The Origin of Virtue by Matt Ridley — A 300-Word Book Review

Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation

This image was taken by the author.

Rating: 8.5/10
Pages: 304
Time To Finish: 1 week — 50 pages/day
Where To Purchase:

What is it about?

Matt dives into why humans act kindly, trust others, and cooperate, even when it seems against our selfish nature.

He argues that virtues like generosity and fairness are shaped by biology to help us survive in society.

Using evolutionary biology through numerous interesting examples, he shows how cooperation helps both individuals and groups.

This book includes a nice blend of science, history, and human behaviour.

My favourite parts

Matt Ridley has great storytelling skills. He uses numerous examples to argue his points. I like how much he compares behaviour from ants and other animals to humans.

I also like how he gets straight to the point and doesn’t filter his findings.

In the end, it feels like he argues towards a libertarian society since he says the government’s intervention can negatively affect what human cooperation…