Title The Moral Animal

Author Robert Wright

Year Published 1995

Kind of Book Evolutionary Psychology/Philosophy

How strongly I recommend it 8/10 

My Impressions I read this book before I started taking serious book notes, but remember really liking it. Wright uses Darwin's life as a jumping off point to talk about Evolutionary Psychology and the ways in which morality might have evolved. I'm excited to reread it in the future and take more notes.

Date Read 2017

What question is the author trying to answer?

• How did Morality evolve and why?

Big Ideas

• Parents who are higher socio economically tend to allocate more attention/resources to their sons

• Parents who are lower socio-economically tend to allocate more attention/resources to their daughters

Because

• It is easier for daughters to climb the socio-economic latter than sons

Because

• Attractive daughters are able to marry into money easier than attractive son's can marry into money

Because

• Women tend to Choose spouses based on Socio-economic status

• Men tend to choose spouses based on physical appearance

• We evolved to believe our own exaggerations after recounting them (ie. Confabulation)

Because

• If we believe our exaggerations, others are more likely to believe them too

• The illusion of Free will may have evolved as an adaption

• Rationality may have evolved so that we could better rationalize our decisions and actions (not so we could make better decisions) (not so we could make better decisions)

• We evolved to see ourselves in a positive way (not to see the truth)

• Natural selection thrives on selfishness

Yet

• Natural selection produced humans who have learned to abhor selfishness in others and themselves

• If Free Will is an illusion then it is more proper to pity someone who does wrong than to hate or be disgusted with them