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The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness

Oren Harman

9780393067781

WW Norton & Co


Mathematics & Sciences; Science: general issues

Hardback

451 pages

$46.00

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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.

au.com.bandaconsulting.shop.book.beans.Description@283f7812

By:   Oren Harman
Imprint:   WW Norton & Co
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 242mm,  Width: 164mm,  Spine: 34mm
Weight:   780g
ISBN:  

9780393067781


ISBN 10:   0393067785
Pages:   451
Publication Date:   July 2010
Audience:   Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock at Abbey's Bookshop
This is in stock in our store and available now.


A brilliant biography of a brilliant man. A powerful page-turner that vividly renders the obsessive absorption with the poles of cooperation and competition in nature.--Daniel Kevles, Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University

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