my viewpoint is that the human ability to cooperate effectively is why there's currently 8+ billion of us on earth and chimpanzees are an endangered species.
Our capacity for stories and language helps us create large cooperation networks, which is a unique evolutionary advantage.
Chimps have cooperation limited to "we are genetically close and you give me banana so I give you banana".
Humans can create something like the Roman Republic, or modern nation states and corporations, based on a shared set of stories and language (culture, also includes stuff like rituals, socio-sexual taboos, etc), which enables millions of us to collaborate together towards a common goal. Which is why we're so successful as a species.
Capitalism allows thousands of people who don't know eachother or even speak the same language to work together to make all the components of a pencil.
All of those people might be selfish, yet they still work together without even knowing they are doing so.
Our capacity for stories and language helps us create large cooperation networks, which is a unique evolutionary advantage.
Chimps have cooperation limited to "we are genetically close and you give me banana so I give you banana".
Humans can create something like the Roman Republic, or modern nation states and corporations, based on a shared set of stories and language (culture, also includes stuff like rituals, socio-sexual taboos, etc), which enables millions of us to collaborate together towards a common goal. Which is why we're so successful as a species.