Comments on: Book review – The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us More and Less Violent

By: Book review – Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 16:53:39 +0000

[…] complicated and lies somewhere in the middle. Although he draws different conclusions, he channels Richard Wrangham when he distinguishes between two kinds of violence: “violence is almost certainly deeply […]

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By: Book review – Natural: The Seductive Myth of Nature’s Goodness | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 16:10:18 +0000

[…] pointed out our starry-eyed romanticizing of native cultures by thinking of them as peaceful and non-violent, or as the “first environmentalists” living in pristine rainforests that doubled up as […]

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By: Book review – Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 14:05:33 +0000

[…] And although he agrees with Steven Pinker (see The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined) that violence has declined in recent times, he disagrees with the idea that we have always been chronically prone to war. Nor are we natural pacifists. The truth, as usual, is more complicated and lies somewhere in the middle. Although he draws different conclusions, he channels Richard Wrangham when he distinguishes between two kinds of violence: “violence is almost certainly deeply entrenched in human nature; warfare, not so much” (see also my review of The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us Both More and Less Violent). […]

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By: Book review – Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Teach Us about Ourselves | The Inquisitive Biologist

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:56:52 +0000

[…] than a peaceful species (see Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, my review of The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us Both More and Less Violent, and The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined). As I also mentioned in my review […]

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By: Book review – The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 07 May 2019 13:11:39 +0000

[…] of the “peace at home”, “war abroad” dichotomy that characterises humans (see my review of The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us Both More and Less Violent) as he considers our history of conflict. Although violence does not mark all interactions between […]

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By: Book review – The Cradle of Humanity: How the Changing Landscape of Africa Made Us So Smart | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 11:27:35 +0000

[…] There are two other topics that Maslin shortly tackles in the last two chapters. The first is our large brain. Why? Why such a large brain? It is energetically expensive and makes childbirth (quite literally) a pain. Here, too, there are many explanations, but Maslin sides with the camp that argues that larger brains helped us navigate living in large social groups. Language is, of course, an important part in this, and he shortly explores the various ideas that have been floated to explain its evolution. Similarly interesting is the idea of self-domestication: changing skull morphology during our evolution – away from heavy-browed skulls to lighter and flatter skulls – suggests a drop in testosterone levels, which would result in less violent behaviour and more social tolerance (see also my review of The Goodness Paradox: How Evolution Made Us Both More and Less Violent). […]

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