#357 Elliott Sober: Group Selection, Altruism, and Multilevel Selection

The Dissenter

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Dr. Elliott Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Sober is noted for his work in philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. He’s the author of books like Philosophy of Biology, Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, and The Design Argument.

In this episode, we focus our conversation on the topic of group selection. We establish the kinds of behavior that group selectin allows for us to have a better grasp on, particularly altruistic behavior. Then we talk about the limitations of a gene-centered approach to natural selection; how people (wrongly) think about evolution; and the averaging fallacy. We also discuss the role of rewards and punishments in the evolution of altruism, and the development of social norms. Finally, we talk about how multilevel selection works, and the extended evolutionary synthesis.

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