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The original Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest appeared
to leave little room for
altruism.
The image it conjured up was
one in which each individual competed with others, and natural
selection favored egoistic, self-preserving behavior. . . . The
more recent view of evolutionary theorists .
. . is that early humans
did not live alone but in small groups. Such groups produced more
offspring . . . than those individuals not living in groups.
Consequently, current evolutionary theory does not ignore the
necessities of cooperative social existence.
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pp. 121-122
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Martin Hoffman
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"Is Altruism Part of Human Nature?"
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40, 1981.
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Cited in Michael Friedman,
"Toward a Reconceptualization of Guilt,"
Contemporary Psychoanalysis 21(4), 1985
p. 510.
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