[MD] The Origins of Virtue

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[KO]
> altruistic behaviour can be the most selfish policy...if a friend becomes too
> altruistic, too giving, you may advise them to be a little more selfish.

This is not an example of  "altruistic behaviour being the most selfish policy",
but rather an example of altruistic behaviour not being selfish enough.

[KO]
> The point
> of the Prisoner's Dilemma is that we should attract the right partners and
> leave the selfish rationalists to their fate.

This seems backwards.  The point of the Prisoner's Dilemma is that:
if I am better off doing A rather than not-A, when someone else does B &
I am better off doing A rather than not-A, when someone else does not-B,
it does not follow that I am better off doing A than not-A.  So the point
of the Prisoner's Dilemma is to refine our notion of what it is to be rational.
Craig