Is There a Group Selection Problem in Evolutionary Biology?

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There's this sort of a standard belief in certain corners of evolutionary biology of inclusive fitness. The idea that there are groups that are attached to each other in evolutionary ways without necessarily being kin is a controversial one, right? Well, i've written a lot about this um and a. I have a lot of supporters the biology community, including e o wilson and martin noba and other people,. A lot of also, it's a very ideological dispute, and a lot of m population biologists are oure inclusive fitness o supporters. And they're wrong. But i'll tell you what's really going on. Whati can say is you get a complex evolutionary dynamic in the genom

How human beings behave is, for fairly evident reasons, a topic of intense interest to human beings. And yet, not only is there much we don’t understand about human behavior, different academic disciplines seem to have developed completely incompatible models to try to explain it. And as today’s guest Herb Gintis complains, they don’t put nearly enough effort into talking to each other to try to reconcile their views. So that what he’s here to do. Using game theory and a model of rational behavior — with an expanded notion of “rationality” that includes social as well as personally selfish interests — he thinks that we can come to an understanding that includes ideas from biology, economics, psychology, and sociology, to more accurately account for how people actually behave.

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Herbert Gintis received his PhD in economics from Harvard University. After a long career as professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, he is currently a professor at Central European University and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His book Schooling in Capitalist America, written with frequent collaborator Samuel Bowles, is considered a classic in educational reform. He has published books and papers on economics, game theory, sociology, evolution, and numerous other topics.

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