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
|