Origins of Virtue (Penguin Press Science) (edition 1997)

The author, a popular science write, relies on game theory to explain the evolutionary origins of cooperation and altruism. There are many good reviews on Amazon, but I would like to add one detail:

The modern intelligentsia and media have portrayed Native Americans and other Aboriginal peoples as conservationists and environmentalists who were stewards of the earth's resources and were 'at one with nature'. If this is true, then it largely refutes Ridley's whole argument. Ridley devotes a whole chapter to this ( Chapter 11 - Ecology as Religion ) and shows that it is a complete myth. Some of the facts he adduces: Shortly after 'Native Americans' arrived in North America, 73% of the large mammals were exterminated and became extinct. Shortly after man arrived in South America, 80% of the large mammals were exterminated and became extinct. As the Polynesians colonized the Pacific, they extinguished 20% of all the bird species on earth. At Olsen-Chubbock, the site of ancient bison massacres in Colorado, where people regularly stampeded herds over a cliff, the animals lay in such heaps after a successful stampede that only the ones on the top were butchered, and only the best joints were taken from them. If you are incredulous - read the book, all the sources are there. Ridley's final conclusion is that the limitations of technology or demand, rather than a culture of self-restraint or religious respect, is what kept tribal people from over exploiting their environment. One nice touch is Ridley's quote of Chief Seattle's speech which Al Gore includes in his book 'Earth in the Balance'.

"How can you buy or sell the sky? The Land?...Every part of this earth is sacred to my people..."

This quote would seem to establish Native Americans as the original environmentalists. Unfortunately, the speech was never given. It was written by Ted Perry, in 1971, for an ABC television drama. Who says TV doesn't shape our perception of reality. ( )

This was my first introduction to the author, and it set a pattern that hasn't been relieved by further encounters. The author lacks integrity, willing to indulge in quote-mining to pretend that those who are on the other side of a question actually support his point of view, and he never misses an opportunity to make unsupported, unpleasant sexist comments. He plainly believes the evidence indicates irrefutably that women are inferior and should stay home and work as breeding machines. It is only somewhat indicated here, but even with the marginality of the topic to sexism, he manages to make his point very clear. ( )

Pros: very insightful; extreme clarity in explanation; daring take on politically correctness; entertaining writing

Cons: none (not sure if there are major scientific advances after 10 years)

born February 7, 1958, in Northumberland) is an English science writer, businessman and aristocrat. Ridley was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford where he received a doctorate in zoology before commencing a career in journalism. Ridley worked as the science editor of The Economist from 1984 to 1987 ( )

Matt Ridley's style of writing makes reading about science easy and enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed what he had to say about game theory, and how humans don't act in the way that you'd logically anticipate them to behave in the areas of cooperation and reciprocity.

The chapter on trade and arbitrage was fascinating, as was his explanation of how societies through history have protected fauna that didn't move far, partly due to property rights. Anything that travelled further, like large roaming mammals, couldn't be owned and therefore weren't protected - people believed that they may as well hunt those animals, even where their populations ran low, because if they didn't then someone else would anyway, so many species were hunted to extinction.

All in all, this was a very satisfactory and convincing account of how virtue in people has evolved. ( )

This book is like being run over by a steam-roller. It's a very polite steam-roller that goes forward; then backs off a bit and says sorry before trundling forward further than it went last time. And its roller is covered in cashmere, so the steel of the meaning feels softer because of the gentleness of the language.

At the end, of course, you have been considerably transformed in your outlook (that reminds me, I must read 'Flatland' sometime), but it's hard to pin down exactly what it was that you were like before, but aren't now. I think the proof will come when I hear someone blathering on about how human nature is purely formed by society, and I spot it for the utter bollocks that it is.

Suffice to say that I delighted in this book. ( )