Darwin Comes of Age
To understand Robert Wright, it is first necessary to define evolutionary psychology, which is the foundation of Wright’s theory. Evolutionary psychology contends that most, if not all, of human behavior can be understood by the interests of internal psychological mechanisms. These internal mechanisms are adaptations, or products of natural selection that helped human ancestors survive and reproduce. Evolutionary psychology looks at the challenges early humans faced in their hunter-gatherer environments and the problem-solving they went through to meet those challenges. Based on these problem-solving adaptations, it then establishes the common roots of ancestral behavior and, especially related to Wright’s book, how these common behavioral roots are observed and acted upon today. Human behavior, just like physical traits, has passed on from generation to the next. In their brains humans have specific knowledge that helps them adapt to the environment. The brain is subject to natural selection just like any other organ.
As Wright explains in the introduction (9), evolutionary psychologists discern the second level of human nature: Anthropologists find recurring themes in cultures, such as a need for social approval and capacity for guilt. Psychologists explain that these themes alter from person to person, where one person’s desire for social approval is low and another person’s high. Genetic differences play a role, but more so, genetic commonalities play a bigger role. There is a species-wide developmental program that absorbs information from the social environment, and the brain adjusts correctly to it.
Wright thus explains that humans are genetically created by evolution to replicate their genes. There is a biologically-based human nature where all organs in the body are “adaptations” or “fine products of inadvertent design” (26), which exist today because in the past they contributed to an ancestor’s fitness. All these organs, as noted above, are species typical. There may be differences, but on the whole, most of the genes from one organ, such as the lung, are the same as another person’s.
Darwin summed up natural selection as “Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die” (24). Here, according to Wright, “strongest” does not only refer to the brawniest, but also to other ways of adapting the environment, such as camouflage, and, in the case of this book, cleverness and other mental adaptations. The word “fitness” is the task of transmitting genes from generation to generation within a specific environment. Fitness is the factor that natural selection continually “seeks” to maximize and improve, as it continuously redesigns the species. Fitness is what made humans act as they do today. The human body was made by hundreds of thousands of incremental advances, with each increment being the result of an accident that helped one ancestor to get its genes into the next generation.
Wright then extends this concept to the brain and today’s modern mind. Why, he asks, should the organ of the brain be any different from these other organs? Mental organs, which make up the mind, are species typical as well. The hundreds of thousands genes that affect human behavior — genes that created the brain and control neurotransmitters and other hormones — have continued to exist from the early ancestors to present time for a reason. That reason is that they goad humans to extend their genes from one generation to the next. Assuming the theory of natural selection is correct, then everything about the human mind should be understood in these terms. The fundamental way that people feel about each other, the basic things individuals think about each other and express to one another, are all part of the makeup of the mind because they were able to pass on genetic fitness.
Male and Female.
Wright explains that differences exist between males and females and their ultimate goals to achieve this state of fitness. To determine what females are inclined to seek in males and males in females, it is necessary to refer back to the ancestral environment. It is important to remember that the behavior observed today is not based on the present environment, but the one that existed thousands of years ago to which early humans adapted. This ancestral environment provides an understanding why females are less sexually reserved than females in any other species and why the reserve for females in the human species is higher than the level for males, regardless of the environment. This is based on the premise that over her lifetime, an individual female is able to have many fewer offspring than an individual male. Such reproduction exists much farther back in time than with early humans; it stems back through evolution to the reptiles. For example, female snakes only mate with certain males. Thus, females are inherently coy or “precious” because of their biological role in reproduction, and the slow rate of female reproduction.
This choosiness by females is based on natural selection, because it “gives great moment to their choices,” as noted by Darwin (34). If females prefer to mate with a particular kind of male, those kinds will proliferate. Such ornamentation of male animals, such as the lizard’s inflatable throat sack, has evolved not because it helps in daily survival, but because it can charm the female and, in the case of a stag’s horns, can win at combat. Both these traits, ornamentation and combat, are part of sexual selection.
Natural selection unconsciously ingrained in organisms both certain physical and mental traits to maximize genetic legacy. This goal implies different tendencies for males and females.
Males can reproduce hundreds of times a year, but females can only reproduce once a year. For men, doing better is to have more partners and get more genes into the next generation.
However, for women, the answer is quality, not quantity. Having a child involves a great deal of time and effort. Each child, because of genetic reproduction, is very precious. Parental investment includes producing the egg or sperm, achieving fertilization, gestating the egg, and rearing the offspring. Females make the higher investment both up until birth and, in most cases, after birth as well. The child must survive and pass on its genes to the next generation. Women, therefore, must be very selective about the men they choose to create these children. Unconsciously, based on thousands of years of history, a woman “sizes up” a man and is attracted or not attracted based on natural selection. Genes leading to attractions that ended up good for genetic legacies have flourished, and those leading to less productive attractions did not. People’s minds are designed to maximize fitness in the environment when those minds evolved. Only the traits that propelled genes from one generation to the next should, in theory, be part of today’s human nature. These stem from the environment of the hunter-gathers.
As noted by Trivers, (42), quantifying the imbalance of investment between mother and father helps to better understand many things, such as the dichotomy between male eagerness and female coyness, the intensity of sexual selection, subtle aspects of courtship and parenthood, male-female bonding and fidelity and infidelity. Rightly so, as Trivers suggested, such behavior results from a psychological complexity. The basic emanations of natural selection come from the older parts of the brain all the way into the newest tissue.
Men and Women
It is very easy, then to see why men developed in a way to help rear their young. Genetic factors made it worthwhile for a man to love his offspring, to worry about them, defend them, provide for them, and educate them. This helped the children survive and pass on their genetic heritage. If an offspring did not live long enough to reproduce, then there was no need to produce the offspring in the first place. This is why most species were monogamous: to help the mother protect the offspring against predators. Men needed to hunt to feed his family. Somehow this developed into the sensation of love, not only for the child but for the man and woman. The genetic value of having two parents devoted to each other and their children was great.
For hundreds of thousands of years, natural selection has been inclining males to love their children. During this same time, natural selection had been favoring men and women to love each other. The lifestyle of today’s philandering bachelor in large populated cities, who seduces and abandons available women time after time for years without any parental investment, has not been a wise sexual strategy in the past when women were married as soon as they became fertile. A woman’s genes would be well served by her early and critical scrutiny of a man’s likely devotion. Women have wanted men who are ambitious, generous, trustworthy and, most important, especially committed to her. This then became part of the female psychology.
At the same time, just as women have a reason to focus on a man’s ability to provide resources, men have a particular reason to focus on producing babies. They have to care about the age of a potential mate, her physically attractiveness, and that the child being born is his. When men imagined sexual infidelity, they became quite upset, because whose genes would the child carry on? When they imagined emotional attachment, these men were much calmer. For women, this concern was reversed. Emotional infidelity, redirected love, not supplementary sex, brought the deeper physiological distress.
The Marriage Market
The question remains, why is it that monogamy became the norm, even though it goes against the grain of human nature? In hunter-gatherer cultures, resources were so scarce that it was difficult if not impossible for men to stretch between two families. He would end up with no offspring. The same holds true in a society that is above the subsistence level, but all men are about equally above it. A woman who chooses half a husband over a whole one is settling for much less material well-being. The general principle is that economic equality short circuits polygamy. Over half of the known monogamous societies have been nonstratified. According to Richard Alexander (94), in societies of subsistence-level cultures, monogamy is economically imposed. In affluent cultures, it is socially imposed.
Though women today can better afford to economically take care of themselves, there is a throwback to the past. Even in the poorest societies, a father’s social status translated into more advantages for the children. Although a modern woman can reflect on her wealth and independence and thus gauge her decisions accordingly, she still has to come to grips with the ingrained impulses from her early ancestral environment. In fact, women, says Wright, are not able to override their internal impulses. The tendency remains for them to place greater emphasis on a mate’s financial prospects regardless of their income. As long as a society remains economically stratified, the challenge of reconciling lifelong monogamy with human nature will be significant.
This is despite the fact that most men are better off in a monogamous system and women are less better off. Wright gives the example of 2,000 people living in a monogamous society with each woman engaged to marry the man who shares her ranking. She’d like to marry a higher-ranking man, but they were taken by competitors. The men would like to marry up, too, but cannot for the same reason. If polygyny was legalized, at least one woman somewhat more desirable than average, with a rating of 400 for example, leaves male #400 and becomes a wife of a more successful lawyer, #40. Women thus become better off and most men worse off. Women have greater options; men have less. Polygyny would more evenly distribute the assets of men. However, monogamy gives men access to a supply of women that would otherwise be unattainable, even if it is only one. Monogamy is not a big plus for either side; it’s a compromise for both men and women.
Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994.
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
GET A PERFECT SCORE!!! 
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more