Strong reciprocity 22 Sep 2007 On Friday I assessed an essay by a masters student on the evolution of reciprocity and altruism (she cleverly introduced a notion of benevolent behaviour rather than “altruism” in social contexts, to avoid confusion with genetic altruism. Then today my various feeds identified this rather excellent essay (more of a review paper, really) on strong reciprocity (the idea that we humans will behave reciprocally even if there is no individual payoff) by Benoit Hardy-Valée, of the University of Toronto. In this paper, he challenges what he calls “The Collective”, a group of conservative Darwinian thinkers who attempt to found natural rights on biology. The paper is full of insights and links and references. I strongly recommend it. Evolution Politics Social evolution
Epistemology Dynamics and classification redux 7 Aug 2010 In my last two posts in this series, I suggested that science is a field of possible moments, with no set trajectory over what I called the “dance floor of science”. Some commentators have objected to this, arguing that there is no real difference between classification and theory building. I… Read More
Biology Alienus a me puto 5 Jul 2010 I have mentioned Terence’s line Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto before. It is a declaration that all that is human is not foreign to me. But there are aliens, or we suppose on reasonable grounds that there are, and Stephen Hawking thinks we should not engage them,… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design God and evolution 1 1 Apr 201322 Jun 2018 [I have decided to restart ET for a bit, but given my circumstances, it will be sporadic at best. This is the first in a series that will be tagged “Living with Evolution”, and is the first rough draft of what I hope will be a book.] The common view… Read More
The idea of strong reciprocity has a certain emotional appeal. It leaves us warm and comfortable that we humans are kind and just because… well, just because! No need to investigate further, nothing to see here. Case closed. We’re just nice, and that’s that. I agree with the author- it’s not that neat or simple.
Interesting paper! Speaking of evolving reciprocity, have you seen this recent study? (sorry this is just a popular account of it; I couldn’t find any linkable journal version). Apparently monkeys will protest if some get unequal pay for equal work. No word if they start singing the Internationale in Capuchin. Still, it shows that evolving concepts of fairness and justice, essential in any societal reciprocity, happened a lot longer ago than those who use our innate “goodness” as evidence for some special place for humanity in the scheme of things would allow.