In The Beginning . . .

Filed under: Human Nature, Mind, Myth | 1 Comment

In the Beginning we were frightened, solitary, and nocturnal creatures. Then 50 million years ago, we drew together into groups, And left the dark of night to bask in the sunshine together. The fear of leaving (or being left) by one another Subdued the primal urge to fight or flee from one another Sufficiently for …

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The Evolution of Human Emotion

∾APE MIND • OLD MIND • NEW MIND: The Evolution of the Human Spirit∾ now on Amazon

Filed under: Human Nature, Justice, Mental illness, Myth, Self domestication, Sexual Selection, The Ascension of the Human Spirit, Two Mind Hypothesis

BACK COVER OF THE BOOK The Ascension of the Human Spirit (excerpt) The remarkable aspect of evolution by sexual selection, which Darwin so courageously proposed, is that it is driven merely by the desire for a trait, in this case the desire for justice. I had realized that sexual selection is not only driven by …

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The Deep Evolution of Social Emotion – 4: The Blind Alley of Political Alliances

Filed under: Dominance and Submission, Evolutionary psychology, Myth, The Deep Evolution of Emotion

For two decades, I was focused on the evolution of the strengthening of political alliances between dominant and submissive individuals seen in chimpanzees as the most likely cause of the powerful group bonding that I had from the very beginning determined was the hallmark of the hominid advantage. I had written so frequently about it …

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the fight-flight response

The Deep Evolution of Social Emotion – 3: The Emergence of Hierarchy

Filed under: Dominance and Submission, Evolutionary psychology, Myth, The Deep Evolution of Emotion

In the first two blog-posts of the “Deep Evolution of Emotion” series, the attractive force of sex arrives on earth to forge the mother-infant bond for the purpose of the protection of the mother’s genetic investment in her offspring.  The genes constructed for this purpose were “turned off” before entering the lonely struggle for adult …

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The Deep Evolution of Social Emotion: 2 – The Mother-Infant Bond

Filed under: Myth, The Deep Evolution of Emotion

Sex is intermittent with a beginning, middle and end. Sex first transformed into the continuous state of attachment in the mother-infant bond.  In this process, the sexuality of mating was toned down, stripped of its aspect of consummation, and, thereby, the pleasure of increasing closeness was “stretched out” in time into a constant “feeling state.”  …

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Briefly noted—Book Review of “Neuromania: On the Limits of Brain Science” by Paolo Legrenzi and Carlo Umiltà

Filed under: Belief, Myth

“They provide an insightful and comprehensive overview of methods and techniques from the origins of brain science to today’s MRI scanners. However, rather than emphasizing state-of-the-art procedures and technologies, they focus on the limitations of the field… …Because the question “what happens in the brain when…?” fits practically any aspect of human activity, fMRI has …

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How Can Marxism & Capitalism Help Us Understand the Ascension of Individual Dominance in Apes Into the Entity of Authority in Hominids?

Filed under: Evolution of Emotion, Evolutionary psychology, Group Selection, Myth, Self domestication

The premise in this blog is that, the event that initiated our hominid biological family was the ascendance of the will of individual apes to dominate each other into the entity of group justice in small monogamous hominid bands of 20-30 individuals. But what would drive such a unique natural process? There are two important …

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HUMAN NATURE WAS RENDERED EITHER BY GOD OR WAR CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER!

Filed under: Evolution of Emotion, Evolutionary psychology, God, Group Selection, Myth

In The Social Conquest of Earth, E. O. Wilson soft-pedals and sugarcoats the darkness of his vision of human nature so transparently expressed in his novel, Anthill, as similar to chronically warring colonies of ants – all our virtue derives from the cooperation necessary for groups to successfully wage war. In his ant myth of …

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A Liberal Theory of Human Nature - V: Upright Posture, Great Big Brains and Only One Hand Ax

The Hand Ax Mystery: Evidence for peaceful association between groups – an excerpt from the book

Filed under: Evolutionary psychology, Myth, Popular | 6 Comments

The next task of our Narrative is to resolve the paradox of the virtually static nature of the hand ax industry from Africa and across their vast Eurasian diaspora for 70,000 generations while, during the same time, there occurred an unprecedented growth in the brain.  I believe the solution to this riddle lies in considering …

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Wilson’s The Social Conquest of Earth (he knows ants – I know people)-1st of series

Filed under: Evolution of Emotion, Group Selection, Myth | 2 Comments

       I feel compelled to write on the momentous occasion E.O. Wilson’s newly released The Social Conquest of Earth.  Those few who know my thinking know that I have high regard for E.O.Wilson and that he has inspired me for many years.  I would point out a couple things though. Dr. Wilson knows ants.  …

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God FAQ’s – How God Created Man: #1 Myth vs. Belief & Setting Scene

Filed under: Belief, FAQ's about God, God, Myth | 2 Comments

Before proceeding on the FAQ series, we need to establish some definitions.  The word, “belief” has been hijacked by science to refer to theories that have been tested sufficiently to accept them temporarily until the next theory comes along.  Before serious science arrived in the 17th century, belief used to mean loyalty, like to a …

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E. O Wilson Throws Down the Challenge.

Filed under: Myth | 3 Comments

    My book, Apes, Ants, and Ancestors, is a response to this challenge by E. O. Wilson to draw a “new mythos” based on the “facts of evolution.”           For centuries the writ of empiricism has been spreading into the ancient domain of transcendentalist belief, slowly at the start but …

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