Everyone Is Right

David Loye, author of Darwin in Love, talks to Ken Wilber about the life and often-distorted legacy of Charles Darwin, as well as Darwin’s belief in LOVE as a critical driver of the evolution of species. Survival of the fittest is taken by many as the end-all, be-all of Darwinian evolution — that all evolution comes down to the solitary drive to propagate one’s genes at any cost, giving rise to all sorts of “selfish gene” interpretations of life, evolution, and society. Which is kind of funny, considering that in The Descent of Man, where Darwin focused on human evolution in particular, he only used the phrase “survival of the fittest” twice — and one of those times was to suggest that the phrase not be used at all! Compare this to the 95 times Darwin used the word “love” and 92 mentions of “moral sensitivity” as important drivers of evolution, and it becomes clear that something important is missing from our current discussions of evolution, natural selection, and Darwin’s tremendous legacy. As Darwin hi