超越自我利益:达尔文的“利他难题”及其解决

Beyond Self-interest: Darwin's Altruism Puzzle and Its Solution

达尔文进化论的核心是自然选择理论,而达尔文最初理解的自然选择是个体选择,即生物个体是选择的单位。但如果生物个体是选择单位,那么生物界普遍存在的牺牲个人利益帮助他人的利他主义就不可能得到进化,因为,利他行为增加其他生物的适合度,减少了自己的适合度。这就是所谓的"达尔文难题"。达尔文晚年试图用群体选择理论的补充解决这个问题,但20世纪60年代之后,一些重要的生物学家怀疑群体选择的作用,提出了亲缘选择理论、基因选择理论和互惠利他主义。但这些理论都有自己的问题。所以,90年代之后,越来越多的生物学家重新阐释群体选择论,并采取多元主义的策略以解决达尔文的利他难题。

The core idea of Darwinian evolutionary theory is natural selection. The primary interpretation of natural lection is individual selection, i.e. individual is the unit of selection. But if individual is the unit of selection, the popular existence of altruism is hard to understand, because of the altruism increasing the fitness of the altruist others, not the fitness of himself. This is the so-called ＂Darwin＇s Altruism Puzzle＂. In the late year of Darwin＇s life, he try to resolving this puzzle by introducing group selection as a new selection force. Many important new Darwinian biologists in the late 1960s, however, suspected the role of group selection. They proposed kin selection, gene selection and reciprocal altruism as new theory for solving the puzzle. But each of them has difficulties for interpreting of it. From 1990s, more and more biologists have re-introduced and re-interpreted group selection, and have tried to hold a pluralist strategy in order to solve Darwin＇s Altruism Puzzle