Selflessness and Selfishness

“Biological evolution favours individuals, but cultural evolution favours groups. So, as Judaism and Christianity both knew, there is a war within each of us as to which will prevail: self-regard or concern for others, egoism or altruism. Selfishness benefits individuals, but it is disastrous to groups, and it is only as members of a group that individuals can survive at all. As Darwin himself put it, ‘Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected.’”

The Great Partnership, Chapter 8, p. 136