The Price of Altruism
George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Enthralling." —Frans de Waal, New York Times Book Review
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 150 years of scientific attempts to explain kindness, The Price of Altruism tells for the first time the moving story of the eccentric American genius George Price (1922–1975), as he strives to answer evolution's greatest riddle. An original and 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 and despair, Price'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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With his new book, Harman (The Man Who Invented the Chromosome) examines Price, a scientist and author whose promising life ended in self- destruction. Harman didn t set out to write a straightforward biography, but rather a history of Price s lifelong quest to understand evolution and the origins of altruism; along those lines the author includes the life and work of Orwellian psychologist B.F. Skinner, J.B.S. Haldane, and the most distinguished Darwinian since Darwin, Bill Hamilton, who would become a close colleague of Price s. But it s Price s tale that grounds Harman s book. Part One focuses on the man s early life in Minneapolis, his marriage and divorce to Julia Madigan, with whom he had two daughters, and his later life in New York City, where he held countless jobs as he tried to get published. In November 1967 Price moved to London, determined to crack the problem of altruism, and Part Two picks up there, with his conversion to Christianity, after which he gave away his possessions and dedicated himself to helping London s homeless, until he eventually joined their ranks. In 1975, just after Christmas, he took his own life. Harman has given voice to the professional contributions and personal struggles of a man whose body lies today in an unmarked grave in North London.
