The Origins of Virtue

Why are people obliged to live in cooperative, complex communities if, as Darwin says, evolution relentlessly pushes the survival of the fittest? A biologist and former American editor of the Economist presents the results of recent research that demonstrate that self-interest and mutual help are not mutually exclusive in this intriguing investigation of the foundations of human trust and morality. Indeed, our cooperative inclinations may have developed as a result of mankinds fundamental selfishness—by sharing favors, we may benefit ourselves as well as others, he claims. The Origins of Virtue re-examines the common assumptions on which we base our conduct toward others, whether in our positions as parents, siblings, or business partners, by brilliantly arranging the latest discoveries of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists. Matt Ridley tells us how discoveries in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a fresh perspective on how and why we bond to one other, with the humor and brilliance of his celebrated study of human and animal sexuality, The Red Queen.