Unto Others The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior

About this book

A biological/philosophical study of the debate about altruism. The authors argue that it may be favoured by natural selection, if group selection, an idea originally proposed by Darwin but in retreat since the 1960s, is admitted as, in their view, it should be.

Contents

Introduction: Bentham's corpse. Part 1 Evolutionary altruism: altruism as a biological concept; a unified evolutionary theory of social behaviour; adaptation and multilevel selection; group selection and human behaviour; human groups as adaptive units. Part 2 Psychological altruism: motives as proximate mechanisms; three theories of motivation; psychological evidence; psychological evidence; philosophical arguments; the evolution of psychological altruism. Conclusion; pluralsim.

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Biography

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 State University of New York at Binghamton.