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----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 7:49
PM
Subject: Re: Contradiction
Problems????
So I just got done reading Matt Ridley's "The Origin
of Virtue". Quite good
until the very end where he (like many authors)
slips over from well argued
science to politics. Ridley (the author of
Genome and The Red Queen -two of
the best books around about modern state
of genomes and evolution) argues
that human morality arose as an
adaptation. He starts by talking about game
theory covering much of the
same ground as Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" .
Lots of neat things about
Prisoner's Dilemma and Tit for Tat. He moves on to
discuss how primates
cooperate and about the importance of hunting. He tries
to establish the
narrow circumstances in which individuals would sacrifice
for the group
(only if it benefits one's own genes). He goes from there to
discussing
human societies. At the end he takes an unfortunate right turn (I
worry
that so many of the science writers I like best are or are accused of
being very conservative) into a defense of private or group property
ownership. Maybe more libertarian than conservative. Anyway worth the
read.
Dan's
reply
I think
that much of the problem has to do with the tendency of people who look to
biology and evolution as the foundation of their understanding of what it
means to be human are social Darwinists. From that Rand like viewpoint,
altruism and community responsibilities are unnatural aborations.
Dan
M.
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