For Whose Benefit? - Lindenfors, Patrik

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Résumé :
This book takes the reader on a journey, navigating the enigmatic aspects of cooperation; a journey that starts inside the body and continues via our thoughts to the human super-organism. Cooperation is one of life?s fundamental principles. We are all made of parts ? genes, cells, organs, neurons, but also of ideas, or ?memes?. Our societies too are made of parts ? us humans. Is all this cooperation fundamentally the same process? From the smallest component parts of our bodies and minds to our complicated societies, everywhere cooperation is the organizing principle. Often this cooperation has emerged because the constituting parts have benefited from the interactions, but not seldom the cooperating units appear to lose on the interaction. How then to explain cooperation? How can we understand our intricate societies where we regularly provide small and large favors for people we are unrelated to, know, or even never expect to meet again? Where does the idea come from that it is right to risk one?s life for country, religion or freedom? The answers seem to reside in the two processes that have shaped humanity: biological and cultural evolution.

Biographie:
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Sommaire:
The Human Puzzle The breakdown of self Cooperation and life LifeYour physical self Genes Simple cells - prokaryotes 17 More complex cells - eukaryotes 18 Multi-cellularity 20 Mobile eco-systems 24Your psychological self 27 A soulless existence 29 Majority rule 31 Surely there is something more? 31Easily explicable cooperation and natural selection 35 Mutual gain 36 Natural selection 38 Proximate and ultimate explanations 41 Group selection 42 Behavioral genetics 43Family 46 Warning calls 50 Eusociality - ants, wasps and bees 51 A challenge 54 Eusociality - termites and naked mole rats 57 Kin selection in humans 58Friends 61 The prisoners' dilemma 61 Examples from the animal world? 65 The social brain 69 Other possible genetic explanations of cooperation 71 We are not them: about our closest relatives 73 Reciprocity in humans 75Humanity - the paragon of cooperation? 78 Games of cooperation 81 A huge mistake? 83 Cultural group selection 85 Nature or nurture 86 Cultural explanations for extreme cooperation 89Language 95 The structure of human language 98 The evolution of language 99 The green beards of language 102 The second replicator 105The last piece of the puzzle? - Cooperation over our heads 108< A slow history 111 Cultural evolution 116 Cultural evolutionary explanations of cooperation 125 Networks 127 The software 130Epilogue: The human super organism 133 Characteristics of synergistic cooperation 136 How to harness idea collectives 137References 140Notes 148