Conference Level
Graduate
Location
University of Windsor
Start Date
28-3-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
28-3-2015 11:30 AM
Abstract
The Implications of Belonging
Abstract
The efforts to explain the evolution of social and moral behaviour often focus exclusively on the positive social and moral traits, or the prosocial traits (in the parlance of evolutionary biology). The standard practice under extant evolutionary modeling has been to represent all social behaviour by the term altruism and all non-social or counter-social behaviour by the contrasting term - selfishness. Such a modeling scheme leaves the negative social/moral behaviours such has bigotry, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, bullying etc. unaccounted for or worse still, they are presumed erroneously to be on the selfishness side of the dichotomy.
In this discussion, I put forward a hypothesis on social bigotry that appears at first to be counterintuitive, but which is supported by a very simple and compelling analysis. The analysis will show that bigotry and other negative social behaviours such as racism, homophobia, bullying etc., are driven by the same inherent human passion that makes the formation of social groups possible. The virtue or vice of that passion is therefore dependent upon the circumstance of its expression.
Here is the conundrum: the idea of forming a group within a population or species involves the dual process of inclusion and exclusion. For, there is really no group if there is no distinction between who is in and who is out. This necessarily entails some criterion for picking out those within, from those without. Sensitivity to the most effective criteria for discriminating between group members and non-members would correlate positively with the formation of durable groups, and will therefore tend to be favoured by natural selection. Thus, as my research will show, members of every social group are necessarily inherently bigoted, nepotistic and in fact, hostile towards the outsider.
It seems then that the social instinct necessarily has to be discriminatory, for the formation of social groups to be possible. In fact, Kurzban et al (2001, 15387) have cited numerous studies, in addition to their own, that suggest the existence of a cognitive machinery that has evolved to detect coalitional alliances. Prior to this research, evolutionary biologists had postulated the need for some detectible features to help social organisms distinguish between fellow altruists and non-altruists. It is the basis of the so-called “Greenbeard Hypothesis” (Dawkins, 1976/1989). The capacity to discriminate is in fact, a very prevalent feature of modern revolutionary models of sociality, and most successful models today invariable feature what is called “conditional altruism.” This involves the selective dispensation of altruism or social cooperation on the basis of reciprocity, kinship and group affiliation. Thus, without this concomitant discriminatory feature of the sociality trait, the evolution of social groups is quite impossible.
We yearn to belong and we value special relationships. But that virtue necessarily excludes. The paragons of patriotism are those who go out and kill others on our behalf. I explore how we minimize the negative consequences of belonging.
Included in
The Implications of Belonging
University of Windsor
The Implications of Belonging
Abstract
The efforts to explain the evolution of social and moral behaviour often focus exclusively on the positive social and moral traits, or the prosocial traits (in the parlance of evolutionary biology). The standard practice under extant evolutionary modeling has been to represent all social behaviour by the term altruism and all non-social or counter-social behaviour by the contrasting term - selfishness. Such a modeling scheme leaves the negative social/moral behaviours such has bigotry, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, bullying etc. unaccounted for or worse still, they are presumed erroneously to be on the selfishness side of the dichotomy.
In this discussion, I put forward a hypothesis on social bigotry that appears at first to be counterintuitive, but which is supported by a very simple and compelling analysis. The analysis will show that bigotry and other negative social behaviours such as racism, homophobia, bullying etc., are driven by the same inherent human passion that makes the formation of social groups possible. The virtue or vice of that passion is therefore dependent upon the circumstance of its expression.
Here is the conundrum: the idea of forming a group within a population or species involves the dual process of inclusion and exclusion. For, there is really no group if there is no distinction between who is in and who is out. This necessarily entails some criterion for picking out those within, from those without. Sensitivity to the most effective criteria for discriminating between group members and non-members would correlate positively with the formation of durable groups, and will therefore tend to be favoured by natural selection. Thus, as my research will show, members of every social group are necessarily inherently bigoted, nepotistic and in fact, hostile towards the outsider.
It seems then that the social instinct necessarily has to be discriminatory, for the formation of social groups to be possible. In fact, Kurzban et al (2001, 15387) have cited numerous studies, in addition to their own, that suggest the existence of a cognitive machinery that has evolved to detect coalitional alliances. Prior to this research, evolutionary biologists had postulated the need for some detectible features to help social organisms distinguish between fellow altruists and non-altruists. It is the basis of the so-called “Greenbeard Hypothesis” (Dawkins, 1976/1989). The capacity to discriminate is in fact, a very prevalent feature of modern revolutionary models of sociality, and most successful models today invariable feature what is called “conditional altruism.” This involves the selective dispensation of altruism or social cooperation on the basis of reciprocity, kinship and group affiliation. Thus, without this concomitant discriminatory feature of the sociality trait, the evolution of social groups is quite impossible.
We yearn to belong and we value special relationships. But that virtue necessarily excludes. The paragons of patriotism are those who go out and kill others on our behalf. I explore how we minimize the negative consequences of belonging.