Tom Stoppard and David Sloan Wilson both assume that “explaining altruism” means fitting it somehow into the highly individualistic pattern that is used by current evolutionary theorists (The hard problem, Review, 23 May). But motivation is far too complex a thing to be spelt out like this, simply in terms of conflicting interests. This competitive model, along with its exciting background of a meaningless cosmos, is simply a projection of our current social mythology. Until we get some better idea of the alternatives between which that impressive oracle natural selection may have been selecting, we can’t learn much from it. So I think it is better to stop using these speculations to distort our perceptions of what happens today.
Mary Midgley
Newcastle upon Tyne
