The new book by the famous scientist and journalist Matt Ridley, “The Origins of Altruism and Benevolence,” offers an overview and synthesis of everything that has become known about human social behavior over the past thirty years. One of the main goals of his book is to “help people look at our biological species from the outside, with all its weaknesses and shortcomings.” Ridley critiques a well-known model that argues that in shaping human behavior, culture almost completely displaces biology. Like Richard Dawkins, Ridley knows how to present the most complex scientific issues in a simple and entertaining form. What determines human behavior: genes or culture? Does human consciousness truly nullify the results of natural selection? Doesn’t the Darwinian theory deprive us of free will? These and similar questions are what Matt Ridley tries to answer in his new book.