The
Moral Animal
Why
we are the way we are: The new science
of evolutionary psychology
By
Robert Wright
Introduction
Differences
boil down to genes, but not differences in our genes.
Evolutionary
psychologist see certain knobs that are turned in each culture: a thirst for
social approval, a capacity for guilt.
They
don’t make the “naturalistic fallacy” what is in nature should be our
values. Is=ought.
In
1859 D published origin of species and mill On Liberty.
On
liberty was against Victorianism, but he thinks Victorian England had a surer
grasp of human nature than we.
Political
liberals tend to take a rosier view of human nature than conservatives.
Part one: Sex, Romance, and love
His
family was strict evangelical.
He
was going into drift and his father (who didn’t believe in god) said he should
join the church.
In
those days church and zoology were close as animals were part of god’s creation
to be studied.
It
has taken only 5,000 generations to turn awolf into a Chihuahua.
Once
all parents have the XXL gene, it gives no parent an edge in the ongoing
contest to create the most viable and prolific offspring. The arms race moves.
A
feature that is adaptive today may not be so tomorrow. Back trouble.
Darw
left England when 22, flooded with hormones.
Prostitutes
were available, but university proctors prowled the streets. His brother warned him never to be sen with
girls.
We
reject such values now, but we shouldn’t scoff at them. The double standard has waned, but it still
stands.
“Sexual
psych.” To an evolutionary psychologist, includes everything from an
adolescent’s fluctuating self esteem to the aesthetic judgement men and women
make about each other, and, the judgements they make about members of their own
sex.
Disclaimers:
To
say something is natural is not to say it is unchangeable.
Sencond,
to say it is natural is not to say it is good.
But
if we want to choose values against nature we should know what we’re up
against.
CH
– 2 Male and Female.
D
saw that men are the woowers, and that female reticence left males competing
with one another for scarce repreoductive opportunities, and explained why
males so often have built-in weapons. (horns, jaws teeth)
Also,
womens being able to choose gives big weight to their choice.
This
explains garish male colors that nearly say “kill me” to a predator.
Men
can reproduce hundreds of times a year.
Women once.
Men
can improve in quantity, women in quality.
Each
child is very precious to the woman and needs it to survive.
We
aren’t aware of this. But most of our
species development took place before we thought..
Natural
selection has had tremendous inflouence on the the spigots that turn on and off
for attraction, fierce passion and swoon-inducing infatuation. A woman doesn’t think about genes, she just feels attracted. Natural selection has done all the thinking.
The
advertisement by a male of how fit he is.It is to the advantage of the female to spot false advertising. Men are skilled salesman and women
discriminating shoppers. And men should
be show-0ffs.
Theory
of parental investment has some confirmation.
Prostitution, sex with someone ou don’t know, is largely sought by
males.
The
double standard seems to be universal.
The
universality cannot be explained culturally.
Also,
in species after species, males are dim in their sexual discernment. Among some kinds of frogs, mistaken
homosexual courtship is so common that a “release call” is used by males.
Male
snakes, for their part, have been know to spend a while with dead females for
moving to a live prospect.
And male turkeys will avidly court a stuffed replica of a female. They will , in fact, court a replica of a
female turkey’s head suspended 15 inches from the ground.
People
complain that the Darwinians find proof after the fact.
There
are a few odd species where male parental investment exceeds female. And the females take a n active role in
courtship.
In
birds where this happens the females are larger and more colorful. Females compete for males.
Apes
and us:
Our
fork with chimps was 8 million and 16 for orangatangs.
Males
are larger and stronger than females because that’s who they mate with cause
that’s who will protect them.
And
the female will be forcibly subdued.
Often this is shown in that they fail to impregnate. She chooses the big one. Retinence would pay off by getting you a
tougher male.
Also,
being coy proves his willingness to stay around.
Animals
and the unconscious:
We
laugh that a turkey mates with a head
But males get aroused by 2-D models.
We
are under conscious control. We can decide not to look.
But
our mind doesn’t make us lessin a D trap, but pursueing it more efficiently.
In
every human culture on record, marriage – whether monogamous or polygamous,
permanent or temporary, is the norm, and the family is the atom of social
organization.
Why
we’re high in mpi:
The
vulnerability of offspring. Running
around seducing a lot won’t do a male any good if his offspring get eaten. Probably why so many birds are
monogamous. When mom gets a worm, the
chicks will be eaten. Walking upright
implied a narrow pelvis, and thus a narrow birth canal, but the heads of babies
are larger than ever. Human babies
compromise a mother’s food gathering.
For many months, they’re mounds of helpless flesh: tiger bait.
The investment value has been codified into feeling: love.
Monogamy
is more common among carnivorous mammals than among vegetarians. Male does the long term hunting food gathering.
As
the brain got bigger, cultural programming got more important. Children with two parents had an educational
edge.
Males
should cheat if the cost of the offspring is minimal. It is especially good if some else thinks that the kid is his.
What
do women want:
The
“nuptial offering” which technically is a timy investment, is seen in a variety
of species.
It
is a measure of what the male can bring after birth.
But
if all males are about the same in wealth (apes and tribal) then status is
important. It tells who will get the
biggest portion of the hunted meat.
In
modern societies, wealth and status together make a good package.
And
all promises by males weren’t untruths.
It just would be good to exaggerate your potential and commitment to get
access. And back then it was hard to
leave the villiage.
Back
then virtually every woman is married by the time she’s fertile. There was no singles scene. So you had to seal the deal. The modern male slut is not what happened in
evolution, its just what happens when you put the male mind in a modern
situation.
In
a high mpi species a females’ ideal is to monopolize her mate. Females have evolved to compete for scarce
male investment.
What
do men want:
There
is a male Madonna whore dichotomy.
“
the distinction was nicely drawn by a study in which both men and women were
asked about the minimal level of intelligence they would accept in a person
they were “dating.” The average
response, for both males and females, was: average intelligence. They were also asked how smart a person
would have to be before they would consent to sexual relations. The women said: Oh, in that case, markedly
above average.The men said: Oh, in that case, markedly below average. For steadily dating/ marriage, both wanted
smart and smarter.”
The
younger a woman, the more children she can bear. In every one of 37 cultures studied, males preferred younger and
women older mates. Also, women can
afford to be more open about looks. Men
like big eyes and a small nose, both symptoms of youth.
When
people see a beautiful woman with an ugly man they assume he has money or
status. Usually it’s true.
The
woman fears that he will leave. The man
that the baby isn’t his. So male jealousy should focus on sexual infidelity and
female emotional.
When
men imagined sexual infidelity ,their heart rates took leaps of a magnitude
typically induced by three cups of coffee.
What
else do women want:
A
woman might want to copulate with several men to leave the idea with all of
them that they might be the father.
Across species there is a correlation between the males kindness to
youngsters and the chances that he is their father.
In
two societies studied men have been known to demand the killing of a woman’s
past children before marriage..
Hidden
ovulation can help the woman trick a loser male into raising a good man’s child
from adultery.
Women
are more sexually active around ovulation.
And they wear more jewelry and makeup when they are and are going
out. And they have more contact at such
times. Chimps genitals swell.
The
ratio of average testes weight to average body weight is a good indicator. Species with high relative testes weights
have “multimale breeding systems” When
females commonly breed with many different males, males can profit by producing
lots of semen. We fall between chimps
and gorillas. Our females are more
adventurous than some, less than others.
The
quantity of ejaculation depends on the amound of time a man’s mate has been out
of his sight.
As
men grow more attuned to the threat of cheating cuckoldry, women should get
better at convincing a man that their adoration borders on awe. And to convince themselves that they don’t
care for sex would help to convince the husband.
The
Madonna whore dichotomy:
The
speed a woman gives into a man tells a lot about her likelihood of being
true. The male may actually encourage
the early sex to test her. If she gives
in he will punish her, by excluding her from the serious pool.
Victorian
samoans:
Margaret
Mead said that the concern with purity was a western pathology. It is hard to exaggerate the influence of
Mead’s findings on 20th century thought.
Revisits
found brothers who would beat up a male
who had designs on a girls virginity.
They did marriage virginity tests.
All over the world the good girl/bad girl dichotomy s seen in culture.
Fast
women/slow women:
As
a rule, two extremely different alternative traits will not both be preserved
by natural selection. That’s why almost
all genes are shared world wide.
The
value of a trait declines as it becomes more common.
One
can imagine a situation in which neither coy nor fast women, cads nor dads,
have the monopoly on the ideal strategy.
One
person can be a con artist and it’s profitable. But if all are.
The
best genetic program would give plasticity according to situation.
There
are genetic differences for nervousness and extroversion. The “heritability” of these traits is around
.4; that is, about 40 percent of individual differences can be explained by
genetic differences. Height is .9. .1=nutrition.
Evolutionary
psychology can help us see the knobs and the factors that tune them.
Attractive
girls can marry up and thus mothers tell them be chaste. Ugly girls cannot and thus might be
looser. But there aren’t studies on
this.
If
warriors invade a village and kill the men she cannot secure a man of her own
anymore (too many women) so she should become more competitive for the. Here again flexibility is important. Women who see men as not committing dress
sexier. They may naturally not feel that commitment is important. If market conditions improve, they might
change.
Men
with high esteem might see market conditions as good for them and seek short
term conquests. The handsome football
star is a stud. Women value looks more
in a short term relationship.
Men who have extremely low self esteem, might
rape. That might be a good strategy.
Women who see men unable to support much might have
looser values. The poor have always
been seen as promiscuous.
The family that stays together;
A husband who rises in status and wealth will
strengthen his incentive to desert the wife.
He can find another.
In hunter gatherers men might take a second wife,
not abandon the old one, and that would be okay.
Husband dissatisfaction is the highest predictor of divorce. Women can have enough money to divorce, but
there is no biological force driving them to it.
Men are much more likely to remarry than women. Emotions are evolution’s executioners.
Pair bonds revisited:
In highly polygynous species the contrast in body
size between males and females is great.
One male must dominate many females and fight off many males. Gibbons are monogamous and about the same
size. Gorilla males are 2x fem
sizes. We are between.
We might not be as good as we seem as our
competition (human and prehuman) has been as mental as physical.
980 of the 1,154 past or present societies for which
Anthropologists have records, have permitted a man to have more than one wife.
In 43% of the 980 it is described as occasional.
And here its usually just for the rich. Most marriages have been monogamous even
though most societies haven’t.
How
to explain this?
The
world is run by men, but in most of the world polygamy is illegal.
Sometimes
this gets explained as a compromise between male and female natures.
When
you’re living on the edge, having two can mean neither survive. And why would a woman go for ½ a man when
she could get her own?
The
answer seems to be that economic equality tends to short circuit polygyny.
More
than half of the known monogamous societies have been classified as
“nonstratified” (equal)
What
really demands attention then are the six dozen societies in the history of the
world, including the modern industrial ones that are stratified and yet
monogamous.
One
explanation is that polygyny lurks underneath.
Dowry
– a transfer of wealth from the bride’s to the grooms family- is found almost
exclusively in stratified monogamous societies.
Wealthy
men in a monogamous society are a prize.
The brides family must pay for that.
Winners
and losers:
Poor
women, married to poor men would rather have polygyny. She could have ½ of a rich mans money. She
goes up, all the men below the guy with two are going to have inferior
women. And one dude is stiffed.
Married
women living in poverty (or women without a husband or child, and desirous of
both could be excused for wondering just which women’s rights are protected by
monogamy. The only underprivileged citizens
who should favor monogamy are men. It is what gives them access to women. Women gain more options with polygyny.
Upper
classes hoarding women became politically untenable.
Extreme
polygyny often goes hand in had with extreme political hierarchy and reaches
its zenith under despotic regimes. Zulu chiefs would have more than 100
women. Inca had more women the higher
the rank.
What’s
wrong with polygyny?:
Low
level men without wives compete fiercely.
Violence, rape.
An
unmarried man between 24 and 35 is 3x as likely to murder another male as is a
married man.
We
wouldn’t want to live in a society where lots of low income men are mateless,
but we do.
Not
in 1960, but in 1990 the % of men not married ever over the age of 40 was way
higher than for women.
Probably
many homeless and alchoholic men born in earlier times would have found a mate
and been calmer.
Darwinism
and moral ideas:
Serial
monogamy has inegalitarian effects on men and creates violence theft and rape.
Substitute
parents will generally tend to care less profoundly for children than natural
parents.
In
1976, a child living with one or more substitute parents was 100x more likely
to be killed than one with natural parents.
In
the 80s it was 70x.
Children
under ten way more likely to be abused.
Darwinists
call what you give to offspring an investment, that doesn’t mean it can be
covered by a child support check.
A
young step is a drain on resources and obstacle.
Pursuing
moral ideals:
An
irony for conservatives. One of the
best ways to create monogamy is to equalize income.
A single pretty woman will feel les inclined to
tempt husband A away from wife A if bachelor B has just as much money.
Women going into the workforce doesn’t change this
much as we’re not dealing with decisions, but deep romantic attraction.
Women are shown to put a lot of emphasis on a mate’s
prospects and status regardless of her income.
So long as society is stratified, it’ll be hard to
maintain monogamy. That is unless you
use heavy pressure Victorian values.
CHAPTER – 5
DARWIN”S MARRIAGE
“Like a child that has something it loves beyond
measure, I long to dwell on the words my own Dear Emma….”
-Darwin urging an early marriage/quick engagement.
“Sexual desire makes saliva to flow…curious
association.”
-D in a scientific notebook the same month
In the decade of Ds marriage the number of british
couples filing for divorce averaged 4 a year.
Part of that is that it required an act of Parliament.
Women of Ds class often spend their 20s putting on a
sex display to catch a man while in their prime. Men spend their 20s trying to get enough professional
status/money to attract a woman in her prime.
In Ds day there was no rush. It
was normal for older men to marry younger women.
He showed no designs on Emma early.
Back from the beagle he had a lot of status. He
could have gone into a social
whirl.
“I am very much obliged to you for sending me cards
for your parties, but I am afraid of accepting them, for I should meet some
people there,…”
With time saved he went on a remarkable burst of
accomplishment.
Choosing marriage:
He made a document with two columns, one labeled
“marry” another “not marry”
Pro:
Children constant companion, (&friend in old
age) who will feel interested in one, - object to be beloved and played
with” He modified the previous sentence
“better than a dog anyhow.” He
continued: “Home, & someone to take care of house – charms of music and
female chit chat – these things are good for one’s health.- but terrible loss
of time.”
Con:
“Freedom to go where one likes – choice of society
& little of it.- Conversation of clever men at clubs – not forced to visit
relatives, & bend to every trifle – to have expense & anxiety of
children – perhaps quarreling – Loss of time. – cannot read in the Evenings –
fatness and idleness – Anxiety and responsibility – less money for books etc –
if many children forced to gain one’s bread.”
End of marry column:
My god, it is intolerable to think of spending ones
whole life, like a neuter bee, working , working, & nothing after all.
Choosing Emma:
Thoughts
of mortality drive men into AND, ironically, marriage.
He
may have decided to marry and come up with natural selection in the same week.
In
the notes where he first gets natural selection, he mentions malthus.
Darwin
didn’t emerge from adolescence feeling like an alpha male. In many gather hunter societies hierarchy is
decided by early adulthood. There
aren’t career ladders to climb.
And
his low opinion accurately reflects his ability to get a good gene mate.
She
was unsure of her choice. That helps to
reinforce his need to please her.
He
was sure that she would reinforce his good behaviors.
Darwin
gets excited:
His
feelings accelerate rapidly. Why?
Pre-sex
a woman’s genes say slow down. A males
say speed up. He must say things to
melt the woman’s reserve.
The
Victorian postponement of sex until marriage should theoretically have shifted
power towards women during the engagement.
The man had cause to be eager for the wedding date (unlike today). The woman had cause to pause and reflect
(unlike today).
Emma
complied with theory. She asked to put
off the marriage. He went into romantic
hyperdrive.
After
the honeymoon:
A
man may not say anything to a recalcitrant woman, he may also believe it. If the Madonna whore switch is real, it may
include I want to be with you forever.
The
Victorians were women worshipers.
The
courtship’s elongation helps move the woman into the “Madonna” part of a man’s
mind.
Contraception
is complimented by breast feeding’s
suppression of both sexes sex drive.
After
there is less and less of the woman’s potential to be harvested, it is natural
for a man to want to move on.
Charles
Dickens left his wife after she passed her prime. D stayed devoted. Why?
In
his pursuit of a long life relationship he had the advantage of chronic ill
health.
He
also lived two hours by coach from female distractions. Male fantasies are visual in nature. One evolutionary psychologist found that men
shown pictures from playboy later describe themselves as less in love with
their wives.
Women
shown playgirl had no such adjustment.
Marriage
tips for men:
Darwin’s
3-step approach to marriage:
1)
Decide,
rationally and systematically, to get married.
2)
Find
someone who in most practical ways meets your needs.
3)
Marry
her.
Lasting
love is something a person has to decide to experience. Lifelong devotion is not natural. The ardor willl fade. Then the marriage will live or die on
determination.
Whether
or not deeper or more spiritual, it is a more impressive love.
Many
get divorced. The glimpse of lasting
joy the second time around was just another delusion sponsored by genes, whose
primary goal is to make us prolific (not to make us happy).
Divorce
then and now:
Today
an unmarried man can get sex, with or without love, regularly and respectably.
The American divorce rate doubled between 66 and
78 then stabilized.
Easy
divorce creates a population of formerly married women, easy sex creates a
population of never-married women.
Between
70 and 80, the # of American women between the ages of 35-39 went from one in
20 to one in 10.
Divorce
brings the average man an increase in wealth, while the woman and kids suffer
the opposite.
The
divorct Act of 1857 was welcomed by many feminists, including John Stuart Mill.
“Gladstone
opposed in and said, “A woman voting for divorce is like a turkey voting for
Christmas.”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T:
Two
types of respect 1) as worthy co-worker 2) Not a sex object. Women have no. 1.
The
two traded off.
Women
could now sleep around without guilt.
Women were just like men.
Lawmakers
took equality to mean that women needed no special protection.
Divorce
resulted in rehabilitative payments for her to get her career back on line.
Attempts
to stop one kind of exploitation of women led to another.
Unhappily
married women:
Some
women don’t want to get married, but the single biggest obstacle to life long
monogamy is the male mind.
Communal
mothers can work andhave kids.
Modern
women must choose. Monotony of home or work.
The
generic suburban habitat of the 50s was more “natural for men.
Tribally,
a woman’s emotional disconnect from a man has not meant divorce as easily as
the father’s. Why? Seeking a new husband once there were
children was seldom a genetically winning proposition.
People
weren’t designed to be happy, just not driven crazy.
The
Emma Plan:
Perhaps
women are a better avenue for marriage reform.
If you want to hear vows of devotion of your wedding night, be
chaste.
This
may smell ugily of “trapping” a man. Or
you can say it shows women have self-restraint.
A
better complaint is that it doesn’t work.
As the man can just go get another.
It would take a number to make a dent.
And
some like the one woman austerity crusade.
If a man isn’t interested enough to endure two months of friendly
affection before contact, why waste your time (which is more precious for women
than for men).
A
theory of moral change:
The
combination of women who see men not being long term in general wearing more
promiscuous clothes, causing men to not want to commit, and therein being a
viscious cycle.
Naked
women being all over our society may even push this.
Mutual
reinforcement could also push things towards MPI though.
Victoria’s
Secret:
High
status male desertion for a younger model is the single greatest threat to
marriage.
But
if infidelity is tolerated it needn’t.
Wife’s
committing adultery is much worse than men.
In
the 50s extra marital was just an outlet.
Now, it leads to divorce.
Where
do moral codes come from?:
People
tend to pass the sorts of moral judgments that help move their genes into the
next generation, (or would have in prior times).
Men’s
moral code may encourage him to have a double standard.
Parents
of young pretty girls encourage chastity so that she can marry up.
Happily
married women consider sluts as evil.
But there is tolerance for male cheating.
Sugarcoated
science:
People
say go with caution. D social theories are more dangerous than others. Why?
All incorrect theories are bad.
People
, individually defy the norm. Yes, but
half do away from in each direction.
Men
don’t have to philander
Ch
– 7: FAMILIES
We
all like to think of ourselves as selfless.
But we are pigs compared to social insects.
Kin
selection theory sees selection not taking place at the level of the individual
or the family, but, at the level of the gene.
William
D Hamilton of Britain came up with this in 1963.
The
only potentially immortal organic entity is the gene.
Genes
for brotherly love:
A
gene inclines a mammal to produce a warning call when its relatives are
threatened.
This
could also apply to inclining human beings to sense early on who their siblings
are and who to share food with and defend.
First
cousins share, one eighth of your genes.
Heroism
would happen in small populations where most of the children were fairly near
relatives.
People
have the warmest feelings for those who share their genes.Genes telling mothers
to love their kids, and telling babies to listen.
Love
of children by males is important to for this scheme of MPI to work.
The
new math:
Sister
ants share ¾ of their genes by common descent, not just ½. So altruism is magnified.
Slime
mold is like a single organism of many identical cells. It is hard to tell whether to classify it as
many or one. It has the same DNA
through and through.
All
cells in the human body are the same and so work in cooperation.
The
limits of love:
The
divergence of genetic interests between siblings creates an exasperating,
paradox. They compete for the affection
and attention of their parents.
Each
child should, in theory ,se themselves as twice as important as its sibling. But the parents should view each as equal.
Conflict
over weaning is part of mammalian life.
We
can get parents to sacrifice by emphasizing our sacrifice for our
siblings. Kids do conspicuous caring
and over emphasize their hurts for extra nutrition.
They
have a sense of justice and entitlement that expresses itself in temper
tantrums. Fairness is very important!
Parent
can play on guilt, as kids have a conscience to take care of their sibling.
Mom
always liked you best:
If
both the parents aren’t the same. Then
the natural ratio of me to sibling care should be 4:1.
Parents
should be very scrupulous in equity for max prolif.
Therefore,
siblings will say Mom liked you more.
Girls
who are pretty marry up.
In
tribals, many men proliferate a lot and some males not at all.
Fertile
females can always get a partner.
Pack
rat mothers will, if fed poorly, shove weak males off her teat.
Rich
people may kill daughters and pass their wealth onto their sons.
High
status families spend more time with their boys. Low status with their girls.
More
than half the daughters born to low-income women were breast fe. Few than ½ of sons were.
60%
of rich daughters were. 90% of sons
were.
Low
income women have another child within 3.5 years of having had a boy and 4.3 of
a boy.
Rich
women, had another 3.2 after daughters.
3.9 after sons.
Natural
selection works underground.
Older
women , much more than older men, should show care towards kin.
Patterns
of grief:
A
parent should besadder about the death of an adolescent than a baby or a forty
year old.
If
it is due to unlived life, why is the death of the teen sadder.
As
we get through adolescence, we should care less and less about our parents.
By
the time they’re old…
Obviousness
is not a sign of non-truth. It is a
sign of success for the genes.
Darwin’s
grief:
His
young retarded son didn’t bring much grief “He often made strange grimaces
& shivered , when excited….” (that’s part of the memorial to his son.
The
daughter annie was ten and they never got over it.
CH
– 8 DARWIN AND THE SAVAGES.
Darwin
came across a tribe that ate woman. But
they did share some values with England.
The
recognition of unity of humans is the fist step to becoming an Evolutionary
Psych. Step two is seeking to explain
via natural selection.
Sterile
insect was problem for Darwin. Why do
people have trouble walking past a beggar without cringing?
Morality
genes?:
Morality
has diversity.
Humans
are sensitive to public opinion.
Chimps
have friends.
Group
selectionism:
He
succumbed to group selectionism, This
is an intellectual error.
It
is hard to imagine natural selection choosing the group over the individual.
One
should postulate adaptation at no higher a level than is necessitated by the
facts.
CH
– 9 FRIENDS
Game
theorists assume we are looking for happiness rationally.
The
prisoner’s dilemna:
Two
partners in a crime are being interrogated separately and face a hards
decision. The state lacks the evidence
to convict them, but can convict them of a lesser charge . “I’ll let you off if you testify. If you don’t, but your partner does, you go
to prison for ten years. If you both
confess, you both get three years.
It
seems like you should confess to hedge your bets.
Non-zero
sumness:
If
you give your fellow chimp hunter 5 ounces of meat you lose 5.
He
might rationally agree to pay you 6 next week.
Both
players are then better off.
If
hunters cooperate, they all eat. If
they don’t they both die.
Division
of labor is a non-zero-sumness.
Division
of labor wasn’t great, and therefore, information was big in small knit
communities.
Where
is a great stock of food?, Where is a snake, who is angry with whom.. This can help you maneuver for sex and other
vital resources.
The
sort of gossip that people in all cultures have an insatiable thirst for adds
to fitness and maybe the reason friendship exists.
Since
info is shared without loss, both win.
If
you don’t pay back the meat, you can win by cheating people. If all exploit all, then reciprocal
exploitation is the way to cut your losses.
A
competition to see which computer program would win if strategies were run
against eachother. The winner was
called, TIT FOR TAT. If the other
computer tends to cheat, it cheats. If the other is friendly it is
friendly. It beat out more sneaky
complicated programs. It for went
one-time gains, but in the long run was self-serving.
How
tit for tat feels:
It doesn’t. What feelings would natural selection have
to program into an animal to make it do tit for tat?
Overall
sympathy (willingness to try), gratitude and obligation, anger and dislike (to
cut off from exploiters) And
forgiveness, to erase counterproductive hostility towards those who have
changed to helpers.
Friendship
affection trust (reciprocal altruism) doesn’t exist for the group.
A
key feature is feedback between the macro and the micro.
A
couple of meanies can’t undermine TFT.
Conditional cooperation is more infectious than unmitigated
meaness. But if all are mean a couble
of reciprocals can’t get a footing.
What ratchets up the initial goodness?
Sibling and familial reciprocal altruism.
(Trust
in kin and guilt for not helping).
But
is it science?:
Reciprocal
altruism is fudamental to life in all cultures. Vampire bats are the most so because blood is perishable and
there are no refrigerators.
Chimps
form alliances for food and groom each other.
The
meaning of reciprocal altruism:
People
don’t like that their noble feelings come from selfish genes.
The
size of righteous indignation is startling.
It can start feuds that dwarf the alleged offence. Why risk death for honor?
Indignation
is more valuable if publicly observed.
Righteous
indignation could become a pose that cheaters use. Guilt could prompt preemptive confessions of cheating that
redeems status.
Test
subjects who believed they had broken an expensive machine were more nclined to
volunteer for painful experiments.
Guilt
is a way of getting everyone happy with your level of reciprocation.
That
explains guilt at passing a homeless person.
Seeing
their eye makes it a public event.
Beyond
one on one, we may be able to form reciprocal bonds with a larger association.
If
you sacrifice for the group , others might be expected to also. In such a situation the best way for control
is to affect reputations. The
impression that we’ve helped is very important.
We
thus have the basis for hypocrisy, The pressure to grieve others and brag about
ourselves.
CH
10 – DARWIN’S CONSCIENCE
Darwin
was full of self reproach and severe depression.
Natural
selection doesn’t want us to be happy, it wants us to proliferate.
Kin
selection has ensured that people everywhere feel deeply guilty about harming a
relative.
Reciprocal
altruism has done the same with strangers.
“Conscientiousness”
is beween .30 and .40 heritable. That
is: about 1/3 of differences in people can be attributed to genes. Two thirds is due to environment.
Genetically
endowed knobs. Empathy and retribustion.
Darwin’s
sister took care of him after 8. He owed her much. He worked furiously for his father’s approval.
“Moral
guidance” is a euphemism. Parents are
designed to steer kids toward “moral” behaviors only in so far as those
behaviors are self-serving.
A
young concscience tells how much cheating would be profitable. The tendancy to tell lies is spontaneous and
universal.
Children
will keep lying unless strongly discouraged.
Children without parental supervision do this the most.
The
Victorian conscience:
The
Victorians are famous for their emphasis on “character”. We have replaced that with
“personality”.
“Character
is power” was more than “Knowledge is power” Said Samuel Smiles.
The
surest, if not the quickest, way to power.
Victorian
England lived in the rough equivalent of a small town. Darwin lived in the small town of
Shrewsbury.
“civility”
costs nothing and buys everything.
Now
a reputation for integrity matters less.
Telling
a child to lie some may help. Meaner
strategies grow if you allow in and out migration from the tit for tat program.
Nyers
are rude.
The
conscience of poor children is hemmed in by the environment.
Darwinists
, oddly, believe criminals are victims of society.
One
likely source of crime profitability would have been contact withnearby
villiages. In group requires
consideration, out group exploitation.
Judging
the Victorians:
Victorians
believed in a social contract where all would come back indirectly. They are called hypocrites, but had much
higher standards.
Darwin
prosecuted a farmer for letting sheep starve.
Good PR.
We’re
less “fitness maximizers” than “adaptation executers”
CH
– 11 DARWIN’S DELAY
Between
the time that he discovered natural selection and published, 20 prolific years
went by. Why?
He
wrote extensively on barnacles.
Why?
Many
folks say religious conviction.
Darwin’s
father Erasmus wrote a theory of evolution that he wanted to be published
posthumously. Lamark was denounced as
immortal.
Sick
and tired:
Darwin’s
non-diagnosed illness is a mystery. He
started with heart palpitations a couple of months after opening his first
evolution notebook.
He
also didn’t solve insect sterility until 1857.
Ch
12 – SOCIAL STATUS
He
was troubled by how equal the tribes of S. America were. He saw it as a sign of retardation. Of course, they never were far from
starvation. But without outward
displays of differences, status can be a difference.
Franz
Boas; student was Margaret Mead. There
is a Boasian bias against human nature.
It is good in that it allows us to think humans can be changed.
The
best hunters have more illegitimate children and their offspring survive more.
Why
lend your energy to a system that leaves you with less than your neighbor?
The
modern theory of status hierarchies:
Pecking
order defers the cost of endless battles.
Once established it holds.
Put
a bunch of children together and they differentiate. One year olds do this.
Some
rise via toughness, others by cooperation.
Our
relative species are hierarchical and so is every society.
Some
methods of expressing status hold across cultures, “scorn , disdain, contempt
and disgust, holding head and body erect.”
Dominant chimps strut expansively.
Status,
self-esteem, and biochemistry:
Dominant
males have more serotonin than subordinates.
Officers
of fraternities have more serotonin than lesser.
Serotonin
encourages you to bid for leadership and keep it. It relaxes people, makes them more gregarious, socially assertive
and raises self esteem.
Artificially
lowering peoples’ self esteem makes them cheat on subsequent card games. People with lower serotonin levels are more
likely to commit impulsive crimes.
Ambition
and competitiveness pay off . Male
chimps seem more in the thrall of these sorts of forces than females.
Men,
women , and status:
For
men, conversation is “primarily a means to preserve independence and negotiate
and maintain status in a hierarchical social order”
A
man named “Bloodthirsty” has the world record for most children.
Competitiveness
can come from society also, and captive chimps with no males, create female
alpha females that defend when a man does show.
Our
hierarchy is subtler than chickens in that we have reshuffling and social
context plays into it.
Status
assistance is, perhaps, the main purpose of friendship. The evolutionary fusion of hierarchy and
reciprocal altruism accounts for a good part of the average human life. Many, if not most, of our swings in mood,
our fateful commitments, our changes of heart about people, institutions
(choice of university or corp), even ideas, are governed by mental organs that
this fusion wrought.
Chimpanzee
politics:
Status
for chimps depends on more than ambition and raw strength. It takes strategic savvy.
One
learned to scare others through banging a kerosene drum. He tried other things. They were submissive and groomed him as
such. Alphas arrange a regular wource
of support. Often a single strong
lieutenant.
When
a challenge happened one alpha spent a lot of time with adult females.
One
chimp sided with the downtrodden.
What
is it like to be a chimp?:
When
a baby hears a loud noise and retreats to its mother, it is logical, but it
probably isn’t aware of the logic.
Our
motives are often subrational. De Waals
studies this and attributes chimps unwillingness to back down to a sense of
honor. Is this anthropomorphizing?
It
makes evolutionary sense to defend your honor, more for men than women.
Might
and Right:
Conduct
among chimps includes a sense of moral rightness and justice.
There
is a “sense of fairness”.
TIT
for TAT, An eye for an eye, seems to be their code.
Human
coalitions competing for status often feature avague sense of moral
entitlement, a sense that the other coalition deserves to win.
War
might be natural. When males spend time
together a hierarchy must appear.
Communism
has failed.
Ape
colonies can be democratic, in that the alpha male has trouble ruling without
the consent of the governed.
On
ruler without the common touch was chased up a tree by the entire colony. Politicians always seek alliances for power,
and status for their people.
The
zuni way:
Expert
corn growers and expert singers make for attractive mates for Zunis. One shows
intelligence and material well being.
The range of things that can bring status in different cultures and
subcultures is astonishing.
How
flexible is it? Things that made for
status in tribes carry more weight.
Strong men and beautiful women.
Stupidity isn’t good. The command of resources is good.
CH
– 13 DECEPTION AND SELF-DECEPTION
Truth
in advertising isn’t a rule of natural selection. Quite the opposite.
Many
species pretend to be other species for hunting.
They
present themselves as whatever it is in their genetic interest to seem like.
Men
and women mislead each other.
Leaving
a good impression:
If
you don’t feel even some urge to disseminate new of your triumphs, however
subtly, and have some reluctance to talk about your failures, you’re not
functioning as designed.
There
are small lies that are hard to discredit.
The famous “one that got away”
Such
distortion may be initially conscious , or, at least, half-conscious.
The
assignment of blame and credit is a green pasture for self-inflation. We chalk up our losses to the luck of the
draw and our success to ourselves.
Everyone
thinks that the other person threw more doubles.
And
the best way to trash talk others is to believe it.
Self-deflation:
Humility
boasts ones’ credibility for boasting.
Humility
may be an accurate assessment of your ability to take on the alpha male. Behave submissively and you won’t accidently
be seen as a threat and beaten up.
Women
build their husband’s self-confidence by playing ignorant.
GSR
shows we realize a voice is ours even when we don’t
When
they fail on a task it gets worse.
Humiliations
are remembered for ever. Darwin got
busted bragging when he was young.
Strong,
yet sensitive:
Modern
society is permeated with myths about how good we are. Teachers care about students; we’re all law
abiding altruists.
Subjects
who deliver shocks to people tend to derogate them. That is unless they are told the reverse will happen.
You
may find reasons to why you cheated someone.
Still you’ll claim to be a good person.
When
walk is flashed to the right side of the brain, subjects get up. When asked why, they make stuff up.
When
shown disturbing images they may lash out at investigators.
Language
is merely the “press agent” for other parts of the mind.
An
organ of impression management.
The
feeling of being “consciously” in control may also be an illusion too. Neural
impulse then the reason.
We
believe in free-will because we feel it to be so.
Dubious
Accounting:
Central
to reciprocal altruism is the monitoring of exchanges, who owes what to whom.
Darwin
selectively remembered debts of an intellectual sort. He put his grandfather in a footnote and spoke disparagingly of
him.
Wars
routinely involve a deep and sure sense of grievance on both sides.
Was
there ever a culture where people in arguments about conflicts didn’t think
they were right and the other wrong?
Axelrod’s
Tit for tat didn’t cheat people. But
there is a range in which people bargain and they both need to feel like
winners.
Convince
people that you cannot move without great sacrifice and then say they won in
the bargaining.
The
brain is a machine that convinces the owner that he is right.
People
remember arguments that support their view and forget arguments that don’t.
Friendship
and Collective Dishonesty:
People
took part in a team effort. If told it
was a success, they said they had a big role in it. If told it was a failure…
Huxley
and Hooker were Darwin’s allies. They
told him stories that would seem to leave him in their debt.
We
increase the stated contributions of others if they have high status.
Being
a person’s true friend means endorsing the untruths he holds dearest.
You’re
also supposed to adopt your friend’s enemies as your own.
We
convincingly say bad things about others (we must believe it to make it
believable) .
We
feel grateful to those that help us. We
begrudge those who harm us and grudges can expand into networks or people that
don’t like each other.
Interest
Groups:
Friendships
also rest on common interests. People agree about who should lead a tribe, how meat
should be divided. An affinity of
common interests.
Both
scholars may feel tired of being ignored or attacked by the academic
establishment.
CH
14 – DARWIN’S TRIUMPH
D
was buried in Westminister Abbey, not far from Isaac Newton, Alpha-male
territory.
D’s
humility was tactical. Carlyle was
probably right to say that hero worship is an essential part of human
nature. And it probably isn’t a
coincidence that it grows when people are beginning social competition in
earnest.
He
had a life of strategic alliances. At
Cambridge, he was known as “the man who walks with Henslow”. He reverenced those above him who could do
him favors. When they were below him he
wasn’t as hot on them.
When
he got his first reputable praise he said, “that a man who dares to waste one
hour of time, has not discovered the value of life.”
Loving
Lyell:
Once
D had endorsed Lyell’s view of geology, both men’s status would rise or fall
with its fortunes.
Darwin
said of him “You cannot imagine how good-naturedly he entered into all my
plans. What a nice man!”
We
tend to like people we can influence and we like them even more if they have
high status.. We don’t think it
out. Natural selection has done the
thinking for us!
Darwin’s
Delay Revisited.
D
was drawn towards fame, but afraid of infamy.
A
good or whole part of a person’s mental activity consists in imagined
communication to audiences imagined or real.
This has a great effect on what you recall.
During
the barnacle detour Darwin strengthened his argument.
Also,
credibility increases with prestige. He
was a well respected expert on barnacles.
And
he marshaled potential social support.
The
vexation hit on June 18th 1858 Wallace sent D his letter.
The
biochemical reaction was a trigger to action.
The old trigger was threat to status.
He
said he would rather burn his book than have someone think he stole it. He fretted about competition and had his
friends introduce both papers together the next day without asking Wallaces’
permission.
Loyalty
brings resources that can be called upon.
Postgame
analysis:
His
conscience bent just a little at the right time when his posterity needed a
moral lapse.
Conscience
is a savings account in which moral reputation is stored..
Ch
15- Darwinian(and Freudian) cynicism
We
are all self-promoters and social climbers.
Our generosity and affection have a purpose. They’re aimed either at kin, who share our genes, at nonkin of
the opposite sex who can help package our genes for us.
Or at non kin of either sex who seem likely
to return the favor. What’s more , the
favor often entails dishonesty or malice;
we do our friends the favor of overlooking their flaws, and seeing (if
not magnifying) the flaws of their enemies.
Affection is a tool of hostility.
We form bonds to deepen fissures.
In our friendships, we’re deeply
inegalitarian. We value especially the
affection of high-status people, and are willing to pay more for it. Fondness wanes if status slips.
Neither D or Freuds cycnicism is
bitter, because both view man as a victim of their subconscious (not
intentionally bad). Worthy of
compassion as well as subterfuge.
Freud thought of himself as a
Darwinian. But he said many things that
sound nonsensical to today’s Darwinians
“thanatos”
“penis envy” The Oedipal complex. Genes
that encourage any of these things wouldn’t spread. The son and father are fighting over the mother’s time. And it is in the siblings interest to delay
the second child (by extended breast feeding).
Attention, not sex is what they fight over.
[People
fight for status to help their children.
But I’m not going to have any.
So why try]
Darwin’s
knobs and tunings:
The
knobs are: love, lust, compation, reverence, ambition, anger, fear, pangs of
conscience, of guilt of obligation, of shame and more all towards one goal.
What
turns the knobs? Cues in the
environment that are likely to get the genes spread.
The
situation and the liabilities.
One
condition that may resist comprehension
because psychologists deem it unnatural is insecurity.
Those
who couldn’t make it to the top through brute force have used reciprocal
altruism-
That
is a sensitive, painful conscience and chronic fear of being unliked.
Children
to whom status doesn’t come naturally may work harder to become rich sources of
information.
We
will come to learn how these things are linked to the degree and nature of
parental love, the number of parents, early romantic encounters, friends
enemies.
Freud
used Darwin in proving repression. But
humiliations are more remembered, not buried.
We
also remember grievances and forget facts inconsistent with our theories.
The
best of Freud:
What
is good is his playing off of our being social and yet libidinous. The superego does inhibit the id.
We
may repress the memory of a friends transgression, especially if they are
valuable to us. But it may resurface if
their status plummets.
The
postmodern mind:
The
commonsense way of thinking about the relation between our thoughts and
feelings, on the one hand, and our pursuit of goals, on the other, is not just
wrong, but backward.
“we”
decide who is nice and then befriend them.
“we” figure outwho is wrong and oppose them. “we” decide who is
upstanding and applaud them. “we”
figure out what is true and abide by it.
What
is in our genes interests is what seems “right”. For Darwin moral discourse, political discourse, academic
discourse come down to raw power struggles.
And the truth isn’t always the winner.
Critical
legal studies takes this view. Human
communications as “discourses of power”
Ironic
self consciousness is the order of the day.
Cutting edge talk shows are massively self-referential. Jokes about cue cards written on cue cards.
Architecture
is now about architecture.
The
modern mood is absurd, and mocking, but playfully.
CH
– 16 EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS
If
we were in other species (bees for example) our morals would be totally
different.
All
morals (sympathy , empathy, compassion, conscience, guilt remorse, even
justice, can be seen as vestiges of organic history on a particular planet.
And
we, unlike D, can’t take solice in the belief that these things evolved for the
greater good. Our intuitions about what
is right and wrong are weapons. A moral
code is a political compromise.
Doomed
rivals:
Darwin
saw the voluminous pain in the world as working against religious belief. Proof is that a cat should play with mice.
The
ethic of Darwin and Mill:
They
tried to save morality with utilitarianism.
The
author backs it.
Natural
selection “wants” us to believe that our individual happiness is
special.Organisms act as if their happiness was more important than others
(unless they can spread our genes).
In
1788, Darwin’s maternal grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood, made hundreds of anti
slavery medallions showing a black man in chains under the words “Am I not a man and a brother?”
This
was in line with utilitarianism. Darwin, apparently, didn’t worry too much
about the clash of ethics and his theory.
If nature was cruel, so much the worse for nature.
Darwinism
and Brotherly Love:
“Selfishness
seldom presents itself to us in the naked form, belonging, as we do , to the
only species that justifies the actions morally. That illusion is now harder to buy.
But
it shows us that we are wrong when we say, he deserves to be treated
coldly. It doesn’t mean that
retribution is bad. Just the reason
we’ve been thinking of it as good are open to question. The aura of reverence around the impulse is
gone. It isn’t due to a higher ethereal
truth. It too is selfish.
Couldn’t
we then discount all love, even the love of family?
Actually,
the opposite is the effect. We see that
what feels good is the best thing to do genetically. Love actually makes the sacrifice feel good. Thus magnifying total happiness all the
more.
Engaging
the enemy:
Huxley
said that ethical progress doesn’t depend on imitating the cosmic process, but
running away from it, in combating it.
The
moral feeling of “rightness” is something natural selection created so that
people would employ it selfishly. Morality, you could almost say, was designed
to be misused by its own definition.
CH
17 – BLAMING THE VICTIM
Brotherly
love is great in theory. But
unconditional compassion without harming anyone is undoable.
But
once you see the forces that govern behavior it’s harder to blame the behavior.
Businessmen
can’t help but exploit, but neither can criminals. Genetic determinism is no less unpalatable than “cultural
determinism”
Darwin’s
diagnosis:
Because
men cannot analyse his motives, they think they have none (darwins response to
determinism)
He
saw that determinism takes away culpability and threatens morality. But he said that wouldn’t do harm because
only a few intellectuals considered such things.
The
masses are now infected.
Neuropharmacology
is telling us that we are all machines.
We
are pushed by what we don’t understand.
A
young inner-city thug is pursuing status by the path of least resistance. The motives are the same ones that have made
you who you are. Just as subtle.
[there
but for the grace of god. No but for
the grace of me. Are we, Jews, just
reinforced examples of a successful genetic proliferation model in culture?]
Women
have used the premenstrual syndrome as a legal defense. High testosterone made me do it. Action Addiction is due to endorphins that
the killer craves.
Defense
lawyers are making a great job of it.
Two
strategies emerge to combat this:
1)
The
criminal still has free will. Cause if
he doesn’t, none of us do. And we do. Don’t We?!
2)
The
second is complete surrender. No one
deserves blame or credit for anything.
None
of our hatred and revulsions or wars are fought for an intellectual foundation.
That is just in service of a practical foundation.
Darwin’s
Prescription:
Punish
criminals solely as a deterent. It
isn’t due to evil or wrong or right.
If
we get rid of volition we can still use utilitarianism, or we can artificially
restore it.
Jurors
will still mete out punishment vaguely due to a feeling of justice.
Thoroughly
Postmodern Morality:
Axelrod
finds that people don’t only dissaprove
of criminals, but those who don’t disapprove of criminals.
We
needen’t worry about creeping determinism muting a victim’s rage. But we could come to accept that
philandering is natural.
Life
– becomes a movie that we watch with bemused detachment. It is like robots bumping into eachother.
The
paradox is that there is no intellectual grounding for blame, but a practical
need for it.
On
the one hand, you don’t want to encourage divorce, on the other hand, you don’t
want people to blame themselves for their failed marriages.
Mill
as a puritan:
Morality
makes us mindful of the welfare of people other than family and friends to the
betterment of all society. It is the
cheapest and least creepy way to get this accomplished.
A
person who shows rashness, obstinancy, self-conceit must expect to be lowered
in the opinions of others.
Darwinism
and ideology:
By
showing that moral codes aren’t naturally deployed, it suggests a strong moral
code may be needed.
Determinism
highlights the urgency of erasing the social conditions, such as poverty that
lead to punishable behavior.
CH
18 – DARWIN GETS RELIGION
Having
lost his Christian faith he held to a vague theirsm.
But
he always had the austerity of an evangelist.
The
theme of strict self-governance, the control of animal appetites appear again
and again in religions.
Jesus,
Lao-tzu and Hinduism all went for brotherly love.
Religions
give us hope and control us.
Religions
have a harmony with the brain, but that doesn’t mean their good for them. Some ideas are parasitic to the brain. Dawkins calls them “viruses”
Besides
if an idea does serve long term needs of a people, it could be the needs of the
buyer, not the seller. Religious
leaders have high status.
Demons:
Jesus
said if you look at a woman with lust in your heart , you have committed
adultery.
Drug
dealers know that just a little temptation will lead to downfall.
When
Buddha tells us dig up the root of thirst, he sometimes puts it in battle
terms.
They
all tell of leaving the things of this earth behind.
The
idea of the sages are a call to mutiny against the creator.
Sensual
pleasures are the whip that natural selection uses to control us.
There
is a more cynical explanation than rising above, such philosophies help
reconcile people to their plight.
Material pleasures aren’t fun anyways.
Jesus said in the afterlife, The first shall be the last and the last,
first.
The
sages have been right on about the moral bias towards self.
We
do not view non-kin with the same charity we view kin.
Theories
of brotherly love:
We
long ago got in the habit of justifying our actions. But, says singer, it now takes on a logic of its own and extends
beyond the bounds of the group.
The
most cynical explaination for the 10 comandments is that they made the flock
easier to control. But this code pays
off for the sheep too.
These
codes are pre judicial system. The
retributive thing runs deep.
Urban
civilizations get more into curbing desire.
The
benefit of leaders stoking intolerance against others is no more.
Today’s
sermonette.
A
saint is someone who understands that everything he does is egotistical “martin
Luther”
Suspicion
towards your motives is the first step towards correcting moral bias.
The
second is to keep cynicism from poisoning your view. Pair harshness towards self with leniency toward others; relax
the ruthless judgment that often renders us conveniently indifferent to and
hostile to others.
Another
thing that Martin Luther said was that chronic moral torment is a sign of god’s
grace.
Some
worry that Darwinian will strip us of all nobility. One antidote is to be more moral than natural selection
requires. This rescues free will.
The
second is gratitude. What if natural
selection inclined us to not have
sympathy or love.