Actually, there is a sense in which polygynous marriage has not been the historical norm - even where polygyny is permitted, multiple… — Robert Wright Evolution Copy Share Image
“The short answer is no. But it’s a “no” with an asterisk, a “no” in need of elaboration—and, since the elaboration is… — Robert Wright Copy Share Image
We're all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer. Just… — Robert Wright Agendas Copy Share Image
“Altruism, compassion, empathy, love, conscience, the sense of justice—all of these things, the things that hold society together, the things that allow… — Robert Wright Bad news Copy Share Image
“Buddhist thought and modern psychology converge on this point: in human life as it’s ordinarily lived, there is no one self, no… — Robert Wright Better way Copy Share Image
“The idea is that human culture as broadly defined--art, politics, technology, religion, and so on--evolves in much the way biological species evolve:… — Robert Wright Change Copy Share Image
“Edward Tylor noted in 1874 that the religions of “savage” societies were “almost devoid of that ethical element which to the educated… — Robert Wright Character Copy Share Image
“The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction.” — Robert Wright Curiosity Copy Share Image
“As Kurzban has summarized this finding, “We think we’re better than average at not being biased in thinking that we’re better than… — Robert Wright Copy Share Image
Corruption is knowing when something is not being done, knowing when the American people are being left unprotected and when you make… — Robert Wright American people Copy Share Image
“Sensual pleasures are the whip natural selection uses to control us, to keep us in the thrall of its warped values system.” — Robert Wright Natural selection Copy Share Image
“There’s no doubt that meditation training has allowed some people to become essentially indifferent to what otherwise would have been unbearable pain.” — Robert Wright Fitness Copy Share Image
“The thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi is said to have written, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek… — Robert Wright Love Copy Share Image
If war can indeed be turned into a relic, then the virtue of greed will recede further. From a given society's standpoint,… — Robert Wright Acquisition Copy Share Image
“Perhaps the most legitimately dispiriting thing about reciprocal altruism is that it is a misnomer. Whereas with kin selection the "goal" of… — Robert Wright Altruism Copy Share Image
“that the stories we tell about things, and thus the beliefs we have about their history and their nature, shape our experience of… — Robert Wright Faith Copy Share Image
Darwin was one of our finest specimens. He did superbly what human beings are designed to do: manipulate social information to personal… — Robert Wright Abbey Copy Share Image
“No doubt the world's shamans have run the gamut from true believer to calculating fraud, and no doubt many true beliefs have… — Robert Wright Faith Copy Share Image
“Nature has gone to great lengths to hide our subconscious from ourselves. Why?” — Robert Wright Human nature Copy Share Image
“The believers believe there’s something out there—some “thing” in some sense of the word “thing”—that corresponds to the word “electron”; and that,… — Robert Wright Copy Share Image
“Imagine if our negative feelings, or at least lots of them, turned out to be illusions, and we could dispel them by… — Robert Wright Negative feelings Copy Share Image
“Certainly the prefrontal cortex is an important thing; I’m as proud of mine as the next guy.” — Robert Wright Copy Share Image
“Fuel efficiency is reducing the fund’s income per mile driven and the average number of miles driven per person has declined.” — Robert Wright Driving Copy Share Image
“For a species low in male parental investment, the basic dynamic of courtship, as we’ve seen, is pretty simple: the male really… — Robert Wright Investing Copy Share Image
Whereas modern cynicism brought despair about the ability of the human species to realize laudable ideals, postmodern cynicism doesn't — not because… — Robert Wright Ability Copy Share Image
