Ross Douhat in The New York Times said that Breaking Bad illustrated the appeal of an older “tribal” code that is “neither liberal nor Judeo-Christian,” but had the clear “Darwinian logic” of a ruthless fight for survival. He’s right that some aspects of our social rules are recent, but he’s empirically wrong that a “Darwinian” code “lies percolating just below the surface of every human heart.”
Darwin’s own clear logic said: “The moral sense perhaps affords the best…distinction between man and the lower animals…the social instincts, the prime principle of man’s moral constitution…naturally lead to the golden rule, “As ye would have men should do to you, do ye to them likewise.” Not so “Darwinian.” Darwin knew we are by nature self-deficient and interdependent.
Read the full, original story here: Is Breaking Bad Darwinian?
Related on the SLP
Additional Resources:
- “Generosity leads to evolutionary success, biologists show,” Phys.org
- “Robots Evolve Altruism, Just as Biology Predicts,” Wired
