âUnhappy is the land that needs a heroâ*âŚ
To the extent that evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist Robert Trivers has been in the news over the last decade, it has been for his entanglement with and highly-questionable defense of Jeffrey Epstein. But as Lionel Page reminds us, two decades before thatâ well before he could have known the execrable âfinancierââ Trivers made hugely important contributions to his fieldâŚ
Steve Stewart-Williams announced⌠that Robert Trivers passed away.
Trivers was one of the mostâperhaps the mostâinfluential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. His work should be much more widely known in social and behavioural sciences, in particular in economics, as Triversâ intellectual approach is very much in line with a game theoretic understanding of social interactions.
It is hard to overstate the importance of his work. Einstein famously published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, a year often referred to as his âAnnus mirabilisâ, during which he revolutionised physics. Trivers might be said to have had a âQuinquennium Mirabileâ for the five years between 1971 and 1976, during which he produced a series of ideas that revolutionised evolutionary biologyâŚ
[Page unpacks four of those contributions: Reciprocal Alturism, Parental Investment, Parental Offspring Conflict, and Self-Deception, each fascinatingâŚ]
⌠Trivers has been one of the most influential evolutionary biologists, and his papers are still worth reading today. His insights, published more than 50 years ago, are fascinating. They often align very well with economic theories of behaviour, and it is therefore regrettable that his ideas are not more well-known in economics, and in particular in behavioural economics.
A key feature of Triversâ take across these contributions was to see that beneath the world of social interactions we observe, there are deep structures in terms of incentives that shape the game we play. Understanding these games and their structures helps us make sense of the seemingly endless complexity of human psychology and social dynamics. In several key contributions, Trivers helped lift the veil on the underlying logic of human behaviourâŚ
From cooperation to conflict: the evolutionary grammar of social interactions: âThe fascinating insights of Robert Triversâ from @lionelpage.bsky.social.
For more on Trivers and the controversies in his life (Epstein, but also the Black Panthers and a Rutgers set-to), all of which followed the burst of productivity described above, see here.
And for some thoughts on how one might reconcile appreciation for a scientistâs work with abhorence of his later sins, see âGhosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us. We Can Put Them to Rest.â
* Bertolt Brecht (through the mouth of Galileo, in The Life of Galileo)
###
As we linger over legacies, we might send material birthday greetings to a man who helped lay the groundwork for the field to which Trivers contributed, Ludwig BĂźchner; he was born on this date in 1824. A philosopher, physiologist, and physician, he became one of the leading exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism. BĂźchner was an early champion of Darwinâs theory of evolution, endorsing it within a decade of its first issuance, then did much to spread it by citing and building on it in his own books.
As far as we know, BĂźchnerâs life was free of the scandal and conflict that plagued Trivers. He taught at the University of TĂźbingen and published dozens of books and papers. Later in his life he founded he âGerman Freethinkers Leagueâ (âDeutsche Freidenkerbundâ) and served as a member of the second chamber of the Landstände of the Grand Duchy of Hesse as a representative of the German Free-minded Party from 1884 to 1890. He was the younger brother of Georg BĂźchner, a famous revolutionary playwright, and Luise BĂźchner, a womenâs rights advocate; and he was the uncle of Ernst BĂźchner, inventor of the BĂźchner flask.
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#culture #Darwin #evolution #evolutionaryBiology #history #humanBehavior #LudwigBĂźchner #LudwigBuchner #Materialism #ParentalInvestment #ParentalOffspringConflict #Psychology #ReciprocalAlturism #RobertTrivers #Science #scientificMaterialism #SelfDeception #socialDynamics #sociobiology #theoryOfEvolution
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