The Origins of Virtue

Author: Matt Ridley
Genre: non fiction, evolution, psychology

After being enthralled by ‘Genome’ written by the same author, I eagerly picked up this book, whose description seemed equally promising. Written on a completely different subject, this books is about human nature; in particular, the social side of it.

The book however starts with the gene- or to be precise, the selfish gene concept.  Many animals do live in large groups, showing division of labour and hierarchy comparable to human societies. However, their cooperation may be driven by the selfishness of individuals to preserve and promote their own genes. But then are human societies any different? May be and may be not. In his charming and witty style of writing, Ridley manages to encompass evidence from divverse fields like economics, philosophy, anthropology and evolutionary biology to argue that contrary to popular belief, humans are still driven by instinct to a large extent. These instincts drive us to cooperate, drive morality, form societies and make us be nice to each other in general. But these instincts also have a darker side. They lead to groupishness, which manifests itself in the form of racism and eugenics. A recurring theme in the book is that we perform a lot of seemingly altruistic acts with the expectation of a similar favour in return. In many cases the returning favour may not be the immediate or of similar nature, but the hope is there nevertheless.

The book is full of interesting insights which are explained and justified using ample of examples from animal world and human societies. There are some that I found particularly illuminating. For example, in one of the early chapters, Ridley discusses why we require emotions and moral sentiments. It seems that they do help in decisions making and that without them we would end up being rational fools, incapable of making any choice. In the case of sharing, he mentions that gift giving can actually be a form of competition by showing examples of certain North American Indian tribes. Another curious point put forward is that we are not conservationists by nature. The rosy picture of tribal groups being one with nature and respecting it is largely an illusion. Interestingly, conservation is most effective in privately owned areas rather than government owned areas.

In all, I found the book to be both entertaining and enlightening. Both the style of writing and the contents are equally fascinating. Although, I do not agree to all that the writer concludes, there still many remarkable revelations that do make the book worth reading. I would highly recommend anyone wanting to have a deeper understanding of human social structure.