Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Evolution and Art Interface: New Paltz’s 10th Anniversary of Darwin Day!
Here’s a puzzle: Humans around the world create visual art, music, and dance. None of these activities are particularly helpful at facilitating survival. How did these features come to so strongly embed into our species? Why are we the artistic … Continue reading
The Royal Opposition: Why We Should Seek Contrary Opinions
“Without contraries is no progression.” William Blake 1. The Owl of Minerva History, according to the idealist philosopher, Friedrich Hegel, is not a disconnected jumble of accidents; rather, it is the purposeful and progressive ascent of the absolute spirit … Continue reading
New Paltz – A Beacon of Intellectual Freedom and of Evolutionary Studies
(this article first appeared as a letter to the editor in the New Paltz Times on 5/9/2014) Dear Editor, I write to give a status report on the Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) program that we’ve got at SUNY New Paltz – … Continue reading
Let the dead bury the dead?
Many years ago, I was watching one treacly movie or another about a grieving widow. It wasn’t good, but it was embarrassingly effective. I was moved. As I am wont to do, I quickly dissipated my sadness by contemplating a … Continue reading
10 Human Universals that Should be Fully Embraced (… or Appreciating the Flip Side of Diversity)
Diversity in all its incarnations is awesome and beautiful. It’s the spice of life. And in modern times, educational institutions have become enlightened regarding the importance of embracing, understanding, respecting, and appreciating diversity. And this trend in modern education – … Continue reading
Biological Psychiatry and Evolution
After a length absence due to my acceptance into Suffolk University’s clinical Ph.D. program, I intend to delve back into this blog again! A brief entry today; I was referred to this passage from a paper by Douglas A. Kramer … Continue reading
Top 10 Evolutionary Mismatches: How Modern Humans are Living in the Monkey House
In 2012, after being home to various classes of primates for some 100+ years, the renowned Monkey House at the Bronx Zoo closed down – and the current primate residents at the Zoo reside in habitats that are designed to … Continue reading
Why James Bond flaunts women (and why you should watch Bourne movies)
James Bond. High status, clever, cunning. Men want to be him, as they say, and women want to be with him. Although he might be slightly antiquated in a post-Bourne world of action heroes, he still resonates. Last year’s latest … Continue reading
Don’t Look Down! How I REALLY Learned about Fear of Heights as an Adaptation
Why are people scared of high roller coasters, air travel, and walking on the edges of cliffs? In short, such a fear is, in the parlance of evolutionary psychology, “adaptive.” Fear of heights is a human universal – and can … Continue reading
What I Learned in Psychology Class: Making the Connection Between Theory and Human Behavior
As an undergraduate student in psychology at the University of Connecticut years ago, I found the major interesting yet somewhat disjointed. In one class you’d learn some interesting but kind of random facts about human behavior – in a different … Continue reading
