"From Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871)onwards, there is a fundamental understanding among biologists that organisms, especially humans, evolved to maximise self-interest. We act to promote our own success or that of our family. Niceness, by contrast, is just a mirage, and morality more broadly is just an illusion. Sociobiology - the infamous movement of the second half of the 20th century - forced us to confront the cold,"
"learn at a young age what the rules of our groups are, and those rules, imprinted on us culturally, govern the safe, cohesive units that allowed us to conquer inhospitable parts of the world and out-compete unfriendly groups of people who don't work well together. This narrative saves us the embarrassment of accepting that biological selfishness - acting only to maximise our Darwinian success - is the foundation of all behaviour."
Biologists have long understood that organisms, particularly humans, evolved to maximize self-interest, promoting their own or kin's success. Sociobiology emphasized the cold, calculated basis of behavior. More recent anthropological and psychological work highlights human cooperation—collective learning, language, cultural rules and diverse skills—enabling complex cultures, technology and successful group coordination that allowed humans to conquer environments and out-compete less cohesive groups. Some claims suggest ancient humans were egalitarian with limited permanent rank. However, cooperation is only part of the story: humans also evolved predispositions for exploitation, deceit and competition, possessing capacities and intelligence for both collaboration and rivalry.
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