The Origins of Virtue (Penguin Press Science)

Matt Ridley argues that, even though our genes and evolution ensure that we are selfish, what has made our species so successful is our inclination to trust and co-operate with each other. We don't only co-operate with members of our own family (looking out for our own genes), we also help and co-operate with other members of our community and even total strangers. He examines the reasons for this apparent selflessness and his reasoning is very convincing. The main thread that runs through the book, upon which all the explanations of our apparent altruism and frequent treachery hangs, is "Game Theory" and, in particular "The Prisoner's Dilemma". According to this theory, we carefully weigh up (not necessarily consciously) the pros and cons of situations where we have something to gain or lose by co-operating, pretending to co-operate, or not co-operating with others. In these situations certain strategies work better than others, depending on the strategies exercised by the other participants in the group. It's possible to be too nice (selfless and trusting) or too nasty (selfish and greedy). Being very nice or very nasty works well when there are mostly nice people in the group but nice people/strategies don't last long when they are exploited by the nasty people/strategies. Everyone suffers when all the people/strategies are nasty. The best kinds of strategy allow for the fact that the other person's strategy is unknown: so start by being nice (co-operative, generous) and if the other person reciprocates, continue to be nice until and unless the other person cheats. Then punish them by refusing to be nice and co-operative. There are variations of this "Tit for Tat" strategy but generally, it's the tit for tat strategies that are employed by the most successful groups - and within successful social groups, trust has come to be highly valued.

To illustrate how selfish we have been throughout human history, often to our own detriment, Ridley lists some of the horrors our species has visited on our environment. Large numbers of species have been destroyed within a short period following the arrival of human kind in an area. The myth of the 'noble savage' is exploded. When homo sapiens first arrived in Australia, New Zealand, America and all the rest, species were wiped out ruthlessly and carelessly. Any notion of native peoples living in harmony with the land is a modern invention, contradicted by the evidence of recent (on a geological time-scale) extinctions. Convincing reasons are offered to explain this destructive insanity and they are to do with private and group ownership. It's argued that owning resources (like land) that can be controlled and protected (unlike herds of animals that migrate across borders), generates a sense of personal and shared responsibility. People will decimate resources that are deemed to belong to everybody in general (ie the state or nobody in particular) because if they don't use those resources to destruction, someone else will. That's "The Prisoner's Dilemma" in action. State ownership of resources and state responsibility for individuals can actually be the cause of selfish behaviour (deforestation, over-fishing and so on). When people have ownership and the ability to trade their produce, trust can be built up between individuals and groups and, Ridley concludes, "trust is the foundation of virtue".

This is a fascinating book, very densely packed with ideas, presented in a logical, coherent and persuasive way. Highly recommended.


We owe our success as a species to our social instincts   August 18, 2002
 34 out of 36 found this review helpful

Does true morality exist? Does altruism exist? Does true co-operative spirit exist? Or are all of these mere examples of subtle selfishness? In other words: are moral, altruistic and co-operative looking people just acting these behaviors to manipulate others? Are they in fact being opportunistic and selfish? Many economists claim altruism does not exist. They would say that, even when a person would do a nice thing to another, it would be, in the end, for his own benefit, and thus be an act of subtle selfishness. He would do it to gain the trust of the other person, to make a good impression and build a reputation of friendliness and trustworthiness or perhaps to create a dependency. Most of economic theory is still based upon the idea that people are in the end selfish and opportunistic. These economist call this 'rational'.

Matt Ridley does not deny that individuals can act out of selfishness bu he argues that harmony generally prevails over selfishness. This book explains the paradox that our minds have been build by selfish genes to be social, trustworthy and co-operative. He says we owe our success as a species to these social instincts. He explains that morality is the stuff society is made of. In short his argument goes like this:

1. Society is important because is allows for divison of labor. It allows for people to specialize. And the sums of all our specialized efforts are greater than they would be if we all had been generalists. In other words: society is synergy between specialists.

2. In order to have a harmonious society, we have to be well-connected to each other. This requires us to be co-operative, social and trustworthy.

3. Being social, co-operative and trustworthy is a way to thrive and thereby an evolutionairy advantage. These traits are built into our nature by evolution.

Matt Ridley carefully argues his case. He uses findings from many disciplines like biology, psychology and economics. Very important parts of this book, and a delight to read, are the chapters where he explains the great work of Robert Axelrod (see: The Evolution of Co-operation, 1984) and the inspiring theory of moral sentiments of economist (!) Robert Frank (see: Passions within Reason, 1988).

The message of this book is important. One lesson is that it is wise to teach our children to be good, because in the long run it pays. If you only act rationally (in the sense of the rational man from economic theory) you can only expect to reap short-term benefits. Another wise suggestion is that we need to build our institutions in such a way that they draw out our co-operative instincts (instead of building mechanisms aimed only at suppressing our supposed selfish nature). Ridley: "Pre-eminently this means the encouragement of exchange between equals. just as trade between countries is the best recipe for friendship between them, so exchange between enfranchised and empowered individuals is the best recipe for co-operation. We must encourage social and material exchange between equals, for that is the raw material of trust, and trust is the foundation of virtue."

Inspiring material...

Coert Visser


Evolutionary psychology for the masses!   July 28, 2001
 11 out of 15 found this review helpful

The title suggests a dry as dust ethics type tome; in fact this is a wonderful explanation of why we act in the way we do. Extremely well written - not only should any educated person have digested this but they'll have had an enjoyable time doing so.