Haidt vs. lots of people on group selection (Ch. 9)
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:20 am
(I thought it'd be better to have a descriptive subject rather than putting it in the chapter thread)
In this chapter, Haidt makes a case for group selection in explaining the evolution of some human morality. As he says, the concept of group selection has been all but banished from evolutionary biology.
Just recently Steven Pinker wrote an essay criticizing group selection. There are also comments from Haidt, Dawkins, and others. It's quite a long collection, I've only read some of it. (Recently Dawkins went off on E.O. Wilson in a review of his book, as Wilson is also trying to revive group selection.)
http://edge.org/conversation/the-false- ... -selection
I thought Haidt was pretty persuasive in arguing it as a common-sense idea, but Pinker explains why it doesn't really add anything to the gene/individual selection theory.
After reading some of this, I sort of lost the reason why the debate is that crucial, it seems they are arguing semantics at some points (this is part of the problem, says Pinker). On the other hand, nailing down the mechanisms probably is important.
In this chapter, Haidt makes a case for group selection in explaining the evolution of some human morality. As he says, the concept of group selection has been all but banished from evolutionary biology.
Just recently Steven Pinker wrote an essay criticizing group selection. There are also comments from Haidt, Dawkins, and others. It's quite a long collection, I've only read some of it. (Recently Dawkins went off on E.O. Wilson in a review of his book, as Wilson is also trying to revive group selection.)
http://edge.org/conversation/the-false- ... -selection
I thought Haidt was pretty persuasive in arguing it as a common-sense idea, but Pinker explains why it doesn't really add anything to the gene/individual selection theory.
After reading some of this, I sort of lost the reason why the debate is that crucial, it seems they are arguing semantics at some points (this is part of the problem, says Pinker). On the other hand, nailing down the mechanisms probably is important.