Customer Reviews

Human Instinct: How our primeval impulses shape our modern lives

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This book has been one of the most interesting readings I have had. It covers quite adequately all the basis of the new field of evolutionary psychology. While most people take human instincts for granted, studying the origins of these subconscious emotions enables us to understand behavior and psychology of homo sapiens better, and to appreciate precious human lives on earth that much more. It complements Richard Dawkins' book "The Selfish Gene" and fills in some of its holes, with some more up-to-date examples, including the dreaded Al-Quada. Nevertheless, it is not as mathematical, and it allows for easier reading for both scientists and non-scientists alike.

Winston is not an atheist evolutionist as you might think. He stated quite clearly in this book that he had utmost respect for God and religions, which towards the end confused me a little bit.

This book does NOT assume the infallibility of the theory of evolution, although it does assume a very primitive knowledge of it. For those of you who consider this book still not fundamental enough, feel free to ask me any questions. I should be able to help you close the gaps. (By the way, I am not a personal friend of, nor related to, Winston nor his affiliates.)

Robert Winston is a simpler version of Richard Dawkins. Winston's writing is easier to understand and more interesting than a lot of other writers on the subject. As with any foray into scientific understanding, it would be best not to believe one man's views alone, but to balance it with the views of others to obtain an objective perception of the subject. Basically, while this book may be more interesting than others, one should read other books as well. Try Dawkins, Sagan, Gould or even Diamond. There are some varied ideas here and you can slowly see how they are different, not as scientists, but as people and this may give you a better insight into how they approach the subject and write about it.

In Human Evolution, Robert Winston explores and explains the inescapable fact that human behaviour has its origins in our ancestry on the savannah of Africa. He goes on to explain various aspects of human behaviour originated with ancient humans and our pre-human ancestors and how our primitive instincts affect human behaviour today.

Winston presents his book in a balanced and objective manner. He notes where uncertainty exists in his conclusions, and covers some sensitive issues related to the darker side of human character with typical objectivity.

The book is well written, and very understandable. I enjoyed reading Human Evolution greatly and found its insights to be most revealing and intriguing. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who ever thinks or philosophises about human nature. I'm disappointed to see that at this time Human Nature is rated at 1,100,000 as it deserves to be a lot higher.

This is another clear and entertaining book from Robert Winston. Sadly it has many anecdotes and information from his other book 'The Human Mind' in addition to much information from Dawkins 'The Selfish Gene' (which I have to say is a better starting point if this kind of thing interests you). Saying that, if you haven't read either of those books, this will both inform and entertain you. It has Winstons usual conversational style of writing and many insightful moments as you progress through the book. Overall not a bad introduction to popular science or human instinct, but nothing original for those who've read more on this topic.

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The fundamental premise of evolutionary psychology is that biological evolution and animal psychology are interrelated. Animal behavior, determined by animal psychology, can have consequences within animal evolution; and animal evolution can have consequences within animal psychology, and hence within animal behavior. How behavior can influence evolution is the concern of evolutionary biology. How evolution can influence behavior is the concern of evolutionary psychology.

This book is an accessible introduction to evolutionary psychology, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series. The author, Robert Winston, is "Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, University of London, and Director of NHS Research and Development and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital." He is apparently somewhat of a celebrity scientist in Great Britain. I haven't seen the series and know nothing about the man. The book holds its own despite this.

The choice of photographs within the book is poor. There are 8 chapters in the book and 8 pages (8 leaf sides) of photos, so each page could have had something significantly related to the discussion of the chapter, but instead we get several photos portraying the author in various ways - a consequence, I suppose, of his celebrity status in England and a selling point in the publisher's mind.

The copy I have is a Bantam Books edition that only has UK pricing on it, and although it is an absolutely complete paperback, it has no copyright page and no date of publication anywhere on it. Perhaps other editions will use different photographs or exclude them altogether.

Hmmm. This book turned out to be something of a puzzler for me. I saw the one hour TV program derived from the book, or maybe it was the other way around, and really enjoyed it. Somehow the spontaneity and liveliness of the program did not carry into the book. I did enjoy the book, but it seemed more like a jumble of facts than a story, or maybe it lacked a central focus. Human instinct was certainly the topic, but that seemed a bit too loosely the focus.

The British style of writing had an impact on me. I recently became interested in a book by another British author that won't be released in the U.S. until later this year. I know it's available in Britain. I asked someone about this and asked the reason why. They replied that it has to be edited for the American market. I thought to myself that doesn't seem to a big hurdle. Well, perhaps not, but I can see now why that may be important. My version of Human Instinct certainly was not edited for the American market. There are quite a few references that would leave an American reader wondering what the author is referring to. A simple example is a discussion he has about the Wason selection test. What's a Skoda and who is Bryan Adams? I think a Skoda is a car and Bryan Adams might be a singer. I found such references a little distracting. I've read quite a bit of British authors like Fortey and Dawkins, but the British style of writing was not quite as obvious as here.

Some of his explanations just came up short in terms of completeness. For example, he talks about why the human population tends towards 50% males and females. He dismisses the monogamous case as obvious. Not to me it wasn't. I asked my wife about his offered description. Not to her either. I think he could have spent a little more time explaining the answer to the Wason test. Google saved the day there. There were several places where I was asking myself, "What was that all about?"

I see another reviewer remarked, "Robert Winston is one of the many scientists today who reject God and yet place all their faith in the "infalibilty" of Evolution ..." Did he actually read the final pages of the book? Winston is quite clear that there's a place for God in evolution. In fact, he spends quite a bit of time at the end of the book on the subject of God and importance of the concept of God to evolution. However, I found it rather a weak ending. It was like he wanted to say something important, but missed. It just seemed like he couldn't bring himself to saying something concrete or really important.

Regarding a rating. 4-5 stars for the TV program, but 3 for the book.

bout three quarters of what I read in this book seems to have been taken directly from much better books like "The Selfish Gene", "Survival of the Prettiest", Steven J. Gould books and "Stone Age Mind". It's just a rehash of prisoner's dilemnas, hawk and dove experiments, and stories about the Yanomono. The author appears not to have done any original research or thinking whatsoever, and the books he copied from did a much better job of presenting the information.
But that's not the worst of it. Throughout this boring book, I held out hope that it might be interesting because on the back cover, it says, "And how is it that so many people still hold religious views when the notion of an all-powerful being is irrational?" That's a question I've never heard answered well, and thought it alone would make the book worth reading.
Turns out, however, that he believes in God, despite admitting that it is irrational, saying "I may well be a poor scientist, but for me, personally, the universe is a most remakable and beautiful design, one of physical rationality and populated with human creatures possessing insight and a divine intelligence." He doesn't offer much if any evidence to support his intelligent design idea, either.
He then goes on to make silly, speculative arguments about free will and the nature of good and evil that might get accepted in a first year philosophy seminar, but certainly do not belong in a book that purports to be about science.
The editor who wrote the blurb on the back jacket should be shot.

Robert Winston is one of the many scientists today who reject God and yet place all their faith in the "infalibilty" of Evolution, turning it into a substitue of Faith. Evolution seems to have all the answers,yet the explanations of Scientists like Robert Winston are ceartanly not scientific, nor
logical, but preconcieved out of a ceartain notion towards life and Humanity.Even Robert Winston himself admitts he was not satified with the Book and I cant help but agree.

He give us confusing Lamarckan explanations how the Brain might have evolved,yet reminding us that Lamarck has long been discredited( that doesnt stop the Doctor from using the same arguements), but many time time apologizes for the lack of scientific ceartanty,citing a few ambigious scientifc experiments as his only evidence.

The Professor can obviously not explain how all these supposed mutations might have occured after another and at the nessecary time scale, especially beneficiary mutations, and begins elaborating at how a stimulie in the Enviorment led to those changes and led the Humaoid to a more advantaged trait. He is stepping in the same trap that Evolutionist have stepped in since the Time of Darwin( many intentionally), stating that mutations are random and that traits are not influenced by the enviroment, and yet createing elaburous fairy tales of social life, bigger penises, and the "social tendeny "of Intifacide which became neccesary due to Natural selection.
How on Earth these tendencies and traits became genetically inborn and passed on even the Doctor does not try to explain serioulsy, especially when considered that traits are not formed due to neccesity in Nature.

But the worst of his so called "scientific" book are the dangerous Ideas he tries to present us with, stating that they are part of Human Nature. Rape, intifacide, social disruptive behaviour,murder and lies are all names on the Doctors lists. He
vaquely states that these were once socially beneficient long ago, yet today are Humans can cooperate without these traits.All we can state is that the Dark Ghost of Social Darwinism lingers on. It is one thing to believe in evil, it is quiet another thing to give it scientific names. The history of Communism and Nazsicm can testify to that.

The more we read the Doctors Book the more we feel that we are looking into one mans Mind, feeling his wish to project his views on the world in a scientific guise,and yet his views are highly speculative and dangerous, if being taken serious.
It is a scientifically dubious Book and I recommend you for Heavens sake not to take this serious and to question Evolution as that which is alway was, make believe for the faithfull believer.