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)
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).