ABSTRACT
The history of research and analysis in evolutionary biology has seen a steady progression to different "levels of selection," moving from the wider to the narrower, and gaining predictive power with each successive reductionistic refocusing. The process of evolution by natural selection is mathematically describable, as is maximization of inclusive fitness, as well as maximizing the difference between benefit and cost for any imaginable behavior. Although the rare mutation contributes positively to fitness, most are deleterious, so that individuals carrying such genes will likely be sub-optimal. Modern evolutionists are almost unanimous that the forces of natural selection operate primarily at the level of the individual and his or her genes. Group selection basically holds that competition occurs between groups making up a species, not between the individual members of each group. The biological effect of individual behavior upon group fitness has a distinct analogy in economic theory.
