intangibles that we call 'free will'" (266)---do "determine how we restrict our behaviors" (266). However, these sociocultural determinants operate only "from the wide spectrum---extreme altruism to extreme selfishness---that our genes permit" (266) (emphasis added). The author favors kin selection because "it extends the realm of genetic potential even further by including the capacity for kindness, once viewed as intrinsically unique to human culture" (267).
There is an arrogance about the author's views which hides behind an apparently humble desire to explain altruism in a way which shows that human beings are not better than other animals. The author's ultimate purpose is to dissuade human beings from seeing themselves as superior to other animals so that they will not continue to try to dominate those other animals. He writes that scientific discoveries have resulted in "a continuous retreat of our species from center
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