Tuesday 28 May 2019

Group selection

I have written about group selection before.

The orthodox Darwinian position on group selection is that it does not happen. If an individual makes sacrifices for his group (a collection of people who are not sufficiently closely related), his altruistic genes will suffer and the non-altruistic genes of the group will flourish.

However, researchers like Michael Woodley, Ed Dutton, Bruce Charlton have written about the consequences of group selection and their benefits. For example, Charlton and Dutton in "The Genius Famine" argue that the genius is an example of group selection. Geniuses are anti-social figures whose inventions benefit the group, but not themselves. Geniuses typically do not reproduce. 

This is Bayesian evidence for the existence of group selection. Perhaps the logical argument against group selection is flawed.