Don't know who wrote the above, but I would really appreciate references to the idea that said idea is ridiculed by serious theorists. AFAIK the most parsimonious (unit of reproduction and trait -- germ line? -- replication) and hence preferred view is still individual selection. To the contrary, notions of group selection (and similar ones) have been received often with anywhere from sympathetic disagreement to ridicule (again AFAIK). For an interesting defence of group selection, see "Unto Others" and references within. Further search on the matter (ref Google) will yield more information on this lively issue and its reentry since the days of Wynne-Edwards vs Williams/Hamilton (kin selection arguably applicable to the position quoted above) and before.
My own inclinations are sympathetic less towards an obsession with parsimony and more towards what I see as the broader explanatory aim of multi-level selection theory. But perhaps I failed to mention earlier, I am not a biologist.
--ravi
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