Is Group Selection the Most Important Explanation of Altruism?

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A lot of people thought, well, maybe, because altruism's good on a group leveland that's why we see it, groups that are altruistic tend to be selected. But i thinkte, there's just sort of confusion in the literature where people have shown group selection probably isn't the most important explanation of altruism. Ok? I mean that that does make sense, and it is a bit of a sorry distraction. Uscas i know, te e people really care about this ole should, you know, bring it if we bring it up, we should say something about it. Um, so, nash equilibria. Maybe he is worth explaining what

You can’t always get what you want, as a wise person once said. But we do try, even when someone else wants the same thing. Our lives as people, and the evolution of other animals over time, are shaped by competition for scarce resources of various kinds. Game theory provides a natural framework for understanding strategies and behaviors in these competitive settings, and thus provides a lens with which to analyze evolution and human behavior, up to and including why racial or gender groups are consistently discriminated against in society. Cailin O’Connor is the author or two recent books on these issues: Games in the Philosophy of Biology and The Origins of Unfairness: Social Categories and Cultural Evolution.

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Cailin O’Connor received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. She is currently Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science and a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science at UCI. Her works involves questions in the philosophy of biology and behavioral science, game theory, agent-based modeling, social epistemology, decision theory, rational choice, and the spread of misinformation.

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