On being human

by Ashley Montagu

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0007E6QE8
• Release Date: January 1950
• Publisher: H. Schuman
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Cooperation Trumps Competition

Everyone knows that "survival of the fittest" is the cornerstone of Darwin's theory of evolution. Species evolve in the struggle for survival. But this widely-accepted emphasis on competitive struggle does not tell the whole story.The thesis of this short book is that cooperation is a more important factor in the evolutionary process than competition. Written in 1950, the book presents scientific evidence learned during the first half of the 20th century to support that claim. In his introduction, Montagu writes, ``The size of the book precludes the possibility of citing more than the minimal fraction of the available facts necessary to prove the points which I attempt to establish in the present volume. I hope, however, that while the work is full of conclusions, it will not be received as a work full of purely declarative statements.'' Although I respect this sentiment, I was frustrated by the book's lack of evidence for many of its claims, such as the oft-repeated claim that the cooperative impulse has the reproductive relationship as its origin -- a hypothesis that one would have a great deal of difficulty either proving or disproving.However, the cause of the cooperative impulse is irrelevant compared to its importance in survival, a fact that the book demonstrates beyond question. In the middle third of the book, Montagu focuses on the importance of cooperation to humans. The last chapter of the book is a manifesto on the importance of teaching the benefits of cooperation to children. Here, Montagu argues that ``the fourth R'', human relations, should take a preeminent place beside the traditional three R's emphasized in education today. Although this book is difficult to find, it provides an important balance to the emphasis placed on the competitive aspects of evolutionary survival.