The self is not always selfish: Mary Midgley takes on Richard Dawkins.

When, exactly, did ‘survival of the fittest’ become synonymous with Machiavellian selfishness? According to the late UK philosopher Mary Midgley (1919-2018), conflating evolution with a ‘dog-eat-dog’ understanding of human nature was hardly born of Charles Darwin himself, who, in his writings, expressed how traits such as morality and communality were vital to our species’ survival.