ABSTRACT
Trouble centres on the word selfish. For sociobiologists, this word is officially not the name of a motive at all, but a term used to describe a complicated, highly abstract and unfamiliar causal property - the tendency to maximize one's own gene representation in future generations. People in society were then held not to have any motive in their interactions other than self-interest. If the bizarre story had been true, the notion of selfishness could never have arisen. Calling somebody selfish simply does not mean that they are prudent or successfully self- preserving. The fact that 'selfishness' in its ordinary sense is not just the name of a motive but of a fault naturally makes things much worse. To widen the imputation of selfishness is to alter people's view of the human race.
