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Evolution, altruism and cognitive architecture: a critique of Sober and Wilson’s argument for psychological altruism

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Abstract

Sober and Wilson have propose a cluster of arguments for the conclusion that “natural selection is unlikely to have given us purely egoistic motives” and thus that psychological altruism is true. I maintain that none of these arguments is convincing. However, the most powerful of their arguments raises deep issues about what egoists and altruists are claiming and about the assumptions they make concerning the cognitive architecture underlying human motivation.

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Acknowledgements

I’m grateful to Elliott Sober, Edouard Machery, Kim Sterelny and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

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  1. Department of Philosophy & Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, 26 Nichol Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-2882, USA

    Stephen Stich

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  1. Stephen Stich
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Correspondence to Stephen Stich.

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Stich, S. Evolution, altruism and cognitive architecture: a critique of Sober and Wilson’s argument for psychological altruism. Biol Philos 22, 267–281 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-006-9030-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-006-9030-1

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