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Evolution is central to the understanding of life, including human life. Like all living things, we are outcomes of natural selection; we got here bec...more

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Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the research...more

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Many textbooks point out that no animal has evolved wheels and cite the fact as an example of how evolution is often incapable of finding the optimal ...more

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Many people think that the theory of the selfish gene says that “animals try to spread their genes.” That misstates the facts and it misstates the the...more

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Perhaps we should rejoice that people’s emotions aren’t designed for the good of the group. Often the best way to benefit one’s group is to displace, ...more

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A design can excel at one challenge only by compromising at others.

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Even evolutionary explanations of the traditional division of labor by sex do not imply that it is unchangeable, “natural” in the sense of good, or so...more

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Thinking is computation, I claim, but that does not mean that the computer is a good metaphor for the mind. The mind is a set of modules, but the modu...more

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The Darwinian approach to sex is often attacked as being antifeminist, but that is just wrong. Indeed, the accusation is baffling on the face of it, e...more

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It looks as if the offspring have eyes so that they can see well (bad, teleological, backward causation), but that's an illusion. The offspring have e...more

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Evolutionarily speaking, there is seldom any mystery in why we seek the goals we seek — why, for example, people would rather make love with an attrac...more

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Nature is a hanging judge," goes an old saying. Many tragedies come from our physical and cognitive makeup. Our bodies are extraordinarily improbable ...more

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People who are depressed at the thought that all our motives are selfish are [confused]. They have mixed up ultimate causation (why something evolved ...more

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George Williams, the revered evolutionary biologist, describes the natural world as “grossly immoral.” Having no foresight or compassion, natural sele...more