Re: Article: Group selection, a theory whose time has come...again

Victor.Purinton@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Dec 1, 11:13 am, dkomo <dkomo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[I found this post by Robert Karl Stonjek over on sci.bio.evolution and
decided to repost it here because it should be of general interest.
Besides, I love to point out instances of the shortcomings of
over-reductionism in evolutionary biology. -- dkomo]

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Group selection, a theory whose time has come...again

Sociobiology, the discipline founded on Darwin's theory of group
evolution, is in theoretical disarray. In a landmark article for the
December issue of the Quarterly Review of Biology, eminent evolutionary
scientists David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson usher in a new era in
evolutionary science.

"Although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage
to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same
tribe...an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give
an immense advantage to one tribe over another."

With these words, Charles Darwin proposed an evolutionary explanation
for morality and pro-social behaviors- individuals behaving for the good
of their group, often at their own expense-that anticipated the future
discipline of Sociobiology. A century after this famous passage was
published in The Descent of Man (1871), however, Darwin's explanation
based on group selection had become taboo and has not recovered since.

In a landmark article for The Quarterly Review of Biology, "Rethinking
the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology," eminent evolutionary
scientists David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson-whose book
Sociobiology:The New Synthesis brought widespread attention to the field
in 1975-call for an end to forty years of confusion and divergent theories.

They propose a new consensus and theoretical foundation that affirms
Darwin's original conjecture and is supported by the latest biological
findings.

Wilson and Wilson trace much of the confusion in the field to the
1960's, when most evolutionists rejected "for the good of the group"
thinking and insisted that all adaptations must be explained in terms of
individual self-interest. In an even more reductionistic move, genes
were called "the fundamental unit of selection," as if this was an
argument against group selection. Scientific dogma became entrenched in
popular culture with the publication of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish
Gene (1976). Although evidence in favor of group selection began
accumulating almost immediately after its rejection, its taboo status
prevented a systematic re-evaluation of the field until now.

Based on current theory and evidence, Wilson and Wilson show that
natural selection is unequivocally a multilevel process, as Darwin
originally envisioned, and that adaptations can evolve at all levels of
the biological hierarchy, from genes to ecosystems. They conclude with a
rallying cry that paraphrases Rabbi Hillel: "Selfishness beats altruism
within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is
commentary,"Wilson and Wilson free sociobiology to once again pursue all
lines of inquiry within its discipline.

Source: University of Chicagohttp://www.physorg.com/news115476686.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
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--dk...@xxxxxxxx


This is just sloppy thinking, and a false dichotomy.

The fundamental premise of the group selection argument - that
individual selfishness is always better than altruism - is simply
wrong. Altruism is a manifestation of cooperation, which needs no
aggregate or higher-level purpose. A mutations that results in an
individual who cooperates more effectively (while hunting, e.g.) will
propogate because it increases the success of the individual with the
mutation.


Unless he runs into a cheater. Then the cheater will pick the altruist clean. Societies of a few cheaters can be stable. Take a look at some the African countries. The individuals in power in some of these countries enrich enormously themselves through corruption while the majority live in economic desparation -- Nigeria for example.

Besides, group selection has no mechanism of transmission (except in
species with specialized reproductive roles, such as ants or bees).


It has behavioral transmission -- Jablonka's third dimension of evolution.


--dkomo@xxxxxxxx


.

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