Cooperation & Competition as complementary drivers

Cooperation and competition are not by necessity at odds with each other. Competition as proposed by social darwinism is key, we need the most capable, adaptive variation of the species to rise to the top, therefore having access to more resources and safety and most importantly increasing there changes of reproducing and passing along said adaptive genes. This is critical to having a competitive, adaptive and long lasting species. However, that does not by extension mean that cooperation is impossible. Humans are social, tribal animals and if competition was all we were driven by, we would all kill each other. In order to survive against in-group and out-group aggression we have developed cooperation (as have many other animals), so that we can exist in communities with lesser degrees of violence. That being said cooperation has also allowed us to rise up the food chain and to become a dominant species. Wolves hunting in packs can take down large prey, the same way that humans in clans or communities can hunt larger game, allocate tasks and resources to maximize efficiency (for example having both hunters and gatherers exist simultaneously). In more recent times, many minds coming together to create revolutionary technologies, or building on ideas and theories of the past to create new tools for the future. These motivations exists in tandem, we live in competitive market places, dominated by capitalism, which does promote competition, but cooperation is also a necessary feature of our environment, and is what allows us to live in the urban spaces most of us occupy today.