Belief in genetic tribalism comes from the idea that we have natural genetic interests in those who share our genes. This seems superficially plausible. We have a natural interest in our children, don’t we? That interest is because we share genes, right? If so, we should also have a genetic interest in our ethnic groups or races, by extension of the same principle.
The fundamental misconception is that we have natural genetic interests based on shared genes. Evolution does not create entities with genetic interests. It creates reproducing machines. Those are different things.
The concept of genetic interests is hard to define. If we have genetic interests in people based on shared genes, then you have almost the same interest in everyone, because you share about 99% of your genetic information with every other human. You share most of it with all other mammals, and a significant amount with most living beings. (see the rest of the post in the link)
Although I’m not the author of this post (a friend of mine wrote it), I have created a PDF version of the essay that has a table of contents and headers to make it even easier to read.
Does Evolutionary Theory Imply Genetic Tribalism?
Link post
Belief in genetic tribalism comes from the idea that we have natural genetic interests in those who share our genes. This seems superficially plausible. We have a natural interest in our children, don’t we? That interest is because we share genes, right? If so, we should also have a genetic interest in our ethnic groups or races, by extension of the same principle.
The fundamental misconception is that we have natural genetic interests based on shared genes. Evolution does not create entities with genetic interests. It creates reproducing machines. Those are different things.
The concept of genetic interests is hard to define. If we have genetic interests in people based on shared genes, then you have almost the same interest in everyone, because you share about 99% of your genetic information with every other human. You share most of it with all other mammals, and a significant amount with most living beings. (see the rest of the post in the link)
Although I’m not the author of this post (a friend of mine wrote it), I have created a PDF version of the essay that has a table of contents and headers to make it even easier to read.