Posted: Mar 20, 2012 9:35 am
DavidMcC wrote:Mr.Samsa wrote:These are all common myths about bonobos, and they are often all grouped together under the term "peaceful" because that's how ordinary people use the term.
And it seems that you fell for it yourself, by failing to even mention the distinction between in-group and out-group yourself.
There is no point in further, innuendo-riddled "debate" on this intil you realise that. You should not hide behind the "common perception" all the time. Rather, you should point that out. As it happened, that was left to me.
I didn't mention any in-group out-group distinction because it was entirely and utterly irrelevant. Why would I mention such a redundant fact? Should I have mentioned that bonobos are also a slightly different shade of brown and black, or that they prefer slightly unripe bananas?
Look, it's great that you seem to know this single fact about bonobos, but your continual attempts to insert it into every part of this discussion is becoming very tiresome. It's irrelevant, stop bringing it up.
DavidMcC wrote:Another (less crucial,but nonetheless worthwhile) point is that, if you don't like a definition on Wikipedia, you should change it.That is tyhe point of Wiki, you shouldn't blame Wiki for a definition problem that you can fix yourself, or get a colleague to.
No need to, the definition for the common (laymen) understanding of altruism is accurate enough. When you look up the wikipedia page on how altruism is understood scientifically ("altruism in animals"), you'll find that it actually links to the Trivers' definition I presented above.
Altruism is a well-documented animal behaviour, which appears most obviously in kin relationships but may also be evident amongst wider social groups, in which an animal sacrifices its own well-being for the benefit of another animal. In the science of ethology (the study of behavior), and more generally in the study of social evolution, on occasion, some animals do behave in ways that reduce their individual fitness but increase the fitness of other individuals in the population; this is a functional definition of altruism.