The Ape that Understood the Universe · How the Mind and Culture Evolve by Stewart-Williams, Steve -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Half title Advance Praise for The Ape that Understood the Universe Title page Imprints page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments 1 The Alien’s Challenge

Meeting the Alien’s Challenge

2 Darwin Comes to Mind

Super Freaks The Greatest Idea Anyone Ever Had What Are People For? Darwin’s Sexy Idea The Inclusive Fitness Revolution The Gene’s-Eye View For the Good of the Group? Evolving Minds Leaving the Comfort Zone The Mating Mind Exiles from Eden A Fish Out of Water A Spandrel in the Works

3 The SeXX/XY Animal

An Academic Culture War The Evolution of Sex Differences Are People Peacocks or Penguins? Keeping It Casual Explaining the Casual Sex Gap Looking Good A Lust for Wealth and Status Mind over Matter A History of Violence Mothers and Others Enemies of the Truth

4 The Dating, Mating, Baby-Making Animal

The Conveyer Belt of Human Life Survival of the Prettiest Kissing Cousins Love and Its Discontents The Green-Eyed Monster And Baby Makes Three Listening to Cinderella Maximizing Returns on Parental Investment Not So Fast! What’s Our Natural Mating System?

5 The Altruistic Animal

The Trouble with Altruism Thicker than Water Family Man The Evolution of Mutual Back Scratching The Trading Animal Altruism as a Peacock’s Tail The Groupish Animal Is Altruism Just Disguised Self-Interest?

6 The Cultural Animal

A Virus in the Letterbox Selection beyond Biology

1. Breton Boats 2. Conditioned Behavior 3. Language 4. Teddy Bears 5. Businesses 6. Science

The Ratchet Effect Adaptive Culture Cultural Group Selection The Selfish Meme The Meme-ing of Life The Human Mind as the Ecology of Memes Memetic Adaptations and Meme Machines Gene–Meme Coevolution I: Sculpting the Body Gene–Meme Coevolution II: Sculpting the Mind Survival of the Weakest? The Future is Unwritten

Appendices

Permissions Notes

Chapter 1: The Alien’s Challenge Chapter 2: Darwin Comes to Mind Chapter 3: The SeXX/XY Animal Chapter 4: The Dating, Mating, Baby-Making Animal Chapter 5: The Altruistic Animal Chapter 6: The Cultural Animal Appendix A: How to Win an Argument with a Blank Slater Appendix B: How to Win an Argument with an Anti-Memeticist

References Index