"Michael Ragland"  wrote in message 
news:cjk7g5$hlj$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
>
> Challenges for Evolutionary Ethics
>
> How can a trait that was developed under the pressure of natural
> selection explain moral actions that go far beyond reciprocal altruism
> or enlightened self-interest? How can, for instance, the action of
> Maximilian Kolbe be explained from a biological point of view? (Kolbe
> was a German priest who starved himself to death in a concentration camp
> to rescue a fellow prisoner.)

David Sloan Wilson began to broach this topic in his book, "Darwin's 
Cathedral."

Altruism and selfishness are crossed-purposes, so-to-speak, nested within 
each other, creating an evolutionary oscillation between the two, witnessed 
by the paleontological and anthropological record which shows the rise and 
fall of many large communities over time
.
In a population of largely selfish individuals, the formation of altruistic 
groups within it have a distinct set of advantages; mutual protection, 
self-sacrifice and forethought (eg. preparing stores for the winter) all 
serve the greater interests of the group, and therefore such groups begin to 
predominate the area due to their survival advantages of strength through 
numbers.

Once these large, predominantly altruistic groups begin to dominate an area, 
the field is clear for selfish individuals to begin to prosper within those 
groups by cheating and preying on the good-will of the more altruistic 
individuals in the group. Once the selfish individuals predominate again, 
the community is destroyed and the field is clear for the formation of 
altruistic groups again.

This oscillation between selfish and altruistic populations continues
until another permutation of traits creates a balance which allows the two 
purposes to co-exist without diminishing each other.
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