Enerolisa Paredes

ENG 111
Prof. Bryant
The Selfless Gene
Part one:
1) Olivia Judson needs to clear up a conceivable natural misinterpretation about altruists.
2) Is the element of altruism in creatures hereditary? Is there a quality in creatures that
evokes a characteristic of altruistic behavior? And if that is the case, Does this quality keep
on surviving in light of the fact that is brought down from years of sexual reproduction
between the gatherings of these living beings?
3) In "The Selfless Gene," Olivia Judson's fundamental point is to demonstrate how
altruistic behavior is something that is not adapted, but rather is an inborn hereditary
characteristic.
Part two:
Supporting ideas:
Olivia Judson refers to William Donald Hamilton
- The genes that express altruism would get by in gatherings of creatures that
lived respectively. For example, the bees. They would sacrifice their life in
order to defend their hives.
- Judson's illustration of the Royal Navy is one view of a genuine story. In the
story the men sacrificed their lives in order to save the life of the women and
children that were aboard of the ship.
Judson presents a thought of Hamilton that lays out the fundamental need of creatures to
survive.
- Kin selection. Wise selection of their mate, either by phenotype such as
peacocks, or group dynamic seen in lions and lioness.
- Flock of birds. Related to selfish herd, in this example the animal whose turn
it is too eat does not need to worry about being attacked.
Judson turns her contention to emphasize the presence of a selfless gene in people; she
compares our activities to those of chimpanzees, our developmental relatives.
- Similitudes of practices
- Parochial altruism
The possibility that tight weave gatherings of individuals are all the more promptly fit to
survive raises the idea of conformity. Judson proposes two hypothesis:
- First, that one of the traits may have evolved in humans is conformity, an
ability to fit in with a group and adopt its norms and customs.
- Second, that enforcement of those norms and customs could have been essential
for group cohesion and harmony, especially as groups got bigger
- Example of aggressive males in a baboon troop

In the story the the selfless gene many of the animals that are selfless have a more stable
community. This attitude seems to have evolved due to the need to survive, same as seen
them travel in groups. Judson makes an argument for this to be only pure genes, but in the
case of human this might be different. As a deeper analysis of human behavior is done the
question, if this might also be environmental, meaning from education and morals instilled
in the person has to do with their need to be altruistic and selfless.