Book Review: Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others

Does Altruism Exists? This is an ongoing debate among scientists and philosophers. One of the strongest argument is that every altruistic deed has a selfish motive. “Scratch an altruist and watch a hypocrite bleed,” wrote Michael Ghiselin. David Sloan Wilson, Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University seeks an answer this cardinal question. Wilson does not want to introduce new arguments, but rather to present a new approach to the topic. He applies evolutionary perspective to analyze social phenomena and approach altruism. In this framework, altruism is a trait or an evolutionary function of functionally organized groups. In the first five chapters Wilson establishes the theoretical framework used to analyze complex systems such as the economy, religion, or everyday life in the second half of the book to demonstrate how altruism works, what is altruism and why it is so important for humanity.