The Moral Animal: Why We Are The Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary [Hardcover]

Robert Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 1994

Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics--as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies. Illustrations.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An accessible introduction to the science of evolutionary psychology and how it explains many aspects of human nature. Unlike many books on the topic,which focus on abstractions like kin selection, this book focuses on Darwinian explanations of why we are the way we are--emotionally and morally. Wright deals particularly well with explaining the reasons for the stereotypical dynamics of the three big "S's:" sex, siblings, and society. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The new field of evolutionary psychology-which seeks to explain human behavior, thought and emotions in terms of Darwinian evolution-finds its most articulate exponent in Wright (Three Scientists and Their Gods). In attempting to unravel the evolutionary logic behind friendship, romance, xenophobia, racism, sibling rivalry and so forth, Wright leavens his presentation with wit and humor, interlacing a biographical profile of Charles Darwin, whose marriage, sex life, personal tragedies and travels in turn are thrust in a neo-Darwinian light. Wright, a New Republic senior editor, holds that altruism and conscience did not evolve for the overall good of the species; on the contrary, we deploy the moral sentiments with brutal, flexible self-interest, surrounding our actions in an often delusionary aura of rightness. However, the prevalence of serial monogamy, he says, is the worst of all possible arrangements because it massively squanders love, the most precious evolutionary resource. This is the most sophisticated, in-depth exploration to date of the new Darwinian thinking. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 467 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (August 23, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679407731
• ISBN-13: 978-0679407737
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Wright is a contributing editor of The New Republic, a Slate.com columnist, and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the cofounder of www.bloggingheads.tv, runs the web-based video project www.meaningoflife.tv, and lives in Princeton, NJ, with his wife and two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

255 of 267 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic worth a second look and an update, May 21, 2000

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (Hardcover)

Although first published in 1994, a long time ago in the rapidly developing science of evolutionary psychology, Robert Wright's seminal book remains an excellent introduction to the subject. The text crackles with an incisive wit that says, yes we're animals, but we can live with that. The discussion is thorough, ranging from a rather intense focus on Charles Darwin and his life through the sexist and morality debate occasioned by the publication of Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology in 1975, to the rise of the use of primate comparisons fueled by Jane Goodall's instant classic, The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior (1986). Wright has some rather serious fun with human sexual behavior as seen from the perspective of evolutionary psychology, but he spends even more time worrying (to no good effect, in my opinion) about altruism and the shaky concept of kin selection. The title is partly ironic, since much of the material suggests that we are something less than "moral." The "Everyday Life" in the title is an allusion to Freud (The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, 1904) who makes a dual appearance in the text, first as a kind of not-yet-illuminated precursor to modern Darwinian thought, and second as the reigning champ of psychology that evolutionary psychology is out to dethrone. (See especially page 314.)

What's exciting about evolutionary psychology is that for the first time psychology has a firm scientific foundation upon which to build. But it's a tough subject for some people, I think, mainly because they confuse "is" with "ought." The discoveries of evolutionary psychology about the differing reproductive strategies of the sexes offend some people in the same way that Darwin's insight about our kinship with (other) animals offended the Victorians. Evolutionary psychology shows us that men lie, cheat and hustle relentlessly for sex, while women manipulate available males into caring for their offspring, and if possible for children fathered by other males. Insights like these are seen by some as immoral imperatives, when in fact they are amoral statements of factual observation. What "is" isn't necessarily the same thing as what ought to be. And really, we shouldn't blame the messenger.

Where Wright's book especially shows its age is in trying to explain altruism. He wasn't aware of the handicap principle developed by Amotz and Avishag in their exciting book, The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle (1997) which nicely explains "altruism" (it's an advertisement of fitness) and a number of other evolutionary conundrums, including Wright's question on page 390, "Why do soldiers die for their country?" Additionally on pages 68-70, where Wright attempts to account for female cuckoldry, he gives three reasons, but seems uncertain of the most important one, which is that a woman, once established in a secure pair-bond will sometimes seek to upgrade the genetic input by having a clandestine fling with what she sees as an alpha male. Also Wright's attempt to account for homosexuality (pages 384-386) stumbles over itself in trying to be politically correct while missing the major point that homosexuality facilitates male bonding and therefore is certainly adaptive since male coalitions increase each member of the coalition's chance of securing females. It fact, Wright misses the whole concept of male bonding. There's not even an index entry for it.

These observations are not to be taken as criticisms of the book since Wright was writing before knowledge of some of these ideas became widespread. The Moral Animal remains an outstanding opus and one that has helped introduce a large readership to the power and efficacy of evolutionary psychology, a scientific approach to psychology that will, I believe, replace the old paradigms currently holding sway in our universities. Of course this will only happen when the old behaviorists, and cognitive and psychoanalytic stalwarts...retire.

I would like to see Wright revise this book in light of the many discoveries made during the nineties and reissue it. His readable and engaging style would make the update fun to read.

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best introductions to Evolutionary Psychology, November 30, 1999

By 

Alan Koslowski (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (Hardcover)

Though a few other books related to Evolutionary Psychology have been written since this, it is still one of the best introductions to the field. It is intelligently written, but not pendantic. Wright discusses many aspects of evolutionary psych. using many examples from the life of Charles Darwin.

Many have criticized this work as a justifying gender inequality, usually as related to male oppression and abuse of females. Wright openly states that he is attempting to explain human behavior from a Darwinian perspective. He argues that this perspective sheds much light on the subject, though he admits is isn't perfect or all inclusive. Wright closes with several behaviors that Evolutionary Psychology can not adequetly explain (most glaringly, homosexuality).

Though many women have been outraged by this work, this book has much to offer for both females and males who read it from a non-ideological perspective. I've read several interviews with Wright and other Evolutionary Psychologists who have stated that by understanding why we (all people) are naturally inclined to behave in certain ways are we better able to control behavioral tendencies that may be detrimental to ourselves and others. When read from this perspective, this book can only help men and women better undertand each other and improve relations between the sexes.

165 of 193 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Science, Bad Philosophy, August 29, 2003

By 

Damon Denys (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology (Paperback)

This book has a lot in common with many Stephen King novels: it starts off intriguing, becomes more and more engrossing, and then concludes with some improbable and disappointing final chapters. Essentially, "The Moral Animal" can be clearly divided into two sections. The first three quarters are a clearly stated, honest presentation of natural selection via the very interesting approach of using Darwin himself and the events of his life as the primary example of its workings. In doing so, the book serves not only as a presentation of Darwinism, but also as a biography of Charles Darwin. Great idea.

But the last quarter or so of the book then departs dramatically from the topic of using natural selection to explain many interesting modern behaviors such as sex, hate, and friendship, and focuses instead on deriving an ethical system from the science (much of which the author has already admitted is unproven) of the preceding chapters. It begins by threatening a sort of evolutionary fatalism, stumbles into an endorsement of blanket altruism (titled "Utilitarianism" here) as an alternative to that fatalism, and then deteriorates into a bland attack on free will in favor of determinism. Not such a great idea.

The odd thing is that the scientific part of the book clearly details human motivation in all things to be purely selfish. The logical ethical approach, then, would be to question the popular condemnation of selfishness and examine selfishness as a legitimate foundation of a moral system, not to try to pound the square peg of evolutionary selfishness into the round hole of traditional Judeo-Christian altruism. It seems likely that in writing this book the author set out to find evidence for his own well-established ethical views, instead of conducting scientific research and then deriving an ethical system logically from his findings. He'd probably dismiss this kind of criticism as the desperate self-deception of someone clinging to a false sense of free will. Nevertheless, I encourage you to use your free will to check out a copy from the library, read the first three quarters, and send the rest back determinedly.