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Quote by Robert Wright

“Darwin was one of our finest specimens. He did superbly what human beings are designed to do: manipulate social information to personal advantage. The information in question was the prevailing account of how human beings, and all organisms, came to exist; Darwin reshaped it in a way that radically raised his social status. When he died in 1882, his greatness was acclaimed in newspapers around the world, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, not far from the body of Isaac Newton. Alpha-male territory.”

Quote by Robert Wright

Book:The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Work

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

This book delves into the field of evolutionary psychology, offering insights into the evolutionary roots of human behavior, emotions, and social structures. It explores how our minds and bodies have been shaped by natural selection over millions of years, and how these adaptations influence our present-day lives. more

Author

Robert Wright, born in 1957, is an accomplished journalist known for his work in politics, science, and culture. His career has spanned various fields, and he is recognized for his in-depth investigative reporting and unique analytical perspective. Wright's work often delves into complex social and philosophical issues. more

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Book:The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

Source: The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

“The interaction of genetic and external influences makes my behaviour unpredictable, but not undetermined. In the gap between those words lies freedom.”

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“Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature.”

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Book:The Origins of Virtue

Source: The Origins of Virtue

“The great paradox of determinism and free will, which has held the attention of the wisest of philosophers and psychologists for generations, can be phrased in more biological terms as follows: If our genes are inherited, and our environment is a train of physical events set in motion before we were born, how can there be a truly independent agent within the brain? The agent itself is created by the interaction of the genes and the environment. It would appear that our freedom is only a self delusion.”

“But nature - that is, biological evolution - has not fitted man to any specific environment. On the contrary, ... he has a rather crude survival kit; and yet -this is the paradox of the human condition - one that fits him to all environments. Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.”