Evolutionary Paradigm,” (1998). In Research in Biopolitics (Vol. 6), Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson eds., pp 17-42. Stamford, CT. and London: JAI Press.
Peter A. Corning and Stephen Jay Kline. “Thermodynamics, Information and Life Revisited, Part I: To Be or Entropy,” (1998). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 15: 273-295.
Peter A. Corning and Stephen Jay Kline. “Thermodynamics, Information and Life Revisited, Part II: Thermoeconomics and Control Information,” (1998). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 15: 453-482.
“Cooperative Genes: Synergy and the Bioeconomics of Evolution,” (1999). In The Darwinian Heritage in Sociobiology, Johan M.G. van der Dennen, David Smilie, and David R. Wilson, eds., pp. 25-45. Westport, CT: Praeger.
“The Synergism Hypothesis: On the Concept of Synergy and Its Role in the Evolution of Complex Systems,” (1999). In Toward a New Paradigm of Systems Science, Yong Pil Rhee, ed., pp. 313-388. Seoul, Korea: Seoul National University Press.
“‘Holistic Darwinism’ and the Synergism Hypothesis,” (2000). In From Symbiosis to Eukaryotism – Endocytobiology VII, E. Wagner et al., eds., Geneva: Geneva University Press.
“Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: A ‘Basic Needs’ Approach,” (2000). Journal of Bioeconomics, 2: 41-86.
“‘Control Information’: The Missing Element in Norbert Wiener’s Cybernetic Paradigm,” (2001) Kybernetes, 30 (9/10): 1272-1288.
“The Systems Sciences in the Year 3000,” (2001). (Presidential Address, ISSS 2000). In Understanding Complexity, Gillian Ragsdell and Jennifer Wilby eds., pp. 277-282. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
“The Re-Emergence of ‘Emergence:’ A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory,” (2002). Complexity, 7(6): 18-30.
The Emergence of ‘Emergence’: Now What? (2002). Emergence, 4(3): 54-71.
“‘Devolution’ as an Opportunity to Test the ‘Synergism Hypothesis’ and a Cybernetic Theory of Political Systems,” (2002). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 19: 3-26.
“Thermoeconomics: Beyond the Second Law,” (2002). Journal of Bioeconomics, 4(1): 57-88.
“Evolutionary Ethics: An Idea whose Time has Come? (2003). Politics and the Life Sciences, 22(1): 50-58.
“The Continuing Decline of the Middle Class,” (2003). Indicators, The Journal of Social Health, 2(4): 74-78.
The Evolution of Politics, (2004). In Handbook of Evolution, Franz Wuketits, ed., pp. 191-252, Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH.
“Synergy and the Evolution of ‘Superorganisms’: Past, Present and Future,” (in Russian), (2004). In Challenge to Cognition: Strategies of Science Development in the Modern World, Narine Udumyan ed., pp. 184-221. Moscow: Nauka.
“Synergy Goes to War: A Bioeconomic Theory of Collective Violence,” (2007). Journal of Bioeconomics 9(2): 109-144.
“Control Information Theory: The ‘Missing Link’ in the Science of Cybernetics,” (2007). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 24: 297-311.
“Holistic Darwinism: The New Evolutionary Paradigm and Some Implications for Political Science,” (2008). Politics and the Life Sciences 27(1), 22-54.
“The Re-Emergence of Emergence, and the Causal Role of Synergy in Emergent Evolution” Synthese, (Fall 2010). Online at www.springerlink.com
“The Synergism Hypothesis: Thirty Years Later,” (2011). Politics and the Life Sciences, 30(1): 61-64.
“The Cooperative Gene: Evolution, Human Nature, and Politics,” (2012). In Biopolicy: The Life Sciences in Public Policy (Research in Biopolitics, Vol. 10), Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson eds., pp. 13-42. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
“The Fair Society: It’s Time to Re-Write the Social Contract,” (2012). Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 11(1): 191-216.
“Rotating the Necker Cube: A Bioeconomic Approach to Cooperation and the Causal Role of Synergy in Evolution,” (2013). Journal of Bioeconomics, 15: 171-193. DOI: 10.1007/s10818-012-9142-4.
“Evolution on Purpose: How Behaviour Has Shaped the Evolutionary Process,” (2013). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 112: 242-260. DOI: 10.1111/bij.12061.
“Systems Theory and the Role of Synergy in the Evolution of Living Systems,” (2013). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, DOI: 10.1002/sres2191.
“Emergence in Evolution and the Causal Role of Synergy,” (2014). In Synergie: Wissensgeschichte einer Denkfigur, Tatjana Petzer and Stephan Steiner, eds., (pp.in press) Paderborn, Germany: Fink.
“The Fair Society, the Right to Life, and the Public Trust” (2014) Social Evolution Forum http://socialevolutionforum.com/2014/10/17/peter-a-corning-the-fair-society-the-right-to-life-and-the-public-trust/
“The Science of Human Nature and the Social Contract,” (2014). Cosmos and History, (pp.in press).
Peter A. Corning and Eörs Szathmáry, “’Synergistic Selection’: A Darwinian Frame for the Evolution of Complexity,” (2015) Journal of Theoretical Biology 371: 45-58
“The Science of Human Nature and the Social Contract: A Biological Frame for Public Policy,” ( 2017). In Handbook of Biology and Politics, Steven A. Peterson and Albert Somit eds., pp. 406-430. London: Edward Elgar.
“The Evolution of Politics: A Biological Approach,” (2017). In Handbook of Biology and Politics, Steven A. Peterson and Albert Somit eds., pp. 55-84. London: Edward Elgar.
“Plato’s Republic: A 21st Century Makeover,” (unpublished manuscript).
“How to Feed the World in the Age of Climate Change” (2019) PR for People® The Connector Magazine, May, 4-9. https://joom.ag/jPxa
“Teleonomy and the Proximate-Ultimate Distinction Revisited” (2019), © Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 127(4): 912–916.
“Beyond the Modern Synthesis: A Framework for a More Inclusive Biological Synthesis,” (2020) © Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 153: 5-12.
The Synergism Hypothesis (Revisited): A Theory Whose Time Has Come? (2022) Theoretical Biology Forum 115:1-2, pp.85-97
A Systems Theory of Biological Evolution (2022) Biosystems 214: 104583
Politics in Evolution: The First 5 Million Years and the Next 100. Biopolitics at 50 Years: Founding and Evolution, Emerald Press (2022)
The “Selfish Gene” Model of Evolution Was Totally Wrong: It’s Time to Replace It with the (Cooperative) “Read-Write” Genome in Living Organisms. (Unpublished)
Culture-Gene Coevolution: Darwin’s Other Theory Comes into View. (2023) Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 139:563-569.
Teleonomy in Evolution: The” Ghost in the Machine” (2023) in P.A Corning, et al.,eds., Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
How vs. Why Questions in Symbiogenesis (2021) Biosystems.
Thermoeconomics: Time to Move Beyond the Second Law (2020) Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
“Synergistic Selection”: A Cooperative Model of Evolution. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2023) https: doi.org//10.1093
Teleonomy in Physiology and Evolution (2023) (Unpublished)
The Superorganism and “The Fair Society”: Beyond Capitalism and Socialism (2023) (Unpublished)
Time for a New Social Contract (2023) (Unpublished)
A Universal Minimum Income Versus “A Basic Needs Guarantee” (2023) (Unpublished)
Ayn Rand Shrugged (2023) (Unpublished)
Toward a New Synthesis in Evolution (2023)
Superorganism, Update (2023)
How to Feed the World (The Connector (2023)
The Synergism Hypothesis Revisited and Updated (Nova Science Publications) (2024a)
Cooperative Genes in Smart Systems: Toward an Inclusive New Synthesis in Evolution, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, V.189, pp.26-31 (2024b)
Book Reviews and Commentaries
“An Aid to Navigation Through an Intellectual Fog-Bank,” (1996). Review of S.J. Kline, Conceptual Foundations for Multidisciplinary Thinking (1996). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 13(4): 491-503.
Review of Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life, (1994). Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 1993): 277-285 (1996).
Commentary: “Complexity is Just a Word!” (1998). Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 58:1-4.
Review of Nicholas Rescher, Complexity: A Philosophical Overview, (1998). Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 60(3): 305 (1999).
“The Sociobiology of Democracy: Is Authoritarianism in Our Genes?” (2000). Review of Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson, Darwinism, Dominance and Democracy: The Biological Bases of Authoritarianism (1997). Politics and Life Sciences, 19: 103-108.
Reply: “The Sociobiology of Democracy Revisited: a Reply and Reiteration,”(2001). Politics and the Life Sciences, 20(2): 231-234.
“Unmasking Darwin’s Cathedral,” (2003). Review of David Sloan Wilson, Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the Nature of Society (2002). Skeptic, 10(3): 58-60.
Review of Niels H. Gregerson, From Complexity to Life: The Emergence of Life and Meaning, (2004) Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 71(1): 765 (2004).
Commentary: On Janet Landa, “The Bioeconomics of Homogeneous Middlemen…” (2008). Journal of Bioeconomics, 10(3): 291-292.
Review of Robert G.B. Reid, Biological Emergence: Evolution by Natural Experiment (2007). Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 10(2): 129-135 (2008).