Who recommended The Origins of Virtue?

4 people have recommended The Origins of Virtue in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Naval Ravikant and Nick Szabo. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is The Origins of Virtue worth reading?

4 people we track recommend it. It is best for: an undergraduate or graduate student writing a term paper on the evolution of cooperation who needs a readable synthesis of animal studies and human examples to frame their argument; a policy analyst or community-program designer seeking background on naturalistic accounts of trust — useful as context when weighing why informal reciprocity can sustain cooperation in some settings; a philosophy seminar participant preparing to argue about moral origins who wants concrete biological counterpoints to cultural or normative explanations. It may not suit: you'll likely put it down when the middle sections pile up with technical studies and repeated examples; if you need a brisk, tightly edited narrative, the book can feel draggy; annoying if you prefer prescriptive guidance or moral theory depth — this leans toward explanation, not actionable steps or philosophical rigor; you'll lose interest if you dislike biological reductionism or feel explanations that attribute social outcomes to evolutionary mechanisms oversimplify culture and institutions.

What books are like The Origins of Virtue?

Readers of The Origins of Virtue also turn to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, The World as It Is and Out of Control, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

The Origins of Virtue: Recommended by 4 People

Name: The Origins of Virtue
Author: Matt Ridley

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that selfintere...