PREMIUM FEATURE
Advanced Search Filters
Filter search results by source, date, and more with our premium search tools.
If we ask how creatures [bees] that act so elaborately against their private advantage can have evolved, the answer lies in their mode of reproductio… - Mary Midgley
" "If we ask how creatures [bees] that act so elaborately against their private advantage can have evolved, the answer lies in their mode of reproduction. Most workers are sterile. The unit of selection is normally the whole community. Its prosperity depends on the efficiency of the workers. An uncooperative strain would simply revert toward the solitary life these insects started from and in which many would still remain..So it is natural to understand their evolution, as we would that of a plant, without reference to the plans or wishes of the individual bees.
English
Collect this quote
About Mary Midgley
Mary Beatrice Midgley (née Scrutton; 3 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was an English moral philosopher.
Also Known As
Birth Name:
Mary Beatrice Scrutton
Native Name:
Mary Midgely
Alternative Names:
Mary Beatrice Midgley
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Mary Midgley
Selection does not work by cutthroat competition between individuals, but by favouring whatever behavior is useful to the group. People with crude notions of "Darwinism" make an intriguing blunder here. They refuse the mere fact of competing, that is, of needing to share out a resource with the motive of competitiveness or readiness to quarrel.
Limited Time Offer
Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotewise collections.
What do we mean when we speak...of higher and lower animals? ...What too about communication (a respect in which, Wilson says, we much exceed the insects)? What is so good about communicating? How are we sure that it constitutes and excellence? Is it even clear that in respect we do exceed the corals and the colonial jellyfish? With them, there are no internal barriers; information flow freely from unit to unit wherever it is needed. The unrestrictedness of the communication much exceeds that among people. Why does this fail to impress us?
Loading...