Group Selection
One of the concepts accepted until the 1960s was that of group selection, namely that individuals should work for the benefit of the species as a whole rather than themselves. This has parallels in selflessly benefitting society rather than oneself. Critiques of group selection (see George C. Williams), and the development of alternative explanations for altruistic behavior (such as kin selection), however, have led to a strong circumscription of the possible role of group selection. John Maynard Smith, who was a communist until leaving the party in protest at the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, coined the term "kin selection", and was influential in the development of game theory as a tool for the analysis of animal behavior (see Maynard Smith, 1982).
One should only benefit one's relatives who share the same genes (kin selection) or be altruistic if that is reciprocated (see evolution of altruism, prisoner's dilemma). Group selection is now only recognised in certain restrictive circumstances.
Read more about this topic: Evolutionary Theory And The Political Left
Famous quotes containing the words group and/or selection:
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)