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Sexual Selection and Questions of Human Nature


The Great Debate in Action: Sexual Selection and Questions of Human Nature
Day school held on Saturday 27th January 2001, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Newcastle
Tutors: Caspar Hewett and David Large

A hundred years ago Darwin revolutionised our understanding of the origin of species. Since then the theory of evolution by natural and sexual selection has become accepted wisdom. Earlier this century Social Darwinism was discredited, yet in recent years it has again become popular to attempt to explain society in Darwinian terms. At the same time theories abound suggesting that humanity's evolutionary history and the genes we inherit determine our behaviour. What does this convergence of natural and social theory represent?

This course investigates the theory of sexual selection and its application to animal and human behaviour. The ideas are developed by considering the ramifications of this, focussing on the themes: determinism, choice, ethics and responsibility

Pair work, group work and class discussion allow the students to develop arguments and gain confidence in understanding the theories and the context in which they have become prevalent. This includes considering the consequences of deterministic theories and why they are popular today, what sort of animals people are, and whether evolutionary psychology guides the the way humanity views itself or whether it is just a reflection of that view. Various approaches are adopted: scientific, philosophical and social. This enables a debate to be pursued with the outcome of providing an analytical assessment of the conceptual basis of the theory of sexual selection and its application in the field of evolutionary psychology.

Selected notes

Theory of Sexual Selection - The Human Mind and the Peacock's Tale by Caspar Hewett



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© C J M Hewett, 2003