authors:
- Raihani, Nichola
content: 'This is one of the best books on human evolution I have read. Nichola Raihani
writes very well, and manages to explain scientific results and theoretical arguments
in a very accessible manner. Beginning with cooperation on the level of genes, she
goes on to explain how cooperation is the basis for multicellular life, continuing
to cooperation between individual organisms. As part of the package, we get a very
good description of how evolution works in general.
What I like most about her account is the emphasis that evolution does not prescribe
one single solution to the problem of life. The slogan "survival of the fittest"
is often taken to imply that "fitness" is simple and straightforward, and can therefore
be achieved in only one way. This is not so. There are many ways of living, many
possible strategies, and the context, including ecology, climate, genetics, and
simple randomness, affect the outcome. Connected to this is also the important point
made by Raihani that if we want to understand human sociality, it is not self-evident
that we should look at our closest evolutionary relatives, such as the great apes.
Rather, we should look at other species whose ecological and genetic context is
similar in relevant aspects. The meerkats or the naked mole-rats have more in common
regarding certain aspects of their social lives with humans, in spite of their more
distant evolutionary relationships.
An important theme in the latter part of the book, where Raihani discusses how evolution
has formed Homo sapiens, is the notion of social dilemmas. We are a profoundly social
species, but being social implies its own built-in contradictions, such as the Tragedy
of the commons, where the use of a common resource needs to be carefully managed,
but each individual has an incentive to use it to the fullest, thereby collectively
overusing it. How this problem can be solved is an important research topic with
Elinor Ostrom as a central figure. This work is discussed by Raihani in the context
of the Covid-19 pandemic and the current climate crisis.
If there is one point of criticism, it would be her treatment of culture. The special
role of cumulative culture, including norms, in human affairs is discussed by Raihani,
but somehow I feel that she is not giving it the weight it should have in her discussion.
Discussing hunter-gatherer societies, she seems to suggest that they were more similar
than societies are today; this is, I think, wrong. Anthropological studies rather
indicate the opposite. Hunter-gatherers were probably very culturally diverse. But
this is a minor point in an otherwise highly readable book, which I would recommend
to anyone interested in the subject.'
date: '2022-11-04'
edition:
published: '2021'
publisher: Jonathan Cape
goodreads: '55036091'
html: '<p>This is one of the best books on human evolution I have read. Nichola Raihani
writes very well, and manages to explain scientific results and theoretical arguments
in a very accessible manner. Beginning with cooperation on the level of genes, she
goes on to explain how cooperation is the basis for multicellular life, continuing
to cooperation between individual organisms. As part of the package, we get a very
good description of how evolution works in general.</p>
<p>What I like most about her account is the emphasis that evolution does not prescribe
one single solution to the problem of life. The slogan "survival of the fittest"
is often taken to imply that "fitness" is simple and straightforward,
and can therefore be achieved in only one way. This is not so. There are many ways
of living, many possible strategies, and the context, including ecology, climate,
genetics, and simple randomness, affect the outcome. Connected to this is also the
important point made by Raihani that if we want to understand human sociality, it
is not self-evident that we should look at our closest evolutionary relatives, such
as the great apes. Rather, we should look at other species whose ecological and
genetic context is similar in relevant aspects. The meerkats or the naked mole-rats
have more in common regarding certain aspects of their social lives with humans,
in spite of their more distant evolutionary relationships.</p>
<p>An important theme in the latter part of the book, where Raihani discusses how
evolution has formed Homo sapiens, is the notion of social dilemmas. We are a profoundly
social species, but being social implies its own built-in contradictions, such as
the Tragedy of the commons, where the use of a common resource needs to be carefully
managed, but each individual has an incentive to use it to the fullest, thereby
collectively overusing it. How this problem can be solved is an important research
topic with Elinor Ostrom as a central figure. This work is discussed by Raihani
in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the current climate crisis.</p>
<p>If there is one point of criticism, it would be her treatment of culture. The
special role of cumulative culture, including norms, in human affairs is discussed
by Raihani, but somehow I feel that she is not giving it the weight it should have
in her discussion. Discussing hunter-gatherer societies, she seems to suggest that
they were more similar than societies are today; this is, I think, wrong. Anthropological
studies rather indicate the opposite. Hunter-gatherers were probably very culturally
diverse. But this is a minor point in an otherwise highly readable book, which I
would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.</p>
'
isbn: '9781787332041'
language: en
lastmod: '2022-11-04'
path: /library/raihani-2021.html
published: '2021'
rating: 5
reference: Raihani 2021
reviewed: '2022-11-04'
subjects:
- favorites
- human-evolution
- morality
title: 'The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World'
type: book
year: 2021