Assignment #5 Prompt #2

When it comes to humanistic values like altruism and generosity, I agree that Darwinism always opposes these concepts.  He proposes his theory of natural selection in "Origin of Species" which is the process  where organisms that are best suited to their environment survive and pass on their genetic characteristics in increasing number to succeeding generations while organisms that are less adapted tend to be eliminated.  Richard Dawkins agrees with Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and that as human beings, we are born with what Dawkins calls the "Selfish Gene".  He believes that it is in our nature to be inclined to support ourselves and those who possess similarly related DNA.  He proposes that genes are driven to cooperate amongst eachother and have no desire to perform any acts of altruism for anyone with unrelated genes. Dawkins states, "Natural selection therefore sees to it that gangs of mutually compatible-which is almost to say cooperating- genes are favoured in the presence of each other."  This may sound like acts of altruism for the same/replicas of the genes because they are in some ways performing good deeds for eachother sort to speak, however, this is gene selfishness.  A selfish gene, according to Richard Dawkins, "is trying to get more numerous in the gene pool.  Basically it does this by helping to program the bodies in which it finds itself to survive and to reproduce."  Therefore, biologically,  we as humans do not seek to behave in an altruistic manner towards those absent of the same genes.  We can observe this behavior at it's best in the short fictional story "Us or Me" by Ian McEwan.  When faced with a dilemma on a windy afternoon, several men had proven that it is human nature to be selfish and non altruistic with those not related in terms of genes. A young boy in a hot air balloon was slowly but surely, drifting away into the sky and the men had made attempts to save the boy.  However these attempts were in vain, because the higher in the sky the balloon became, the more selfish as a group the men became.  Each man was destined to let go of  the hot air balloon because according to the narrator of "Us or Me", letting go is in our nature.  And we all bear the selfish gene.  Both these texts support the idea that Darwinism opposes humanistic values like altruism and generosity. It is simply not human nature to self sacrifice for those who do not possess genes that are akin.