Prediction: The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman will be made into a movie. The story of George R. Price, idiosyncratic scientific genius, is one of great tragedy, full of twists and turns until the last moments of his life. He was associated with a particular evolutionary equation, but after reading this book one must recognize Price as being larger than life – his involvement in major historic events was on the scale of Forrest Gump.
Warning: This review contains some spoilers, but only those that are well known.
The book is much more than a biography. It is a history of evolutionary science's struggle with the concept of altruism. The issue began with Charles Darwin (1859) who recognized:
“If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.”
The problem of animal cooperation or altruism is that benevolent behavior occurs at a significant cost to the giver. Evolutionary theory can account for such behavior if it occurs among biological relatives or if it is likely to be reciprocated. Contrary to popular opinion, organisms are NOT likely to behave in ways that are designed to benefit the species.
Price developed an equation that helped to show that altruism helped the reproductive success of individuals, not groups. Further, he showed that aggressive behavior had similar properties at the level of the individual as opposed to the group.
In biological terms, altruism is ultimately genetically selfish. Such a paradoxical finding has led to extreme conclusions, such as: "Given a full chance to act in his own interest, nothing but expediency will restrain [a person] from brutalizing, from maiming, from murdering--his brother, his mate, his parent, or his child. Scratch an `altruist' and watch a `hypocrite' bleed" (Ghiselin, M. T., 1974. The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press., p. 247). In reality, especially when it comes to human beings, the existence of selfish genes does not imply the production of selfish individuals.
In part to make this point, George R. Price used the last years of his life to demonstrate that humans could live a life of radical selflessness. He adopted Christianity and began an ascetic life devoted to the homeless. In the process of this goal his health declined and he nearly starved to death. In the end, he became depressed and committed suicide. His ascetic life appeared to show that altruism is indeed biologically maladaptive.
Harman's book, The Price of Altruism, is extraordinarily well-written and contains superb scholarship. Harman is also balanced in his conclusions. He stresses the following point:
One of the pressing challenges of our times is defining the boundary between questions that can be addressed meaningfully by science and those that are outside its purview" (p. 356).
Harman recognizes that society has not always clarified the boundaries "as to the territory of spiritual versus scientific pursuits" (p. 356). Poignantly, he states, "the gifts bestowed upon us by evolution can never lead directly to the moral imperatives that help to shape our lives" (p. 360).
Science may explain nature, but it cannot provide a full picture of human life. Using science as the sole source of our moral decision-making has significant drawbacks. A major lesson derived from Harman is that: "we need to do our best to resist … scientistic 'originalism'" (p. 359).
While science and religion have overlapping concerns, it seems to me that religion is better at making morals, and science is better at explaining nature. While each has a specialization, I hope both fields keep their lines of communication open.
Harman provides an excellent summary of the book on YouTube.
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2 comments:
That was interesting, thanks!
Thank for this review! I've been meaning to pick up this book. I first became interested in the Price equation when I read Okasha's book on the units of selection. Price sounds like an interesting and tragic guy. I think he deserves more attention. Thanks for posting on this, although, now I've got another must read!
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