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Quotes from The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve — Steve Stewart-Williams

born 1971 New Zealand

← All quotes by Steve Stewart-Williams

26 quotes

Rather than the human brain evolving for God, God evolved for the human brain.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

We’re clusters of chemical reactions that contemplate deep truths about the nature of reality.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Nature isn’t just a bloodbath; it’s also a vast, unending orgy.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

By clamping down on male aggression, culture may make the sex difference in aggression smaller than it would otherwise have been.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Jane Goodall once wrote about a female chimpanzee who mated with more than fifty males in a single day. This is uncommon among human beings, even in LA.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

As a result of cumulative culture, we have ideas in our heads that are orders of magnitude smarter than we are.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Humans are chimpanzees reciting Shakespeare – dunces with the technology of geniuses.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Humans are as dependent on culture as we are on oxygen; without it, we’re as naked and vulnerable as a crab without a shell.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Even in the age of science, we understand the motions of the distant, ancient stars better than we understand the organism observing them: ourselves.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Does female orgasm have an evolutionary function? Ironically, scientists have yet to come to a satisfying conclusion about this matter.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Psychology has made a lot less progress than it could have because too many psychologists know too little about other animals.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

The evolutionary explanation for the peacock’s tail has an interesting implication, namely that the mind of one sex can help shape the body of the other.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Contrary to stubborn anthropological myth, people everywhere fall in love... the idea that romantic love is an invention of Western culture is itself an invention of Western culture.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

This is the irritating reality of the human condition: Whatever we do, we’re left with unfulfilled desires. Human beings are chronically conflicted animals. And that’s because that’s what selection made us.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

It’s often a good idea to adopt the practices and beliefs of the people around you. For one thing, the people around you aren’t dead. If you do what they do – eat what they eat; avoid the dark alleys they avoid – you might continue not being dead as well.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

A well-designed parental male will tend to end up investing in his own offspring, rather than the offspring of his good-looking next- door neighbor. And one way to help ensure that this happens is to be easily moved to jealousy.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Why would natural selection give men the physical equipment needed for violence but not the psychological machinery to operate it? This would make about as much sense as giving us teeth and a digestive system, but not a desire to eat.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

The Nurture Only theory asks us to believe not only that selection eliminated the [sex] differences for reasons unknown, but that learning and culture then coincidentally reproduced exactly the same differences in every culture on record. This is not a compelling thesis.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

The starting point for evolutionary psychology is the idea that human beings are animals, and that like all animals, we’re products of natural selection. This is true of our bodies, but it’s also true of our minds.

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

The year 1838 represents an important milestone for the planet Earth. For this was the year in which a tiny fragment of the Earth – a fragment known as Charles Darwin – answered an ancient and bewildering question: Why are we here?

The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Steve Stewart-Williams (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.