Ethics

A Review of the Dawkins Appearance

By Ed Brayton

My quick capsule review of the Dawkins talk on Monday evening: pretty boring. His speech was called The Purpose of Purpose and the basic thesis was that natural selection has provided for traits and aptitudes in human beings that can be turned into something unhealthy in the human race as a whole. For instance, feeling kinship with our relatives is undoubtedly an adaptive trait that was selected for in our evolutionary past, but it can also be turned into tribalism that leads to wars and conflicts that are clearly non-adaptive and unhealthy.

He gave lots of examples of this kind of thing, but there was nothing in the speech that didn't seem entirely obvious to me. Not once did he say something on the subject that made me think about it differently. It all seemed rather mundane and...well, obvious is the only word I can think of. Nothing innovative or unusual or intellectually challenging. But he is a very charming speaker and he was entertaining.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).