Publication Details
Hamilton, R.
(2008).
The Darwinian cage: Evolutionary psychology as moral science.
Theory Culture and Society, 25 (2), 105-125.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407086793
Abstract
The jargon of evolutionary psychology has recently migrated from a few minor American universities into the academic mainstream and thence into Sunday supplements and dinner party conversations. It has even formed the backdrop to at least one award-winning novel (McEwan, 1997). Evolutionary psychology and other similar ‘biological’ explanations of human conduct pervade the Zeitgeist and, as Kenan Malik has persuasively argued, they tap into a prevailing mood of cultural pessimism. Evolutionary psychology, it seems, speaks to our desire to see the worst in ourselves (Malik, 2002).
Keywords
Peer-reviewed, sociobiology, neo-darwinian
