EVOLUTION, LIFE, AND SOCIETY
Cooperation and Competition in Biology and Evolution
Wondering what the science of life can teach us about cooperation and competition? Then welcome to the party
Cooperation and competition play important roles in every living process from bacteria to world affairs. Still, people have a wide variety of opinions about cooperation and competition, and often can’t agree on how to use them or even on basic questions about whether they’re good or bad.
A lot of the debates over cooperation and competition play out in discussions about government policies, and are often framed in terms of economics. But what about biology and evolution? They’re supposed to have a lot to say about who we are and why we behave the way we do, so why don’t we hear about cooperation and competition from the perspective of evolutionary biology?
If that’s what you were thinking, you’ve come to the right place!
In this series, we’re going to look at cooperation and competition throughout the living world. The idea is that by taking a broad perspective across the Tree of Life, we can find principles that will help to make sense of what we mean by cooperation and competition, and how we can better understand their implications for ourselves and our societies.
Spoiler alert, I’m going to confess right now what I think about the topic so you can judge for yourselves as we sail through evolutionary biology. In my opinion, cooperation and competition aren’t inherently good or bad – they’re tools that have different effects depending on how we use them. If that’s the case, then a better understanding of cooperation and competition could be useful when thinking about how we manage our lives, relationships, and societies.
That’s a super-duper big claim, so please be skeptical. I’m a neuroscientist, but I’m also just some guy with a point of view. Whether you end up agreeing with me or not, I hope you enjoy the series and find something new and interesting that gives you a different perspective on life and your place in its tree. See you next time!
