Frans de Waal, "Survival of the Kindest" and "Down with Dualism!"

Questions for Making Connections within the Reading:  

1. In "Survival of the Kindest," Frans de Waal distinguishes between "functional altruism" and "intended kindness." In "Down with Dualism," he looks at the difference between "emotions" and "moral emotions." Using examples from your own experience, define these key terms. What relationships do you see between these terms? Is altruism, for example, "an emotion"?  

2. Why does de Waal find the animal exhibit in Lop Buri to be "absurd"? What kind of animal exhibit would best represent his understanding of the essential characteristics that have governed evolution in the animal kingdom?  

3. What evidence does de Waal present to support his belief that nature is governed by "survival of the kindest"? How does his evidence differ from the evidence offered by those who believe that nature is governed by "survival of the fittest?"  

Questions for Writing:  

1. De Waal concludes "Survival of the Kindest" with a description of the animal kingdom that is bound to shock some readers: he describes dogs who became "depressed" when exposed to a great deal of death; he discusses a strategy meant to help the dogs recover their "emotional investment" in helping others; finally, he concludes with the assertion that there are species of animals who intend to do good deeds. What would change if de Waal were right? That is, what would the consequences be if de Waal's account of the evolutionary value of kindness replaced the dominant account of evolution as the arena of "survival of the fittest"? Is de Waal's revision of the evolution narrative simply an academic matter, or does it have social, cultural, and spiritual ramifications?  

2. As de Waal sees it, Westermarck's ideas were ignored because they "flew in the face of the Western dualistic tradition." What is this tradition, and why would one want to work in some other tradition? What is de Waal's relationship to this tradition? If those who live in the West can't escape or avoid this tradition, what other relationships might they have to it?  

Questions for Making Connections Between Readings:  

1. "Down with Dualism" concludes with de Waal's assertion "that distress at the sight of another's pain is an impulse over which we exert no control." In "The Wreck of Time," Annie Dillard reflects on major events in the last millennium, including great tragedies that involved the deaths of untold numbers of innocent victims. Do the stories that Dillard has to tell support de Waal's argument about nature or Huxley's? If "moral emotions" are part of the genetic make-up of humans, then how can we account for the disasters that Dillard describes? And how do we account for the fact that some, perhaps including Dillard, feel so little distress at learning about the pain others have experienced?  

2. In making his argument for an alternate explanation of the evolutionary process, de Waal relies on the work of Edward Westermarck, who believed that "human goodness" is part of our genetic make-up. De Waal suggests that instead of encouraging ever more ruthless competition, the process of evolution also engenders forms of life that, surviving by means of cooperation, develop correspondingly altruistic emotions. De Waal suggests, moreover, that many different species have developed altruistic sensibilities, not only human beings but also chimpanzees and dogs. If deWaal and Westermarck are correct, how does one account for the problems on the job that Greider describes in "Work Rules"? If evolution has counterbalanced "survival of the fittest" with "survival of the kindest," are we destined-sooner or later-to develop a "moral economy"? If not, then is it possible that our economic system is pushing us into modes of behavior that violate our basic biological nature?

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