"The Selfish Gene" Was Never About Selfishness #humanevolution #biology #evolution

In 1976 Richard Dawkins published a book with a title so sharp that, for fifty years, people have used it to argue for almost the exact opposite of what it says. "Selfish gene" sounds like proof that we are born selfish, that greed is natural, that kindness is fake. It is none of those things. It is a metaphor for one narrow fact, that a gene tends to spread if it is good at getting copied. And a gene that is "selfish" in that copying sense very often builds an animal that is generous. This is the story of how those three words were born, how they were stolen and turned into a weapon, and how to take them back. The worker bee that dies for her sisters. The vampire bat that shares its blood. And why biology can describe what tends to spread, but can never tell you what is right. Selfish gene. Generous creature. And, when it chooses to be, a moral one. Sources: Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976), including his own later remark that it could have been called The Cooperative Gene; Hamilton on kin selection; Trivers on reciprocal altruism. #humanevolution #biology #evolution #dawkins #selfishgene #evolutionarybiology #kinselection #humannature #science #philosophy