A01=Del Thiessen
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Animal Kingdom
Antisocial Behaviors
Australopithecus Afarensis
Author_Del Thiessen
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behavioral genetics
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brain
brain evolution
Brain Size
Cambrian Period
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JM
COP=United States
cultural adaptation
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Destiny
Devious
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erectus
evolutionary basis of human morality
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fossil record analysis
genetic
Genetic Fitness
Genus Homo
Hominid Species
homo
Homo Erectus
Homo Habilis
human origins
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Ivory Coast
Language_English
Left Hemisphere
Mammoth
MHC Gene
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natural selection mechanisms
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reciprocal
Reciprocal Social Exchange
Selfish Gene
Sexual Selection
size
social
softlaunch
Stormy
uence
Violated
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9781412842570
- Weight: 584g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 Mar 2012
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Bittersweet Destiny combines discourse on the evolution of human behavior with a philosophical perspective. It explores evolutionary theory aimed at determining human behavior. Del Thiessen presents this material against the broad background of everyday life, allowing the reader to see the theory of evolution as it has shaped his or her own behavior. However, he points out that when evolutionary theory is aimed at human behavior, the critics object, and controversy results.Thiessen argues that nothing in our lives makes sense unless we look at it through a biological lens. We can thereby understand our origin, our affiliation with all animals and plants, and our cultural destination. However, we can also discover a dark side to our destiny - our favoritism to those who share our own genes, our ability to deceive, and our capacity for abuse, rape, and murder. Good, bad, and indifferent, we serve the replication of our DNA. Critics extrapolate evolutionary theory to a wide range of animal species, and even human morphology and physiology, but when the same perspective is applied to human behavior there is strong dissent. What these critics fear, according to Thiessen, is that accepting evolutionary notions about human behavior strikes at the heart of free will, self-determination, and social equality.Bittersweet Destiny describes the heroic efforts of naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace to unlock the secrets of evolution. It continues with a vivid description of our fossil history and our chance beginnings. From there the story implicates disease processes in evolution, highlights our rational and irrational nature, focuses on those characteristics of brain evolution and language that make us distinctive, and illustrates our most basic survival and reproductive mechanisms. Thiessen warns the reader that things are as they are no matter what we might wish; we ignore facts and controversy at our own risk. This book will be significant to anthropologists, psychologists, biologists, and sociologists.
