Thank you Nick.

On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 at 18:27, <[email protected]> wrote:

> Pieter,
>
>
>
> I seemed to have dropped the thread.  I have downloaded a lot of the
> references you sent and will work through them as best I can.  It’s a very
> interesting list.
>
>
>
> But I haven’t responded to your list of plain spoken things to say about
> group selection.  So I will “lard” that below.  Lots going on here, health
> issues and what, but I want to staty with you on this if only for my own
> sanity.
>
>
>
> See below.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> *rom:* Friam <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Pieter Steenekamp
> *Sent:* Monday, August 11, 2025 7:06 AM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> [email protected]>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Group Selection IS a metaphor.
>
>
>
> I think I’ve got a handle—maybe totally off the mark—on individual and
> group selection in human behavioural evolution. Here’s my take:
>
> What is it? *ChatNST**è** Pieter: you come to me as an “expert” and I
> hope you understand that I am not (merely?) trolling when I say that the
> question is more interesting than the answer.  It reminds me of discussions
> about the hard problem of consciousness.  Its my “expert” opinion that, as
> in that case, the hard problem here is only hard for those people who want
> it to be hard.  For those who truly want to crack the problem, it is
> already answered, or its answer is extremely intricate and may only come
> after many years of balanced and careful research working out how both
> processes have left their mark. This case may be even harder than the
> consciousness case because it is an idiographic question, an attempt to
> explain a particularity, an individual historical event, human evolution.
> I am not sure it is ever possible to “explain” a particularity, except
> insofar as one is unwilling to see it stripped of its uniqueness. So, then,
> how thoroughly are we committed to the idea of human uniqueness.  So that
> is what leads me to ask what hankering leads anyone to see the problem as
> hard.  I suspect that lying at the bottom of all of this is an ugly tangle
> of libertarian, liberal (in the classic sense) and progressive (including,
> perhaps some Marxism) thought which, if one is in that tangle, appears to
> make the question not only interesting but vital. Working through that
> tangle would be interesting but has little to do with the science.
> Answering the scientific question is a long boring slog to work out the
> details of what we already know to be true.That IS my “expert” opinion and
> should be taken with a pound of salt. **ç**ChatNST*
> Human behaviour is a deeply complex phenomenon, shaped by two intertwined
> evolutionary processes: *ChatNST**è** Please try not to confound
> evolution with natural selection.  Any more than you would confound the
> theory OF anything with the thing it is a theory of.  Avoiding this
> confusion is not as easy as it sounds.  Do things fall because of gravity
> or is gravity the fact that things fall?  It can of course be either, but
> it can’t keep wobbling back and forth in the same discussion.  That is the
> logical flaw of equivocation. *
>
>
>
> *As usual, I speak with such “authority” and conviction because I know
> that others (Glen? DaveW? EricS? Russ?)  will protect you from me.  <==
> ChatNST*
>
> Biological evolution (based in our genes), where the unit of selection is
> the individual human.
>
> Cultural evolution (based in memes), where the unit of selection is
> defined at the group level—though “group” can mean different things in
> different contexts.
>
>
>
> *ChatNST**è** So, what do you take evolution to be apart from its most
> famous explainer, the differential replication of alternative heritable
> something?  Can we really know which iron to choose without knowing where
> the green is? **ç**ChatNST*
>
>
>
> That’s it, in my simple words.
>
>
>
> *ChatNST**è** Ah, if only these words were simple.  Thank you thank you
> for the report and bibliography.   **ç**ChatNST*
>
>
>
> Why do I say so?
> I asked George to take a deep dive into the topic and produce a report,
> which you can view here: https://g.co/gemini/share/b046bfad5cc8 . I buy
> into its main argument—not claiming it’s “correct” in the absolute sense,
> but in my view it’s the best current explanation for the roots of human
> behaviour.
>
> It draws on the latest research and, in the conclusion, puts it like this
> (paraphrased from the report):
>
> The multilevel selection (MLS) framework, championed by David Sloan
> Wilson, integrates individual selection into a broader system of competing
> evolutionary forces within a nested hierarchy of genes, individuals, and
> groups. Extending this to cultural evolution, MLS offers a two-track
> model—genetic and cultural—that better explains human nature. By explicitly
> modelling the tension between within-group selfishness and between-group
> cooperation, it provides a richer explanation for complex social behaviours
> than alternatives like kin selection. The framework has implications beyond
> biology—touching religion, politics, and economics—and offers a unified,
> evolutionarily grounded lens on human sociality.
>
> That’s why, for now, I’m hitching my wagon to this model.
>
>
>
> References
> Works cited
>
> 1.     Why Won't the Group Selection Controversy Go Away?, accessed
> August 11, 2025,
> https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PHS575/%CE%86%CF%81%CE%B8%CF%81%CE%B1/Okasha_Why%20won%27t%20group%20selection%20go%20away.pdf
>
> 2.     Evolution of cooperation by multilevel selection - PNAS, accessed
> August 11, 2025, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0602530103
>
> 3.     Evolution "for the Good of the Group" | American Scientist,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.americanscientist.org/article/evolution-for-the-good-of-the-group
>
> 4.     Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology, accessed
> August 11, 2025,
> https://www.uvm.edu/~jfarley/EEseminar/readings/wilson-wilson.Rethinking20Sociobiology.inpress.pdf
>
> 5.     Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution: a never-ending
> controversy? - PMC, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4850877/
>
> 6.     pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3110649/#:~:text=The%20verdict%20was%20that%20group,%2C%20in%20fact%2C%20exist%E2%80%9D.
>
> 7.     (PDF) Adaptation and Natural Selection revisited - ResearchGate,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49747596_Adaptation_and_Natural_Selection_revisited
>
> 8.     Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology | The
> Quarterly Review of Biology: Vol 82, No 4, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/522809
>
> 9.     Reintroducing group selection to the human behavioral sciences -
> Cambridge University Press, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/reintroducing-group-selection-to-the-human-behavioral-sciences/634687DF831997525E21E5899B23CC8D
>
> 10.  Group selection - Wikipedia, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection
>
> 11.  David Sloan Wilson's Group Selection Theory of Religion: Analysis
> and Possible Christian Responses, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://christianscholars.com/david-sloan-wilsons-group-selection-theory-of-religion-analysis-and-possible-christian-responses/
>
> 12.  Eight Criticisms Not to Make About Group Selection - ResearchGate,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51195160_Eight_Criticisms_Not_to_Make_About_Group_Selection
>
> 13.  Multilevel selection on individual and group social behaviour in the
> wild - Journals, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.3061
>
> 14.  Multilevel selection on individual and group social behaviour in the
> wild - PMC, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11919500/
>
> 15.  3 MEMETIC EVOLUTION - Jack M. Balkin - Yale University, accessed
> August 11, 2025, https://jackbalkin.yale.edu/3-memetic-evolution
>
> 16.  Memetics - Wikipedia, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
>
> 17.  Memetics - Principia Cybernetica Web, accessed August 11, 2025,
> http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html
>
> 18.  pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2607340/#:~:text=Genes%20and%20culture%20are%20two,acting%20back%20on%20the%20genome.
>
> 19.  Library: Susan Blackmore: Memetic Evolution - PBS, accessed August
> 11, 2025, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/2/l_072_05.html
>
> 20.  The Meme Machine — by Susan Blackmore - Mimetic Theory, accessed
> August 11, 2025,
> https://mimetictheory.com/the-meme-machine-by-susan-blackmore/
>
> 21.  Memetics: A dangerous idea - ResearchGate, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292001401_Memetics_A_dangerous_idea
>
> 22.  Dual inheritance theory - Wikipedia, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_inheritance_theory
>
> 23.  (PDF) Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human ...,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40886135_Not_By_Genes_Alone_How_Culture_Transformed_Human_Evolution
>
> 24.  Five rules for the evolution of cooperation - PMC, accessed August
> 11, 2025, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3279745/
>
> 25.  The Relation between Kin and Multilevel Selection: An Approach Using
> Causal Graphs, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1093/bjps/axu047
>
> 26.  Okasha, S. (2016). The Relation between Kin and Multi-level
> Selection: An Approach Using Causal Graphs. British Journal for the -
> University of Bristol Research Portal, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/34712898/Equivalence_MLS_and_IF_BJPS.pdf
>
> 27.  The Relation between Kin and Multilevel Selection: An Approach ...,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/bjps/axu047
>
> 28.  Multilevel cultural evolution: From new theory to practical
> applications - PNAS, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218222120
>
> 29.  Evolution of parochial altruism by multilevel selection - Max Planck
> Institute for Evolutionary Biology, accessed August 11, 2025,
> http://web.evolbio.mpg.de/~garcia/preprints/07.pdf
>
> 30.  The multilevel economic paradigm | INET Oxford, accessed August 11,
> 2025, https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/projects/the-multilevel-paradigm
>
> 31.  Why Multilevel Selection Matters, accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/context/econ/article/1104/viewcontent/Field_Why_Multilevel_Selection_Matters.pdf
>
> 32.  Gene–culture coevolution and the nature of human sociality - PMC,
> accessed August 11, 2025,
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3048999/
>
>
>
> On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 at 09:41, Pieter Steenekamp <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> Nick (aka ChatNJT),
>
> Are you still my George in this grand quest to truly “get” group selection?
>
> A bit of backstory
> When I get into a debate, my natural instinct is… well, to stay in my own
> head and not listen much at all. I first got called out on it nearly 50
> years ago, back when I was a young engineer in management training. We did
> simulated negotiations, the instructor took notes, and the verdict was:
> “You didn’t hear a word they said.”
>
> That kicked off my slow, sometimes painful, self-improvement journey. My
> instincts haven’t really changed (old habits die hard), but now I can force
> myself to switch gears — to really listen and understand the other person’s
> point before I jump in swinging.
>
> I’ll admit, I lean toward believing in individual selection in human
> evolution. But I’m genuinely open to being convinced otherwise — and I want
> to really understand group selection before I form my final view.
>
> I said I’d be spending some time learning with ChatGPT, and you kindly
> offered to be my “George” through ChatNJT. I’ve seen you active in this
> thread, but I’m not sure if our little backchannel on this is still alive
> or quietly drifting into the great beyond.
>
> And hey, in the spirit of “why have a mind if we can’t change it?” — if
> you want to step back from this role, no hard feelings at all.
>
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Aug 2025 at 06:49, Pieter Steenekamp <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Nick, thanks for the document, I have downloaded it and will read it.
>
> Next point, you do ask a lot of questions, Nick — and not the easy kind
> either. But fine, let’s dance.
>
> "What is your hankering?"
> I’m a simple creature. I just want to get a grip on what “group selection”
> really means for humans — simple enough to explain without a headache, but
> not so simple that it’s wrong. And, ideally, I’d like a reason to actually
> believe it exists.
>
> "Where do you hope this will all come out?"
> Same answer, really. I trust my brain enough to think I can untangle
> complicated stuff… eventually. My hope is just to reach that magical “ohhh,
> that’s what it means” moment.
>
> "What would group selection look like in human beings?"
> Now you’re hitting the nerve. I can’t answer that — which is exactly why
> I’m here poking at the question.
> Right now, it feels at odds with the simple elegance of evolution, which
> (as ChatGPT put it) goes like this:
>
> Evolution is the gradual change of replicators — things that make copies
> of themselves — over time. Sometimes the replicator exists inside a
> temporary form (like an organism, idea, or machine) that competes with
> others. Variations that help it succeed in making more copies become more
> common, shaping the system over time.
>
> And here’s my snag: I see humans as one big messy group, not a bunch of
> smaller competing groups. So where’s the competition? Clearly I’m missing a
> big chunk of the story — and I want to find it.
>
> "Would you approve or disapprove?"
> I’m not here to pass moral verdicts. I just want to figure it out before
> deciding whether to even have an opinion.
>
> "What is a group? Is a species a group? Is a race a group? Is a village a
> group?"
> And there’s the heart of my confusion. Right now, my brain says: “Well,
> all humans are one group, right?” — which doesn’t fit neatly with my
> current picture of evolution. So the plan is simple: swap ignorance for
> understanding, and hopefully keep the coffee hot while I do it.
>
>
>
> On Fri, 8 Aug 2025 at 23:52, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Great Peiter,
>
>
>
> But you didnpt answer my question.  I know it’s the hardest kind of
> question to answer, but give it a go.  What is your hankering?  Where do
> you hope this will all come out?   What would group selection look like in
> human beings?  Would you approve of it or disapprove of it?  What is a
> group, after all?  Is a species a group?  Is a race a group? Is a village a
> group? Etc.
>
>
>
> DS Wilson I think lost interest in the question that most interested me
> (what are the elemental forces that led to the evolution of complex
> organisms) and became more interested in in the forces that lead to human
> groupish behavior.  To me human groupishness seems wildly overdetermined.
> Its like asking why is the pope a Christian.  But that’s a wildly
> unsatisfying answer to some one who is genuinely surprized to find that the
> pope is indeed a Christian.
>
>
>
> Lets go back and forth like this for a few more exchanges.
>
>
>
> Meantime, I enclose a short article in BBS that reprises a much larger
> article by W and S.   I have a pdf of the larger article on my hard drive
> and will send it to you when I figure out how to bypass friam’s
> restrictions on large files.
>
>
>
> But please don’t let that get in the way of you taking a shot at answers
> to the questions I posed.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
> .
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Pieter Steenekamp
> *Sent:* Friday, August 8, 2025 4:21 PM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> [email protected]>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Group Selection IS a metaphor.
>
>
>
> Nick,
>
> Too good to miss — I’m in. Lead me into the jungle of group selection,
> especially the human variety.
>
> What I’m after: a clear, simple (but not dumbed-down) take on what group
> selection in humans is, and why it might explain our behaviour better than
> individual selection alone.
>
> Happy to start at the very beginning — dawn of the argument, cave
> paintings, whatever you think works.
>
> And yes, send me that Famous Great Amateur reading list. I promise to read
> it with respect… and just enough suspicion to keep it fun.
>
>
>
> On Fri, 8 Aug 2025 at 17:05, Nicholas Thompson <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Hi, Pieter,
>
>
>
> Let me be a George to you as you explore this topic.  I will try to
> respond off hand, quickly, and unself-consciously as you think along.  I
> think this whole topic is fascinating both substantively, and
> historically.   The literature seems to track (or lead?) the Zeitgeist so
> precisely from post war peace-nikery (Wynne-Edwards), to the
> revanchist academic Reaganism (Williams-Dawkins), to chaos (evodevo). It's
> really hard to take the whole argument seriously once one begins to
> understand how complex and multi layered are the mechanisms by which
> parents do and dont resemble their children.   One of the tools to thinking
> straight is to own up to one's hankerings before one dives into the
> literature.  What are you hoping to find?  Post war peace-nikery was
> covertly deistic,  hoping to find that there was some sort of over
> arching regulatory agency that would keep the species and the planet safe.
> Academic Reaganism said good luck with that!   Success is virtue.  And then
> evodevo, the bull in the china shop of that whole argument.  I recommend
> reading the biologist, Sean B. Carroll, (not the physicist), Endless forms
> most beautiful, and The making of the fittest.   It's really hard to take
> the whole argument seriously once one begins to understand how complex and
> multi layered are the mechanisms by which parents do and dont resemble
> their children. That there is any resemblance at all begins to seem like
> some sort of miracle.  Or perhaps just momentum.  One hankering that
> misleads us is naturalism, the idea that we can find some sort of MORAL
> guidance in the way things are.  Is the opposite hankering,
> existentialism?  The belief that what makes humans special is their power
> to CHOOSE.  You should remember that I am not a philosopher and am, in
> fact, an amateur in all things.
>
>
>
> "Any time you want to explore this issue, I  am here ready to help.  Would
> you like suggestions of articles to read by that Famous Amateur, Nick
> Thompson? "
>
>
>
> signed,
>
>
>
> ChatNST
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 8, 2025 at 5:19 AM Pieter Steenekamp <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Nick. Just like you struggled to get your head around entropy, I’m
> battling to wrap my mind around how the basic but very powerful mechanism
> of evolution works in human groups. I can easily understand individual
> human selection, or even group selection in swarming insects where only the
> queen has babies.
>
> I think I’ll take a page from your book and work with George to help guide
> me through this learning journey. Every now and then, I might check in with
> you and others here for a chat or to ask a question.
>
> The only catch is that I’ve just started a really exciting AI project, so
> I might not have much time for my group-level evolution journey — but I’ll
> try to keep it going.
>
>
>
> On Fri, 8 Aug 2025 at 03:40, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Thanks Pieter,
>
>
>
> Sorry I have taken so long to get back to you.  If FRIAM ever started a
> journal, it should be called “the emperors new clothes”.  We are not
> committed to anything if not to the validity of an “amateur’s”
> perspective.  As people will be quick to tell you, mine has always been of
> that sort.
>
>
>
> If I read you carefully, the position you take is that laid out in Dawkins
> The Extended Phenotype – that the genes are the basic unit of selection.
> But as Dave Wilson has been pointing out for years, Who made that
> decision?   For one thing, as epigenic studies have made clear, when one
> looks in detail, it is really hard to find a thing that is exactly the
> gene.  For another, that decision runs the risk of confusing the the thing
> that is selected with the forces that are selecting it.  Whatever level you
> care to calculate the impact of selection, it is differential group success
> that is driving selection or it is not group selection.  And if it  is
> differential group success that is driving selection, then it is group
> selection.  I think you might quite enjoy The Extended Phenotype.   For a
> whild ride, have a look at Elliott Sober and D. S. Wilson’s Reintroducing
> Group Selection to the human behavioral sciences.  There is a wonderful
> metaphor in there about two riders riding three horses.  It was the article
> that broke the tide for me.  I had been totally up Dawkins ass for the
> preceding 20 years.
>
>
>
> Here is the citation, courtesy og George Patrick Tremblay IV
>
>
>
> Wilson, D. S., & Sober, E. (1994). *Reintroducing group selection to the
> human behavioral sciences*. *Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17*(4),
> 585–608. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00036104
> en.wikipedia.org+15philpapers.org+15
> <https://philpapers.org/rec/WILRGS?utm_source=chatgpt.com>….
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Pieter Steenekamp
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2025 12:55 AM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> [email protected]>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Group Selection IS a metaphor.
>
>
>
> Nick, I'm genuinely impressed. Honestly, I feel a bit out of my depth
> trying to respond meaningfully on this topic.
>
> So please take my reply in the same spirit I’d expect a response from my
> 10-year-old grandchild when debating computer programming with me. The gap
> between your understanding of evolution and mine feels about that wide.
>
> That said, I’d still like to offer a response to your group selection
> argument—fully aware that it may come across as amateurish, and I'm okay
> with that.
>
> Here's the question I’m grappling with:
>
> Is the following valid?
> Genes as the Unit of Selection:
> Modern evolutionary theory generally views genes as the primary unit of
> selection. Natural selection acts on individuals, and the success of an
> individual is ultimately determined by the genes they carry.
> Group Selection as a Modifier:
> Group selection can be seen as a process that influences the expression of
> genes. For example, if a group-level trait (like cooperative behavior) is
> advantageous, then genes that promote that behavior will be favored, even
> if those genes also have individual-level costs.
>
>
>
> On Wed, 6 Aug 2025 at 00:12, Prof David West <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Nick,
>
>
>
> I wish to embody the fear of being dragged away from what you think you
> are supposed to be doing, to be engaged in the topic you raise in your
> paper.
>
>
>
> I have read the paper before and, as then, I find it meritorious, well
> written, and reasonable in argument. I am, basically, convinced.
>
>
>
> However; two points:
>
>
>
> First, your use of the concept, "metaphor," is the way that I use the
> term, in a manner that glen pointed out is inconsistent with the literal
> definition of the term. I speak of metaphor when there is some thing of
> which I think I know something and I have a suspicion that some other thing
> might be of the same ilk. I use what I think I know to craft a 'model', one
> that suggests particular points and particular relations that, if my
> suspicion is correct, will have direct analogs in the unknown thing. I
> check them out individually and in combinations and, if substantiated,
> confirm my suspicion. If unconfirmed, the metaphor is refuted.
>
>
>
> This seems to me to be what you are doing in the paper, albeit it more
> abstractly and academically. Please correct me if wrong.
>
>
>
> Second, and here is the real time sink, would it be possible to make your
> ideas concrete, real groups with actual history and demonstrated
> differential "success." If you were amenable to such a conversation, I
> would propose the Mormons as a test case.
>
>
>
> One of 20 or so "religions"/"societies" to emerge from the "Burnt Over
> District" of western New York. The only one still extant.
>
>
>
> Disproportionately successful, (in material and social terms), to their
> neighbors. Smith was living in a two-story New England style home while
> down the road, Abe Lincoln, was living in a log cabin with mud floor.
>
>
>
> A schism immediately after Smith's death, with the Reformed LDS barely
> evident while the main group flourished. (Last time I checked, Mormonism
> and Sokka Gokai, in Japan, were the two fastest growing religions.)
>
>
>
> In Utah there was a concerted effort to spawn multiple small groups by
> sending out colonies. Because each group was originally "seeded" with four
> or five families, you get a strong genetic/heritance component as well as
> "traits." (It is still possible to identify what part of Utah someone is
> from (especially females) by their physical appearance.)
>
>
>
> Some interesting "adaptations" at the trait level, e.g., when Smith was
> alive blacks were included in the community and held the
> priesthood—something that Missourians, at the time, could not abide.
> Brigham Young 'suspended' (restored in 1978 with the admission that the
> suspension was not for theological, but merely political reasons) black
> priesthood membership and gave up polygamy (de jure only) to appease the
> Federal Government and avoid a second martyrdom.
>
>
>
> davew
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 5, 2025, at 1:10 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues in FRIAM,
>
> Sometimes, if I am going to get anything done, I just have to ignore
> Friam, and keep my head down, and work at the thing I am working at.  It
> always seems, on that occasion, that you-guys dangle in front of me some
> enticing topic so I must scream and put my fingers in my ears to keep focus
> on my work.  So it was that when I decided I must fish or cut bait on
> entropy or it would take me to my grave, that almost immediately you-guys
> started not one but two conversations close to my heart: on the centrality
> of metaphor to science and on the group selection controversy.
>
> A couple of decades ago I brought those two interests together in  a paper
> called “Shifting the Natural Selection  Metaphor to the Group Level.  There
> are two things about this paper that make it salient for me.  The first is
> that I think it is the best paper I ever wrote.  The second is that for
> each of the two people whom I most hoped to reach when I wrote it, D. S.
> Wilson and Elliott  Sober, it is a piece of  crap. In it, I try to show
> that the problem with metaphors is not with their use in scientific
> thinking: on the contrary, it is with their ill-disciplined use.  Metaphors
> need to be worked in a systematic way, not simply flung out in a gust of
> poetic exuberance.  This lesson  I try to teach by working the natural
> selection metaphor in a systematic way to show that if it had been treated
> seriously in the first place, the whole dispute about group selection might
> have been  avoided.  Thus the paper is not only arrogant, but
> meta-arrogant.
>
> Nothing is more pitiable than the retired academic who would do anything
> to have anybody read his moribund essays.  But, alas, I simply am such a
> person.  So, I am attaching a copy of the paper  in the hope that it will
> have some value to you within the context of your two discussions.
>
> Mumble,
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>
> Clark University
>
> [email protected]
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
>
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>
> *Attachments:*
>
>    - Shifting the natural selection metaphor to the group level.pdf
>    - Shifting the natural selection metaphor to the group level.pdf
>
>
>
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>
>
> --
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>
> Clark University
>
> [email protected]
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
>
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