Introduction: Bentham's Corpse Evolutionary Altruism Altruism as a Biological Concept A Unified Theory of Evolutionary Altruism Adaptation and Multilevel Selection Group Selection and Human Behavior Human Groups as Adaptive Units Psychological Altruism Motives as Proximate Mechanisms Three Theories of Motivation Psychological Evidence Philosophical Arguments The Evolution of Psychological Altruism Conclusion: Pluralism Notes References Index
Elliott Sober is Vilas Research Professor and Hans Reichenbach Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. David Sloan Wilson is Professor of Biology at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Do people help others because they think they will get pleasure
from doing so (hedonism), or because they have an ultimate desire
to help another (true altruism)? Sober and Wilson argue that
evolutionary biology can shed light on this problem. They do not
say that human traits that evolved by individual selection are
hedonistic and those that evolved by group selection are truly
altruistic. Their argument is more subtle than that...[This book]
will stimulate thought about important questions.
*Nature*
Unto Others, a collaboration between Elliott Sober, one of the
founders of the modern philosophy of biology, and David Sloan
Wilson, one of the most creative theoreticians in evolutionary
studies, wades into this turbulent stream [of evolutionary biology
ideology] at precisely the point where so many other adventurers
have been swept away: the problem of the origin of altruistic
behavior...At first sight Unto Others appears to be a reformulation
of the now orthodox view of the evolution of altruism. It is,
however, a great deal more subversive than that, for, if its
alternative scheme is taken seriously, evolutionary biologists
should stop characterizing the process as one in which genes drive
organisms to develop particular characteristics that maximize their
fitness...Unto Others is precisely that combination of radical
reexamination of a system of explanation, an examination from the
roots, with a rigorous technical analysis of both biological and
epistemological questions that we all are supposed to engage in.
What marks off their intellectual production is not its ideology
but the seriousness with which they have taken the intellectual
project. The hinge of Sober and Wilson's argument is a rejection of
the prejudice that natural selection must operate directly solely
on individuals. They point out that groups of organisms may also be
the units of differential reproduction...A large part of Unto
Others is taken up with a classic problem in philosophy and
psychology that is analogous to the evolutionary question of
whether the appearance of altruism at the individual level is
really selfishness at the genic level. Is human altruism really
egoism, or even pure hedonism, in disguise?...In the end, Sober and
Wilson are entirely forthright in saying that they have consciously
adopted a pluralistic perspective.
*New York Review of Books*
Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson are clear that there are two
notions of altruism, as well as two challenges to its possibility,
stemming from quite different sources, but their wide-ranging book
is intended to tackle both. They begin with biological altruism,
offering their own perspective on how this puzzle should be
resolved, and discussing the ways in which natural selection of
social structures may have figured in the history of our species.
In the second half of Unto Others, they turn to psychological
altruism, arguing that debates between those who believe that human
beings are sometimes other-directed and their sceptical opponents
cannot be settled either by philosophical arguments or by
psychological experiments... Sober and Wilson offer a distinctive
approach to the problem of biological altruism, one that attempts
to incorporate the accepted solutions within a unified theory. For
two decades, Sober, an internationally prominent philosopher of
biology, has provided welcome clarification of the concept of
natural selection, while, for an even longer period, Wilson, a
well-known theoretical biologist, has campaigned to rehabilitate
one of the most vilified views about the nature of selection...[In
this book] they have considerably clarified what is at stake in the
debate about psychological altruism, and have demonstrated how an
evolutionary perspective might bear on it.
*London Review of Books*
Unselfish action is a hallmark of humanity. We may sacrifice our
lives for the good of our children, for the good of our nation, and
sometimes even for the good of a stranger. What motivates such
altruistic acts? To a biologist, this question has two very
different answers. There is the proximate answer that explains our
psychological reasons for acting altruistically, and there is the
ultimate answer that explains how an unselfish act increases our
Darwinian fitness relative to some selfish alternative. Through the
two more-or-less independent sections of Unto Others, Sober and
Wilson discuss both proximate and ultimate explanations. They use
both sections to also emphasize their belief in the value of
pluralistic hypotheses, with natural selection driven by multiple
levels of causation and behavior driven by multiple desires...
Sober and Wilson...have the laudable goal of stimulating research
into levels of selection and motivation as applied to humans and
their culture.
*Science*
[A] tour de force about the multitrack selection processes that
have shaped life's creatures, including human behaviour, that
dispels once and for all that peculiarly mystifying belief among
gene selectionists that 'group selection' is risible and unworthy
of intellectual consideration... Sober and D. S. Wilson are two of
the leading thinkers in evolutionary biology who have made group
selection respectable again and rescued altruism and many other
supposedly counter-intuitive behavioural traits, from that
contortionist potpourri of selfish-genery, inclusive fitness theory
and game theory...[Unto Others] is a step in the right direction
towards a truly new Darwinism.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
Unto Others is an important, original, and well-written book. It
contains the definitive contemporary statement on higher-level
selection and the evolutionary origin of cooperation.
*E. O. Wilson*
This provocative, important book outlines an evolutionary theory of
altruism, examining past theoretical problems--in particular, how
to distinguish altruism and selfish (or hedonistic) motives.
Drawing deeply and judiciously on research in theoretical biology,
social psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, Sober and
Wilson--both long-standing and eminent participants in
controversies about the evolution of altruism--make two major
claims: first, that 'natural selection is unlikely to have given us
purely egoistic motives,' second, that the much-maligned concept of
group selection--the idea that natural selection sometimes operates
at the level of the group--may be a mechanism for the evolution of
altruism...Readers will be impressed by the breadth of the analysis
and, especially, the extraordinary clarity of the presentation.
This will most likely be regarded as a landmark, if controversial,
work. It is a testament to the authors' understanding and skill as
writers that it is also fun to read.
*Choice*
Unto Others, written by two eminent scholars, a philosopher
(Elliott Sober) and a biologist (David Wilson) who have thought
long and hard about unselfish cooperative behavior and group
selection, is bound to have a long-lasting and strong influence on
the field of evolutionary biology...In this book, philosophical and
biological discourse are tightly woven together into an
easy-to-read package. The major appeal of this book to those
interested in he comparative and evolutionary study of behavior
centers on the broad range of material that Sober and Wilson
consider in arguing for group selection...All in all, Unto Others
is a good read...I'm sure all readers will come away from this
stimulating book having learned a lot and having had their own
views challenged by this thoughtful and very timely essay.
*Ethology*
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