for the production of various things, primarily proteins). Darwin knew nothing
about genes so this second element is owed to the work of Gregor Mendel
(1822–84), which was rediscovered by biologists in the twentieth century (Mendel
also did not know about genes but did infer their existence and the rules of simple
Mendelian inheritance remain valid). Modern evolutionary theory is a synthesis and
extension of the work of Darwin and Mendel and is often referred to as the ‘modern
evolutionary synthesis’. In the 1970s Edward O. Wilson extended the application
of evolutionary theory from biology to the social sciences and coined the term
‘sociobiology’.
At a most general level evolution only requires that traits are the product of a
selection process, whereby those traits better adapted to a particular environment
survive at a greater rate than less adaptive ones. It is possible to be a Darwinian
without assuming that it is genes that are selected. Alternatives to genes would be
organisms (which are composed of genes, among other things) and groups. Most
evolutionary theorists do, however, assume that genes are the primary carriers of
heritable information. Some, such as Richard Dawkins, believe that genes are the
only things subject to selection. Other writers allow that groups (as well as
organisms) can be subject to selection. Darwin himself seemed to subscribe to this
view. In his book The Descent of Manhe wrote:
It must not be forgotten that although a high standard of morality gives but a
slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other
men of the same tribe, yet that an increase in the number of well-endowed men
and advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense
advantage to one tribe over another. There can be no doubt that a tribe including
many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism,
fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another,
and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most
other tribes; and this would be natural selection. At all times throughout the
world tribes have supplanted other tribes; and as morality is one important
element in their success, the standard of morality and the number of well-endowed
men will thus everywhere tend to rise and increase.
(Darwin cited in Sober and Wilson, 1998: 4)
In other words, when individuals acted altruistically to one another within a
group (tribe) the tribe benefits. The standard criticism to this argument is that any
altruists within the group are liable to have fewer children because they are directing
resources towards less closely related members of the tribe and thus they will pass
on their genes at a lower rate than the non-altruist, with the consequence that genes
for altruism will be selected out of the gene pool.
Although not entirely satisfactory, attempts have been made to explain the
survival of altruism not by direct appeal to group benefits – which is Darwin’s
position in the above quotation – but to the survival of genes in individuals closely,
but not directly, related to you. Belonging to a group of people who are relatively
closely related helps in the reproduction of one’s genes. The nation can then be
defined as a relatively closed population of interbreeding individuals. While the state- as in nation-state– has only existed for a very short period of the 200,000-year
history of anatomically modern humans, it is the successor to the tribal bands of
our ancestors, and crucially we have inherited their psychology. The primary
272 Part 2 Classical ideologies