The answer to the titular question of Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others may seem obvious initially, even after David Sloan Wilson, president of the Evolution Institute and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at the University of Binghamton, defines altruism as "a concern for the welfare of others as an end itself." However, Wilson reminds readers that for years, philosophical, political, economic and biological thinkers argued that though seemingly altruistic acts occur on a regular basis, the motivation for the acts may not be truly altruistic at all.
Wilson uses evolutionary theory to explore his subject--starting with Darwin's fascination with the apparent incompatibility of altruism and natural selection. Keeping this in mind, Wilson analyzes the difference between altruistic acts and thoughts and feelings, as well as the drawbacks of true altruism. Members of a functionally organized society must coordinate their actions for mutually beneficial purpose--which is somewhat self-serving, as opposed to pure public good--in what is called common-pool resource (CPR) groups. To illustrate how these groups function, Wilson provides a variety of examples (such as bees in a hive or hunter-gatherer societies).
While natural selection is based on a single entity's relative fitness, behaving for the good of the group typically does not maximize an individual's relative fitness within the group. A redefinition is necessary: "When altruism is defined in terms of action and in terms of relative fitness within and between groups, it exists whenever there is group-level functional organization." Wilson's clear prose and concrete examples make this work accessible to the novice and still compelling to the expert. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics