The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Harman, Oren, PUBLISHER: W. W. Norton & Company, Survival of the fittest or survival of the nicest? Since the dawn of time man has contemplated the mystery of altruism, but it was Darwin who posed the question most starkly. From the selfless ant to the stinging bee to the man laying down his life for a stranger, evolution has yielded a goodness that in theory should never be. Set against the sweeping tale of ong>15ong>0 years of scientific attempts to explain kindness, The ong>Priceong> of Altruism tells for the first time the moving story of the eccentric American genius George ong>Priceong> (), as he strives to answer evolution's greatest riddle. An original ong>andong> penetrating picture of twentieth century thought, it is also a deeply personal journey. From the heights of the Manhattan Project to the inspired equation that explains altruism to the depths of homelessness ong>andong> despair, ong>Priceong>'s life embodies the paradoxes of Darwin's enigma. His tragic suicide in a squatter's flat, among the vagabonds to whom he gave all his possessions, provides the ultimate contemplation on the possibility of genuine benevolence.