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Psychological and Evolutionary Evidence for Altruism

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Abstract

Sober and Wilson have recentlyclaimed that evolutionary theory can do whatneither philosophy nor experimental psychologyhave been able to, namely, ``break the deadlock''in the egoism vs. altruism debate with anargument based on the reliability of altruisticmotivation. I analyze both their reliabilityargument and the experimental evidence ofsocial psychology in favor of altruism in termsof the folk-psychological ``laws'' and inferencepatterns underlying them, and conclude thatthey both rely on the same patterns. I exposethe confusions that have led Sober and Wilsonto defend a reliability argument whilerejecting the experimental evidence of socialpsychology.

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Rosas, A. Psychological and Evolutionary Evidence for Altruism. Biology & Philosophy 17, 93–107 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012967912103

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012967912103

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