For Whose Benefit?: The Biological and Cultural Evolution of Human Cooperation

ISBN-13: 9783319845104 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 172 str.

Patrik Lindenfors

Recenzje

"For whose benefit? provides insights on human evolution and evolutionary biology. After reading this book, the reader will acquire a vast and general information about evolution. The audience of this book includes general readers or students interested in biology, evolution and basics of cooperation. ... the book is an active evaluative discussion of the related ideas and concepts." (Farid Pazhoohi, Evolutionary Psychological Science, Vol. (04), 2018)

Spis treści

The Human Puzzle

The breakdown of self

Cooperation and life

Life

Your physical self

Genes

Simple cells - prokaryotes 17

More complex cells – eukaryotes 18

Multi-cellularity 20

Mobile eco-systems 24

Your psychological self 27

A soulless existence 29

Majority rule 31

Surely there is something more? 31

Easily explicable cooperation and natural selection 35

Mutual gain 36

Natural selection 38

Proximate and ultimate explanations 41

Group selection 42

Behavioral genetics 43

Family 46

Warning calls 50

Eusociality – ants, wasps and bees 51

A challenge 54

Eusociality – termites and naked mole rats 57

Kin selection in humans 58

Friends 61

The prisoners’ dilemma 61

Examples from the animal world? 65

The social brain 69

Other possible genetic explanations of cooperation 71

We are not them: about our closest relatives 73

Reciprocity in humans 75

Humanity – the paragon of cooperation? 78

Games of cooperation 81

A huge mistake? 83

Cultural group selection 85

Nature or nurture 86

Cultural explanations for extreme cooperation 89

Language 95

The structure of human language 98

The evolution of language 99

The green beards of language 102

The second replicator 105

The last piece of the puzzle? – Cooperation over our heads 108<

A slow history 111

Cultural evolution 116

Cultural evolutionary explanations of cooperation 125

Networks 127

The software 130

Epilogue: The human super organism 133

Characteristics of synergistic cooperation 136 How to harness idea collectives 137

References 140

Notes 148

Blurb

This book takes the reader on a journey, navigating the enigmatic aspects of cooperation; a journey that starts inside the body and continues via our thoughts to the human super-organism.

Cooperation is one of life’s fundamental principles. We are all made of parts – genes, cells, organs, neurons, but also of ideas, or ‘memes’. Our societies too are made of parts – us humans. Is all this cooperation fundamentally the same process?

From the smallest component parts of our bodies and minds to our complicated societies, everywhere cooperation is the organizing principle. Often this cooperation has emerged because the constituting parts have benefited from the interactions, but not seldom the cooperating units appear to lose on the interaction. How then to explain cooperation? How can we understand our intricate societies where we regularly provide small and large favors for people we are unrelated to, know, or even never expect to meet again? Where does the idea come from that it is right to risk one’s life for country, religion or freedom? The answers seem to reside in the two processes that have shaped humanity: biological and cultural evolution.