This unassuming-looking little book contains within it some of the secrets of the human universe. It belongs among the select set of volumes that have, I feel, truly advanced my understanding of the world. I don’t know what possessed me to pick it up in the first place; and the beginning of my read was inauspicious because of the volume’s somewhat abstract and abbreviated style. But before long I realized that the book was onto something both true and fundamental (and apparently also cutting-edge). It is also fantastically thought-provoking. Let me try to convey the sense of it in my own words.
Those of us who ponder the moral or ethical state of things tend to divide up actions and motives between the selfish and the altruistic. (If the selfishness is rational or “enlightened,” then it goes by the technical name of egoism.) Obviously the former is generally frowned upon and the latter praised. Yet a modern, scientific view of the world, informed in particular by evolutionary biology, has seemed to make our view of these attitudes problematic, since selfishness in some sense seems to be what natural selection is all about. This has also been a favored view in economics ever since Adam Smith spoke of an invisible hand that, by the popular view (but not really Smith’s own, according to Wilson), transforms selfish behavior in the marketplace into the welfare of society as a whole.
In this book, David Sloan Wilson argues that modern empirical and theoretical research have demonstrated conclusively that the selfish/altruist distinction is, in his word, irrelevant (p. 113) to what really matters for human thriving. Or, more precisely, he recommends defining altruism in terms of whatever behavior tends to the welfare of one’s group or society, at risk of one’s individual welfare, regardless of the character of the motive behind the behavior.
But the central and ground-breaking point is this: Natural or cultural selection will of its own accord bring about the right mix of selfish and altruist motives by selection at a “higher level.” So what determines how many egoists and altruists there are in your group will be due, not to the effects of such attitudes on the individuals within the group, but to the survival value the mix of attitudes accords to your group relative to other groups with which yours is competing. Groups with a different mix will simply vanish by losing the intergroup competition.
This fact in turn suggests that, with sufficient knowledge of this mechanism and the will to apply that knowledge, we could intentionally structure our group to be successful, that is, at surviving. Wilson and colleagues actually put this to the test in various demonstration projects.
While I cannot recommend this book too highly, I also must mention two major shortcomings (though I still credit the book for stimulating my awareness of these very issues). One is that there is huge question begging, or maybe just question ignoring, about the nature of morality or ethics. Suppose, for example, that the only means of survival by a given group in a given set of circumstances involve inculcating x, y, and z in the populace (say, beheadings and genocides and systemic rape of the infidels by members of ISIS). Doing these things might involve courage and self-sacrifice, or not; but whatever, we could still imagine an individual member of ISIS objecting to them “though the heavens fall,” that is, even in the knowledge that refraining from their performance would likely doom his or her own group. Does Wilson have anything ethically illuminating to say about that objector?
Of course Wilson could argue that ISIS is likely to fail precisely because of its inculcation of x, y, and z. Even supposing that is a correct prediction, does it address my question? Survival, while a sine qua non of evolution, has always seemed a strange bedfellow to ethics. And yet, I certainly appreciate that whatever ethics we have, could only have been the product of evolution, since, in the nature of the case, we can only have an ethics that has “survived.” This is the sort of issue that theoretical ethicists (such as myself) get tied up in knots thinking about (and love doing so).
A second point of criticism is the big letdown of the final chapter, “Planetary Altruism.” Here I was expecting a culmination of the argument with reference to current global concerns, such as depletion of resources, overpopulation, and climate change. But there is nary a peep about these things. The chapter is short and sketchy, when it could have been spectacular.
Finally, a minor but annoying shortcoming of this edition: the layout of the notes section. You would think that after all these years a distinguished press like Yale’s would recognize how absurd it is to have a footnote refer the reader to a notes section that does not clearly identify the chapter that contains that note. As things stand, say you come across note number 7 in Chapter 5. The header of the page in the chapter does not identify the chapter by number but only by name, “Psychological Altruism.” So you then turn to the notes section in the back of the book, but there you find that all of the chapters are referred to only by number! So now you have to thumb back to the page you were reading and then to the beginning of the chapter to remind yourself of what number that chapter is. Then back to the notes section. (And as if that were not bad enough, often as not the note itself will contain a citation, which you must in turn look up in the separate bibliography section.)
The obvious and simple solution to these difficulties is to have footnotes instead of endnotes (as well as in-text citations to sources in a separate bibliography). But at the very least, if for some reason the notes need to be bunched at the end, either have consecutive footnumbering through the whole book rather than chapter by chapter, or else make sure the page headings clearly coordinate between main text and notes section.
(I am abashed to admit that one of my own books suffers from the same flaw. What is the problem with these publishers??)
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Frequently bought together
$16.13
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jul 17
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
+
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. John R. Prewer
Every politician and presidential candidate everywhere should be required to ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2015
