Hey Colin! Awesome list! I just realized this year how capturing Evolutionary Psychology is, and I am just in the middle of “The Ape that understood the universe” by Steve Stewart- Williams, awesome comprehending and easy book to read. I would love to have a list of books that easy to read but also have great learning! Thanks!
I remember, even biology majors, who seemed biophobic with regard to the aspects of life pertaining to procreation, not the sex part, just the maternity part.
To think oneself out of an irrational fear that a natural aspect of life is somehow bad for the rest of the natural world, I recommend "A Mind of Her Own", by Anne Campbell. I am surprised you did not recommend it because she starts out from the first paragraph rebutting biophobic gender ideology. Most of what is on this reading list, many of your fans would have already read. I even wrote an essay about a partial reading of the Stephen Jay Gould essays. That was required reading for me in college English. Yes, that seems odd. I went to a public Richard Dawkins lecture with my dad and brother, so I have read some of his work, as well as that of Stephen Pinker. I have learned from all of these amazing scientific thinkers. One more I find pertinent to some timely contentious cultural issues is Griet Vandermassen's "Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin", too. I love this topic and think all of this and more is absolutely essential in today's crazy climate.
I also used to be a member of Florida Public Interest Research Group and some group meetings skirted awfully close to advocating for eco-terrorism. I feel that some things that spontaneously occur, such as a rare desire to throw a brick through the window of the headquarters of a company whose product killed a loved one or become the opposite sex, are being promulgated as forms of ecological activism or, perhaps, terrorism. In other words, many environmentalists believe that overpopulation is the greatest threat to the environment and fail to assimilate multiple values, principles, loyalties, etc.
They, environmentalists and some feminists, simply become hostile to the notion of procreation in a similar way as many feminists, including, oddly, pro-porn ones. I have observed a seemingly unconscious biophobic attitude toward motherhood and also activities that are not even necessarily sex-linked, just because they associate those activities with domesticity and voiceless exclusion from participation in the public sphere.
It takes a former one, to know one. Since learning and observing my way out of that mess, however late in life, I see this clearly.
I am a biology major and a physician, but have not made evolution or, for that matter, creationism the main focus of my education. I wonder how much anyone has looked at the medical evidence of evolution in the search for truth.
A simple view of evolution is based on the fact that life that survives can reproduce. It’s impossible to contradict that. Evolution has its biggest effect up to the end of fecundity. After the fertile period, lethal effects multiply, but evolution does affect later life. This shows most clearly in multi-generational offspring-supporting species like humans. Living parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc, contribute to the survival and education of their descendants. I am familiar with the proposal that homosexual uncles and aunts contribute to the survival of nephews and nieces due to their usual lack of duties to their own offspring, thus contributing to the survival of their own genes. That’s interesting and intuitive thinking as is most evolutionary thought.
I believe evolution may be one of God’s greatest creations. No offense Dr. Wright
DNA wasn’t known to Darwin. Or, his followers. DNA is the unliving code by which all matter is created. It therefore had to be first. What created it? How did that occur? Add to this list of readings to get a fuller and far more up to date scientific explanation of life. Steven Myers’ Darwin’s Doubt and Michael Behe’s Darwin Devolves and Darwin’s Black Box.
I teach several chapters of "The Selfish Gene" in my intro to Evolutionary Biology course. Dawkins is such a great communicator -- too bad he has to turn off 2/3 of his potential audience with troll-tier titles like "The God Delusion"
I am a biology major and a physician, but have not made evolution or, for that matter, creationism the main focus of my education. I wonder how much anyone has looked at the medical evidence of evolution in the search for truth.
A simple view of evolution is based on the fact that life that survives can reproduce. It’s impossible to contradict that. Evolution has its biggest effect up to the end of fecundity. After the fertile period, lethal effects multiply, but evolution does affect later life. This shows most clearly in multi-generational offspring-supporting species like humans. Living parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc, contribute to the survival and education of their descendants. I am familiar with the proposal that homosexual uncles and aunts contribute to the survival of nephews and nieces due to their usual lack of duties to their own offspring, thus contributing to the survival of their genes. That’s interesting and intuitive thinking as is most evolutionary thought.
I believe evolution may be one of God’s greatest creations. No offense, Dr. Wright.
I would love a guide to books for a non biologist.
Great list. I would add Dawkins’s The Extended Phenotype, an excellent “sequel” to The Selfish Gene.
“Darwinism's Struggle for Survival” by Jean Gaylon is an excellent history of evolutionary thought.
Great post. What were Stephen Jay Gould’s politics? I don’t recall learning about that
Hey Colin! Awesome list! I just realized this year how capturing Evolutionary Psychology is, and I am just in the middle of “The Ape that understood the universe” by Steve Stewart- Williams, awesome comprehending and easy book to read. I would love to have a list of books that easy to read but also have great learning! Thanks!
I remember, even biology majors, who seemed biophobic with regard to the aspects of life pertaining to procreation, not the sex part, just the maternity part.
To think oneself out of an irrational fear that a natural aspect of life is somehow bad for the rest of the natural world, I recommend "A Mind of Her Own", by Anne Campbell. I am surprised you did not recommend it because she starts out from the first paragraph rebutting biophobic gender ideology. Most of what is on this reading list, many of your fans would have already read. I even wrote an essay about a partial reading of the Stephen Jay Gould essays. That was required reading for me in college English. Yes, that seems odd. I went to a public Richard Dawkins lecture with my dad and brother, so I have read some of his work, as well as that of Stephen Pinker. I have learned from all of these amazing scientific thinkers. One more I find pertinent to some timely contentious cultural issues is Griet Vandermassen's "Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin", too. I love this topic and think all of this and more is absolutely essential in today's crazy climate.
I also used to be a member of Florida Public Interest Research Group and some group meetings skirted awfully close to advocating for eco-terrorism. I feel that some things that spontaneously occur, such as a rare desire to throw a brick through the window of the headquarters of a company whose product killed a loved one or become the opposite sex, are being promulgated as forms of ecological activism or, perhaps, terrorism. In other words, many environmentalists believe that overpopulation is the greatest threat to the environment and fail to assimilate multiple values, principles, loyalties, etc.
They, environmentalists and some feminists, simply become hostile to the notion of procreation in a similar way as many feminists, including, oddly, pro-porn ones. I have observed a seemingly unconscious biophobic attitude toward motherhood and also activities that are not even necessarily sex-linked, just because they associate those activities with domesticity and voiceless exclusion from participation in the public sphere.
It takes a former one, to know one. Since learning and observing my way out of that mess, however late in life, I see this clearly.
Please, drop the introductory books, Colin!
I'm a great fan of evolutionary biology and I'd love to start.
Thank youuuuuu! 😃
I would like you to put the list of introductory books for the total beginner because I am one of them. Thanks!
I am a biology major and a physician, but have not made evolution or, for that matter, creationism the main focus of my education. I wonder how much anyone has looked at the medical evidence of evolution in the search for truth.
A simple view of evolution is based on the fact that life that survives can reproduce. It’s impossible to contradict that. Evolution has its biggest effect up to the end of fecundity. After the fertile period, lethal effects multiply, but evolution does affect later life. This shows most clearly in multi-generational offspring-supporting species like humans. Living parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc, contribute to the survival and education of their descendants. I am familiar with the proposal that homosexual uncles and aunts contribute to the survival of nephews and nieces due to their usual lack of duties to their own offspring, thus contributing to the survival of their own genes. That’s interesting and intuitive thinking as is most evolutionary thought.
I believe evolution may be one of God’s greatest creations. No offense Dr. Wright
DNA wasn’t known to Darwin. Or, his followers. DNA is the unliving code by which all matter is created. It therefore had to be first. What created it? How did that occur? Add to this list of readings to get a fuller and far more up to date scientific explanation of life. Steven Myers’ Darwin’s Doubt and Michael Behe’s Darwin Devolves and Darwin’s Black Box.
Gould? He's infamous for committing scientific fraud in the name of "fighting racism".
I teach several chapters of "The Selfish Gene" in my intro to Evolutionary Biology course. Dawkins is such a great communicator -- too bad he has to turn off 2/3 of his potential audience with troll-tier titles like "The God Delusion"
What about Carl Woese, Archaea and horizontal gene transfer? He wandered beyond the pale.
I am a biology major and a physician, but have not made evolution or, for that matter, creationism the main focus of my education. I wonder how much anyone has looked at the medical evidence of evolution in the search for truth.
A simple view of evolution is based on the fact that life that survives can reproduce. It’s impossible to contradict that. Evolution has its biggest effect up to the end of fecundity. After the fertile period, lethal effects multiply, but evolution does affect later life. This shows most clearly in multi-generational offspring-supporting species like humans. Living parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc, contribute to the survival and education of their descendants. I am familiar with the proposal that homosexual uncles and aunts contribute to the survival of nephews and nieces due to their usual lack of duties to their own offspring, thus contributing to the survival of their genes. That’s interesting and intuitive thinking as is most evolutionary thought.
I believe evolution may be one of God’s greatest creations. No offense, Dr. Wright.
Couldn't the treatise by Buss et alii give a better overview of this field, with the different, sometimes contradictory views aforementioned ?
Great list thanks