The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness by Joan Roughgarden In The Genial Gene Joan Roughgarden seeks to replace the competitive understanding of evolution, known as sexual selection, with a cooperative one. The first sentence of her book reads, “This book is about whether selfishness and individuality, rather than kindness and cooperation, are basic to biological nature” (p. 1). So what is the argument? Taking this first line, she wants to conclude something about basic biological […]
Month: August 2011
Philosophy Carnival #2
Well, it’s the second philosophy carnival I’ve hosted. So let’s get started. Counterfactuals and time traveling cold-blooded murderers! Why is it we always want to see what happens when we kill ourselves (or others) when time traveling? Does time travel make one murderous? Anyway, besides the weird questions that occur to me, the discussion over at Kadri Vihvelin’s philosophy blog does try to tackle Counterfactuals, Indicatives and What Time Travelers Can’t Do. If that isn’t your […]