The Myth of a Previous Asocial State: some Criticisms and Reflections

The question about the origin of social behavior from the evolutionary perspective can be traced back to Darwin. However, the advance of research and discoveries made especially in the first half of the past century, as well as the theoretical positions disseminated by some of the representatives of the so-called «Neo-Darwinist» epistemological position, led to the inquiry about reciprocity and cooperation towards the complex necessity to validate the existence of cooperation and reciprocity. This document offers a critical review of the main assumptions that demonstrate how it is that one of its basic assumptions, that of the existence of an asocial state prior to cooperation and reciprocity can be the cause of the difficulties involved in the explanation of the evolutionary origin of the social behavior.