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" Хотя эта книга затронет многие поведенческие науки — антропологию, психиатрию, социологию, политические науки, эволюционная психология будет в её центре. Это молодая и пока ещё неокрепшая дисциплина, частично выполнившая обещание создать новую науку о мышлении, позволяет нам теперь задать вопрос, который было бы бесполезно задавать и в 1859 году, после выхода в свет «Происхождения», и в 1959-м — чем теория естественного отбора может быть полезна обычным людям?
Например, может ли эволюционное понимание природы человека помочь людям в достижении их жизненных целей? Действительно ли оно может помочь им выбрать эти цели? Поможет ли оно различать между достижимыми и недостижимыми целями? Точнее, поможет ли оно в определении того, какие цели являются достойным? То есть, поможет ли знание того, как эволюция формировала наши основные моральные импульсы, решить, которые импульсы мы должны полагать законными?
Ответы на все эти вопросы, по моему мнению, такие: да, да, да, да и снова да. "
― Robert Wright , The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
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" So, all told, we’re under at least two kinds of illusions. One is about the nature of the conscious self, which we see as more in control of things than it actually is. The other illusion is about exactly what kind of people we are—namely, capable and upstanding. You might call these two misconceptions the illusion about our selves and the illusion about ourselves. They work in synergy. The first illusion helps us convince the world that we are coherent, consistent actors: we don’t do things for no reason, and the reasons we do them make sense; if our behaviors merit credit or blame, there is an inner us that deserves that credit or blame. The second illusion helps convince the world that what we deserve is credit, not blame; we’re more ethical than the average person, and we’re more productive than the average teammate. We have beneffectance. "
― Robert Wright , Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
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" What’s wrong with men and women indulging in self-delusion in the course of trying to impress each other? Nothing, I guess. Some illusions are harmless, and some are even beneficial. Far be it from me to try to talk you out of all your illusions. By and large, my philosophy is Live and let live: if you’re enjoying the Matrix, go crazy. Except, maybe, when your illusions harm other people in your life or contribute to larger problems in the world. And that can happen. Being in self-protection mode, for example, does more than just give us an attraction to crowds. In one study, men who watched part of a scary film (The Silence of the Lambs) and were then shown photos of men from a different ethnic group rated their facial expressions as much angrier than did men who hadn’t seen a scary film. "
― Robert Wright , Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
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" Men have long competed for access to the scarcer sexual resource, women. And the costs of losing the contest are so high (genetic oblivion) that natural selection has inclined them to compete with special ferocity. In all cultures, men wreak more violence, including murder, than women. (Indeed, across the animal kingdom, males are the more belligerent sex, except in those species, such as phalaropes, where male parental investment is so high females can reproduce more often than males.) Even when the violence isn't against a sexual rival, it often boils down to sexual competition. A trivial dustup may escalate until one man kills another to "save face"- to earn the sort of raw respect that, in the ancestral environment, could have raised status and brought sexual rewards. "
― Robert Wright