Suggested Readings: Evolutionary Psychology

The Moral Animal
By Robert Wright
ISBN: 0-679-76399-6

“This clever and stimulating book is destined to become a classic. . . . Like Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, it could well change the way people think and feel about their lives—perhaps even how they behave. . . . It is, into the bargain, an intellectual entertainment argued with wit and style.” —Economist

The Triple Helix
By Richard Lewontin
ISBN: 0-674-00159-1

“Lewontin is one of the great living biologists. With the scientific enterprise passing, it is said, from the age of physics into that of biology, his remarks on biology studies couldn’t be timelier.” —Booklist

The Origins of Virtue
By Matt Ridley
ISBN: 0-670-87449-3

“The evolution of altruism has been a topic of intense research for more than 20 years. While the biologically minded may still be a minority among social scientists, there are now enough of them to have produced a plethora of competing theories. Mr. Ridley is a distinguished British science journalist who proves an excellent guide to the current debate. Sometimes his eagerness to cover every angle means that different views are not always clearly distinguished, but he is never dull, and he illustrates the intricate logic of natural selection with many parables from ethology, anthropology and games theory.” —New York Times Book Review

Good Natured
By Frans de Waal
ISBN: 0-674-35660-8

“To observe a dog’s guilty look, to witness a gorilla’s self-sacrifice for a wounded mate, to watch an elephant herd’s communal effort on behalf of a stranded calf—to catch animals in certain acts is to wonder what moves them. Might there be a code of ethics in the animal kingdom? Must an animal be human to be humane? In this provocative book, a renowned scientist takes on those who have declared ethics uniquely human, showing that ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait.” —Ingrahm