Evolution doesn't explain altruism

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Claim

Evolutionary fitness is selfish; individuals win only by benefitting themselves and their offspring. Behaving altruistically often costs the altruistic individual in some resource such as time or food, reducing their fitness, while benefiting the other individual. Thus evolution cannot explain altruistic behaviors.

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  1. Evolution does explain altruism. When organisms are faced with an environment that favors social organisms over non social ones, organisms will evolve altruism in that environment. Cooperation to achieve a goal a single individual cannot reach is a very useful survival strategy. Many animals use it, from packs of wolves to well-organized insect states. One ant means nothing; a million ants are a force of nature.
  2. As the development and maturation times of baby mammals (especially large ones) increased, groups of animals needed to work together for mutual survival.
  3. Altruism can come about in various ways, including:
    • Reciprocal altruism - "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" with attempts to recognize cheaters ("You didn't scratch my back, so I won't scratch yours."). This serves to prevent selfish individuals from benefiting by 'leeching' off the group.
    • Kin selection is assistance to a possessor of copies of one's genes, and it happens in numerous circumstances, like most cells of multicellular organisms and non-reproducing workers of social insects. Evolution would in this case set up a general rule of "help others who are likely to possess the genes for helping others". (This rule will be general - "help neighbors" rather than "help only relatives, and only those who will pass on their genes" - as most animals are not capable of reasoning as to whether a specific altruistic deed, such as helping an elderly animal that is not likely to reproduce, is actually beneficial). The energy wasted on helping animals that aren't relatives or don't reproduce must be outweighed by the benefits of helping those that are related and do reproduce.
  4. Examples exist for the clear benefits of altruism in the wild:
    • One of the best documented examples of altruism in nature is that of vampire bats. Detecting and feeding on an unsuspecting host, as well as flying back to the communal roost on a full stomach is both time-consuming and energetically expensive for a vampire bat, and if a vampire bat is unable to leave the roost to feed, it will starve to death within a few days. Individuals in the communal roost, often those that are ill, have been observed begging food from healthy, recently fed neighbors and relatives. When these individuals had recovered enough strength to resume feeding activities, they were then observed feeding the same neighbors and relatives who had fed them previously. It is through this cycle of begging and reciprocation that social bonds in vampire bat colonies are formed and strengthened.
    • In some birds, it has been observed that a strange new bird will enter into the territory of an established mated pair, and after acclimatizing itself to the mated pair, begin assisting with brood-rearing. In evolutionary terms, the pay-off is entirely long term, as, should one of the original pair of the same gender as the new-comer die, the new-comer will then be accepted as the new mate of the survivor.
    • In many species of kingfishers and bee-eaters, the extended family of the mated pair, including the parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and members of previous broods, will assist in raising the current brood. Not only does this ensure that older relatives see the continuation of their genes into a new generation, but younger individuals learn how to properly care for chicks in preparation for their own broods.
  5. Consider the multi-cellular organism. It consists of billions of cells, each of which has to grow, differentiate, mature, and die at regulated times. Cells which disobey this system, those which fail to die when the time comes, those who grow independently of the rest, in ignorance to the functioning of the rest of the organism, are cancer cells. It is thus understandable that in some biological contexts, self sacrifice is an evolutionary advantage.
  6. With regards to humans and altruism, as Dawkins describes in The Selfish Gene, just because it is not necessarily in our genetic makeup or evolutionary advantage to do something, we can and do work against our biology for the greater good. It is simple minded to claim that as a result of the inherent selfishness of genes, that we can not train ourselves to be altruistic in society.
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