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On the current state of altruism: generosity in the eyes of natural selection from Darwin to today

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Abstract

The conference organized by the Lincei for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth offers the opportunity to investigate one of the key questions of evolutionism today: can genuine evolution keep itself stable in a population subject to natural selection? Four cycles of unpublished lessons edited by William Donald Hamilton during the period between 1965 and 1975 and recently found by Coco (Les leçons inédites de W. D. Hamilton, Du problème de l’altruisme à l’application des modèles mathématiques. Mémoire de DEA en “Histoire et Civilisation”. Paris, 2003) at the British Library, London, offer the possibility to trace a framework of the theoretical positions of the founder of inclusive fitness and contest some interpretations of his thought that have been put forward in recent times by Sober and Wilson (Unto others: the evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998b). An in-depth article regarding these matters is currently being written and will be published in this journal. In this study, I have proposed a critical framework of the problem of altruism from J. S. B. Haldane to our days, using Hamilton’s unedited writings, edited literature and a certain heuristic use of Shakespearean characters, paradigmatic interpretations of the human condition, as already partially proposed in a book that came out this year in Italian (Coco in Egoisti, malvagi e generosi Storia naturale dell’altruismo. Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2008).

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Notes

  1. These ‘fractions’ are expressed by the coefficients of relationship (r) that express the genetic closeness between the subject and those near to him with whom he interacts.

  2. There has been some confusion regarding the definition of inclusive fitness. As the quoted passages makes clear (Hamilton, 1964a) and, as has been well shown by Alan Grafen, the “sum of individual fitness (reproductive success) should not be confused with the reproductive success of an individual’s relatives, with each relative devalued in proportion to the kinship distance” as has sometimes been done erroneously (Grafen 1982, 1984). For a more extensive discussion on Hamilton’s equation, on the definition of inclusive fitness and its theoretical and philosophical spin-offs, there will be an in-depth article in this journal in the coming months. See also Coco (2008; Coco and Cervo 2008).

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to Marcello Buiatti, Stefano Turillazzi, Francesco Dessì Fulgheri, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Aldo Fasolo, Elena Gagliasso, Barbara Continenza, Franco Coniglione, Salvo Vasta and all the other persons who have read the draft copy of this paper or have told me their considerations during the day of the Convegno in Rome.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università di Catania, Catania, Italy

    Emanuele Coco

  2. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris, France

    Emanuele Coco

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Correspondence to Emanuele Coco.

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This article belongs to a special issue dedicated to the Meeting “Il mondo dopo Darwin”, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, 11 February–12 February 2009.

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Coco, E. On the current state of altruism: generosity in the eyes of natural selection from Darwin to today. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 20, 283–296 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-009-0062-8

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