What Evolution and Human Nature Imply About the Meaning of Our Existence | Dr. Samuel Wilkinson

[@ccardall]

Regarding the question asked about how controversial group selection is: Stephen J. Gould, noted early in the lecture as an example of an atheist evolutionary biologist, was a major pioneer and proponent of multi-level selection. Not bringing his name up again was a missed opportunity bordering on injustice! I hasten to add that overall I agree with and enjoyed the talk.

[@samuelwilkinson1]

Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't realized how much he advocated multilevel selection theory. I've mostly heard it attributed to David Sloan Wilson. I find this interesting because, as you may know, Gould was fairly outspoken in his criticism of sociobiology (from E. O. Wilson, also a prominent proponent of group selection), at least when it first came out in the 1970s. I'm not sure if he softened a bit on it as the years went on.