Today's review book - "Mythical Animals", from American writer Robert Wright.
"Mythical Animals" is a classic work of evolutionary psychology after " species origin " and "selfish genes". Author Robert Wright uses the life experience of Darwin as a case, using evolutionary psychology to solve human emotional, moral and responsible dilemmas, prompting us to rethink basic human nature and moral codes, and change the way we think and feel life.
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" Moral Animals"
Author: Robert Wright
Translator: Yin Rong
Version: CITIC Publishing Group July 2022
Robert Wright, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Princeton University, and one of the 100 influential thinkers in the world selected by the magazine Foreign Policy in 2009. The contributor to magazines such as " Atlantic Monthly ", "New Yorker", and "Time", has won many American National Journal Awards on science, technology and philosophy. His main works include "The Evolution of God" (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize ), "Three Scientists and Their Gods: Finding Meaning in the Information Age" (nominated for the American Book Critics Association Award), "My Ecological Animals" ( New York Times Best Book of the Year), "Non-zero Sum: The Logic of Human Destiny" (one of the "75 Books of Wisdom" selected by Fortune Magazine), and "Insight" (one of the "Top Ten Influential Good Books" for readers of the Year 2020).
Reviewer 001 Yang Jianqing
Moral animal, or the morality of animals?
What is a moral animal? The title of Professor Robert Wright's book refers to is obvious: it is our human species. As an evolutionary psychologist, the book is mainly based on the research results of Darwin's era and evolutionary psychology. It explains the psychological differences between men and women, individual emotional motivations, and moral choices, etc. around Darwin's era background and Darwin's personal life (focusing on marriage life and research on the research on the evolutionary theory ). In the past, when discussing the psychological differences between the two genders simply from the perspective of psychology and sociology, it was easy to be labeled as racism and feminism. Even if researchers conduct scientific research such as sample surveys and data analysis, it is difficult to obtain a fair "coat".
Except for a very small number of social stages and very few social systems (such as matriarchal society), in the long history of hunter-gathering society, agricultural society to industrial society, it is a general consensus that women are on the weaker side among both genders. As the author said, under the historical context of male power in the political field, this asymmetry runs through all aspects. Because of this, if we analyze the psychological differences behind this fact from the perspective of biological evolution , and not simply speculate on the other party's psychology from the perspective of men or women from their respective positions, then evolutionary psychology is one of the effective theoretical means to eliminate the possible arrogance and prejudice of gender analysis, and has a high degree of fairness and objectivity. As the author said, there are currently no better other theories that allow evolutionary theories to fall into the dust of history. After reading this book, I have shared some superficial feelings.
1. The tendency of human nature is constantly changing with the survival of the fittest.
It is obvious that the academic consensus among evolutionary psychologists is that the most important feature that distinguishes humans from other species with more than 99% of their genes is human emotions and morality. This is also the reason why the author adds the prefix of morality to the noun of animals. The human characteristics of gratitude, shame, regret, pride, resentment, sense of honor, empathy and love discussed in the book are formed by the human species under the influence of individual genes to maintain their own survival and reproduction interests and environmental pressure. The reason why we have these moral emotions is not obtained overnight.Evolution is not the same as genetic determinism, but evolutionary psychology points out the original motivation of some of our psychology, even though we cannot perceive and feel its existence. The psychological differences between men and women, such as being active and passionate, and women, as well as the current marriage system, are not the most ideal systems for both genders, are all external manifestations of genetic efforts to make themselves prosperous. To realize this, it is much more difficult than accepting the concept of a vulgar dichotomy like the Virgin Mary-Slut.
The history of human morality is closely related to the formation of language and characters, but this civilization generation was too short in the long history of human evolution before the formation of language and characters, so the primitive power of animal nature is far greater than that of civilized society that affects individuals. As stated in the book, "Sweet preference comes from a living environment where only fruits but no candy, and now addiction to sweets can bring about obesity." Because of this, morality needs to be engraved into DNA to form memories, and there are still too many long years to go. In other words, animal nature must be able to fully match the current civilized society and avoid fierce conflicts between the two. Can civilized society reduce the manifestation of our "immoral" human nature? New evolution may have just begun.
2. The key to understanding human nature is not about good or evil, but about profound complexity.
All human orientations are included in each individual, regardless of gender, culture, or environment, because "evolution has no clear direction", and "morality has huge diversity". Regardless of the "hungry and food" reflected in the short-term mate selection strategy, whether a man becomes a rogue or a kind father, or whether a woman is shy or unrestrained, these traits "can't monopolize the evolutionary strategy." As mentioned in the book, genes with a single personality type will lose to those genes that make people's personality less solidified. Everyone’s human nature is all-encompassing. The understanding of human nature should not be limited to the judgment of good and evil, right and wrong, but should not solidify cognition and set limits on one’s own. It should avoid rejecting and rejecting all possibilities of human nature, and avoid singularizing and absoluting human nature (morality). From the perspective of survival of the fittest, survival and reproduction are the core interests of the genes, and the survival of the weak is one of the important laws of life and ecosystems. Evolutionary psychology is to avoid simply placing it with moral evaluation of good or bad. Of course, we cannot fall into or even pursue social Darwinism . Although the gene has its "selfishness", it will still be expressed in love, sympathy and compassion among parents, family brothers, and even those without blood relationships. These essences constitute the profound and inextricable complexity of human nature.
Another thing to note is that although human nature is influenced by long-term genetic evolution and environmental influences, it is ultimately expressed with the current immediacy. If human nature (morality) must be evaluated, I personally believe that immediacy is an important factor that cannot be ignored---although the book "Moral Animal" does not discuss the issue of moral timeliness. A good person who is timid may do something heinous of sins, and a bad person who is full of evil will also do good deeds to save sentient beings. All of this depends on the current behavior. Good and evil must be someone’s current and immediate good and evil, not someone’s long-term and eternal good and evil.
3. Grasp the whole, care about individuals, don’t forget the source, and look to the future
Looking at this book, we explain some of the innate psychology and human nature from genes and species evolution , which does provide some theories for us to understand the various behavioral motivations of human beings. But importantly, these behavioral motivations are just a possibility of existence, and as the author says, they do not carry natural moral values judgments. Evolutionary psychology and this book focus on the topics of gender and marriage, which is also a realistic and personal discussion for everyone at present. The purpose of choosing a mate between the two genders must be based on biological attribute factors based on long-term genetic selection and psychological evolution. However, with the influence of social development and civilization, the purpose of choosing a mate today has more considerations from social attributes.Although human ancestors may only pay attention to food, their essence is no different from the wealth, status, power, etc. that humans focus on today. Each of our lives is the "current" end point of the evolution of billions of years of life, but at the same time it is the "immediate" starting point of the evolution of life in the future billions of years. Life evolves into male and female sex, and love is the most wonderful gift that life gives us. Although the book "Mythical Animals" never supports cultural determinism, there is no doubt that the problems of low marriage rates, high divorce rates and low fertility rates have become unavoidable problems in our era, and also reflects the impact of the current social and cultural environment on our rapid psychological transformation, which far exceeds the speed of life evolution. Perhaps the only thing we can do is to think about how to better grasp this life, which is more practical than whether we have mastered the sword of destiny that dominates the "moral animal".
Of course we know that what makes us happy will also make us feel pain, but we should still feel and love, dare to pursue happiness, and dare to endure pain. The most important inspiration that the last chapter of the book gives me is that in terms of love and marriage choices, and in judging a person's moral possibilities, there may be two more important aspects: a person's ability to reflect on himself and self-control. These two abilities are also a means of salvation for us to get rid of genes' innate control over us. Introspection requires us not to stop comprehension and thinking, and to be open and inclusive, which is itself the logic of genes and life evolution; and self-control requires our acquired "morality" to be able to actively fight the innate "animality", which is exactly the characteristic that distinguishes humans from other species. As the end of this book says, evolution is just a cruel logic, but human morality is a miracle worthy of our gratitude. If we can follow the guidance of our deepest conscience, perhaps it is easy to be depressed to have a little more meaning.
The only thing that needs to be discussed is that too many of the four chapters of the book take Darwin's own life trajectory as an example, which is somewhat biased. Although Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, it does not mean that his own case will definitely verify all the views of the theory of evolution. However, this book still forcibly believes that the theory of evolution clearly answers to the sentiments, character and behaviors that Darwin showed in various periods of his life, and it seems that he is forced to be called Darwin as a person who is united in knowledge and action. Personally, I think evolutionary psychology should be a macro- and long-term theory, and it should not be used to judge a certain behavior in a certain period.
Reading Rating: 8.2 points (out of 10 points)
Reviewer 002 Trickmin
The ultimate problem of human beings
is not a certain theory that can be solved by
0 The book "Mythical Animals" written by American writer Robert Wright. If this book is a biography, it is a unique biography. Although this book takes Darwin's works and life as a context, it is not limited to Darwin's life. It annotates and analyzes Darwin's works in many aspects, analyzes the evolutionary origin of monogamy in an easy-to-understand way, and discusses the brotherhood and parents' preference for children in a biological way, brings readers to the Victorian era, examines Darwin's new theory of evolution, thinks about the origin of man and the origin of modern morality, and where does man evolve?
This book has profound insights and discussions, which reminds me of the main Southern Tang , "The fragrance of the lotus is gone and the green leaves are gone, and the west wind is sad and the green waves are rising." Wang Guowei uses these two sentences to draw out the "inspiration" problem of literature. This book thinks about the moral concept of the Victorian era, which involves the breadth of content and the deep vibration generated, which arouses readers' thinking, and enters the "land of selflessness" of Wang Guowei's "Human Cihua". It can be said to be a classic work and a perfect work. It gives this book a full score of 10 points.
The beginning of this book introduces the social and cultural environment of the Victorian era. It analyzes men and women from a psychological and economic perspective, and points out that polygamy is in line with the interests of men and is born in totalitarian society, but for low-income men, it is unfair and has great destructive power to society. In order to avoid turmoil and rationally choose monogamy and form a system.
Darwin's Victorian era in which he lived, monogamy was legally stipulated, which made Darwin wander between getting married and not getting married. In the end, he chose to get married because he was afraid of loneliness after he was old. Darwin, a father, was sad and sad for losing his young daughter. He had ordinary people's joys, anger, sorrow and happiness, which made readers feel that Darwin was one of the many people, and there were also imperfections, laying the groundwork for asking the following text "What kind of animal is he!"
When analyzing Darwin's theory, this book fully demonstrates the evil of human nature and thoroughly analyzes the altruistic reciprocity due to kinship. Compared with the people around you, a person suffers unfair encounters for a long time, and his damage is huge. In evolution, society should pay attention to the individual's interests not being violated, guarantee its rights and interests institutionally, avoid launching wars for social status, and letting society move onto a benign track, which is the result of human natural selection.
The end of this book compares the Neo-Darwinian doctrine with other doctrines. It has a unique style and is full of wisdom. It allows readers to think while enjoying knowledge and realize that no doctrine is perfect and has its limitations. The ultimate problem faced by human beings in development cannot be solved by any doctrine.
Reading Rating: 10 points (out of 10 points)
Comprehensive Opinions
Comprehensive Reviewer's Opinions, "Mythical Animals" received a 9.1 point (out of 10 points). Robert Wright provides a possible explanation for the motivation of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective in this book. The clever thing about this book is that it uses a large number of Darwin's own life examples as arguments. Celebrity trivial matters often attract readers to read more than boring arguments. The disadvantages are also as the reviewers pointed out. The lack of universal arguments will make the reasoning lose its strength.
How do you think of this book? What do you think of the jury’s opinion? Welcome to leave your encouragement and criticism in the message area!
Author/Reviewer
Editing/Li Yongbo Qingqingzi
Proofreading/Liu Baoqing
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