Foundations of Social Evolution
Princeton University Press: 1998. 268pp $49.50, £35, (hbk), $16.95, £13.95 (pbk)
This holds particularly for issues of altruism and mutual help. Darwin saw in animal cooperation a “special difficulty” for his theory. Subsequent cohorts of evolutionary biologists have blown, in turn, hot and cold about the prevalence of selfishness in nature. The last generation, which set out to take the altruism out of altruism, was guided by two shining beacons, William D. Hamilton's “Genetical evolution of social behaviour” (Journ. Theor. Biol. 7, 1-52; 1964) and Robert Trivers's “Evolution of reciprocal altruism” (Quart. Rev. Biol. 46, 35-57; 1971). The former was based on kin selection: genes for helping relatives will spread, since relatives are diluted copies of oneself. The latter was based on reciprocation: help your helper and you help yourself. Both approaches were never meant to exclude other possibilities, and are, in particular, mutually compatible. Nevertheless, most of the subsequent contributions can be placed in one tradition or the other. This is the case with the two books at hand, despite the fact that both propose a synthesis. Dugatkin follows Trivers, Frank follows Hamilton, and they synthesize in different ways.
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