Caledonian2 comments on The Tragedy of Group Selectionism - Less Wrong
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So repeat the logic, only substitute small, interrelated, relatively isolated groups of foxes for the individuals in the previous examples.
Populations can be the unit of selection just as individual organisms can.
Eliezer, I don't need to make assumptions about what you do and do not know when you make statements like "Obviously, selection on the level of the individual won't produce individual restraint in breeding." Either you've demonstrated your ignorance on the subject, or you've demonstrated that you can't convey your knowledge on the subject. From the perspective of your readers, the two possibilities are functionally equivalent.
Individual-level selection has produced LOTS and LOTS of individual restraint in breeding. This is not only obvious to biologists but to laypeople with everyday knowledge.
If you meant instead that organisms will not make sacrifies for general welfare unless the general welfare benefits the genes of the individual as well, you'd be right - but that is not what you said.