Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene

by Niles Eldredge

Book Overview

Why do people have sex? Is it solely for the purpose of passing on genetic information, or are there other reasons? A candid, no-punches-pulled interpreter of the core ideas of evolutionary biology (Science News), author Niles Eldredge unravels the origins of our coital instincts. Whereas other scientists dismiss human sexuality as a helpless response to the same deep-set biological imperatives that govern the behavior of lesser animals, Eldredge...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393326950
• ISBN13: 9780393326956
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

"WWDI" Genetic Enlightenment on Sex, Mores & Having Babies

"Why We Do It:..." by Niles Eldredge, NY: W.W.Norton & Co., 2004 - ISBN 0-393-05082-3-hc,(5.5" x 8.25") 269 Pg., includes Notes & Index. Author of 4 previous books on evolution, Eldredge is a real-life contemporary of Stephen J Gould, & certainly writes convincingly, knowingly on evolutionary biology & denounces Richard Dawkins of "The Selfish Gene" hypothesis (a really hot topicfor 2 decades). Eldredge, emphasizing "decoupling" of Sex from Reproduction, then probes interacting controlling factors influencing the Sex-Economics-Reproduction Triangle. Table of Contents has 12 Chapters in Parts I-III (Duality of Life, Human Singularities, & Human Triangle). There are, happily, 22 pages of Notes & 11 Pg. Index. Amazingly, Eldredge discourses on - "Evolution throughout the species, altruism, Darwinism, Ultra-Darwinism, sexual & asexual reproduction, AIDS, birth rates & birth control, cancer, SIDS, puberty, Dolly (clone), soma(tic)/germ-line cells, infanticide, rapes, sexual slavery, bonobos, vervet ("green") monkeys, genocide, social systems & social 'norms', prostitution, mores, food-for-sex, sex-for-food, "making babies", and a whole lot more. "WWDI" displays Eldredge's insightful reasoning skills as he delivers a powerful story about evolutionary genetics in easy to read pose that features meaningful witticisms, and an enviable knowledge of "pop" culture of the rich & poor in lands near & far. He writes with assuredness we associate with SJ Gould & bolsters arguements with facts & tantalizing snipits of information which gives life to his exposition. Although I have a background in genetics & sociology, it is not necessary to have such background to understand & appreciate the merits of this book. I was enlightened by this charming book wherein the author was able to tie so many loose ends together - & you'll enjoy this book as much as I did, so do read it...

Economics and Sex: A Closer Look at Selfish Genes

It is about time someone stood up for the use of solid data to back up "scientific" claims about the human psyche. Niles Eldredge has now written, I think, a nearly perfect rebuttal to the currently popular, but often undocumented, "selfish gene" view of human nature in his new book "Why we do it."It is obvious to Eldredge that humans are animals. Indeed it has been known since at least the time of the early Greeks that humans were animals. This is thus not a new discovery, whatever the evolutionary psychologists may claim. It is, however, also true that we (and indeed all organisms) are more than the sum of our genes. Sure there is a "Human Nature." Sure we are not born with a "Blank Slate" personality, infinitely malleable. We are, however, more plastic in our behavior than the extreme "selfish gene" concept would allow. We have to have some plasticity in our behavior because we live in a complex society that requires cooperation. It seems to me that our ability to cooperate is thus as much a part of our nature as our "baser instincts." The question that scientists should ask is not whether murder, rape, thievery, and carnage characterize humans, but why most people do not participate in these antisocial activities!Eldredge touches on many of these problems in his new book, especially in regard to sex and economics. By economics he means the functions (ingestion of food, drinking water, respiration, digestion, elimination of wastes and undigested food) that allow the organism to survive. Without survival there is no reproduction. In his characteristically clear prose he does a good job of demolishing the strict genetic determinist view of human behavior. Indeed, the so-called genetic determinists are not quite so deterministic in their real lives or in the details of their writing. So-called "blank slate" proponents ("environmental determinists") are often equally closer to "genetic determinists" than they or their rivals would like to admit. Much of the hype about human nature being the determinant of every human action, or conversely nurture being paramount, comes from the popular press and the profit motive (ah- proof of human basic depravity!)Actually I have quite a bit of respect for (although I don't always agree with) many researchers often lumped as evolutionary psychologists, sociobiologists, or ultra-Darwinists (as Eldredge characterizing them). Of these, works by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Daniel Dennett and John Alcock are especially worth reading. Again one has to be careful in characterizing individuals in one "school" of thought as being always in lockstep every other "member." My main gripe is that when some sociobiologists or evolutionary psychologists get carried away by their own rhetoric they will often resort to value-laden anthropomorphic prose (words do matter!), extrapolation beyond their data, and refusal to present valid counter arguments and evidence. Such works, whether based on right or left-leaning pol