Just for a little backup: https://evolution-institute.org/article/richard-dawkins-edward-o-wilson-and-the-consensus-of-the-many/
> What prompted the 137 co-authors to respond to the Nature article was not > based on what Nowak et al. said about group selection, but their denial that > it could also be framed in terms of inclusive fitness theory or that ideas > framed in terms of inclusive fitness theory had ever proven to be useful. On September 10, 2017 2:42:09 PM PDT, "gepr ⛧" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >On September 10, 2017 12:28:41 PM PDT, Steven A Smith ><[email protected]> wrote: >>it is built into us as humans/mammals/vertebrates/life-itself to be >self-centered, to look after our own personal well-being before we look >to that of others. Our tribal/clan dunbar-number-scale affinities may >cause us to be locally altruistic at times and look after >family/friends/neighbors/tribe before ourselves, but beyond that our >instincts are xenophobic. > >I couldn't disagree more. It's a common kind of social Darwinism to >think that we are innately wired to be selfish. And as we've seen going >round and round on this mailing list our understanding of evolution is >childish at best. So there's no convincing evidence, that we can >coherently package, that proves your assertion: that it is built into >us to be self-centered. > >To be clear I'm not claiming one way or the other, that we are innately >wired to be altruistic or that we are innately wired to be >self-centered. I just think it's reasonable to let biologists continue >to study the issue(s) and if they come up with the biological >explanation for altruistic behavior then great. If they don't and we >demonstrate that we're all ultimately self-centered then great. But I >think it's a stretch to say that we've settled all of that science at >this point. -- ⛧glen⛧ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
