First, let me be clear that by Altruism here I mean the reciprocal altruism of
evolutionary biology but the selfless kind Mr. Foster writes about.
My comment to Mr. Foster that such Altruism is not an stable evolutionary survival
strategy got me thinking. Environmentalists tend to describe the good as that
which is sustainable in the long term, that which tends to create or sustain a
stable ecosystem, etc.
Mr. Foster's version of altruism does none of these things. According to game
theorists his "dove" strategy is unstable. Any population that adopts this
strategy exclusively is doomed to extinction. Is extinction consistent with sound
environmentalism? I doubt it.
So, strange as it sounds, Altruism may be inconsistent with environmentalism.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|