On Our Minds：How Evolutionary Psychology Is Reshaping the Nature-versus-Nurture Debate-2003

The Johns Hopkins University Press

C O N T E N T S
i n t r o d u c t i o n
‘‘This Changes Everything’’ 1
Part One: The Evolution of a Controversy
c h a p t e r o n e
Stephen Jay Gould Historicizes Science 19
c h a p t e r t w o
Richard Herrnstein Stirs Up Controversy
at Harvard Yard 31
c h a p t e r t h r e e
Edward O. Wilson Brings More Controversy
to the Yard 56
c h a p t e r f o u r
Richard Lewontin and His Colleagues Demur 76
Part Two: The Blind Watchmaker Meets
the Scatterbrained Computer Programmer
c h a p t e r f i v e
Nature’s ‘‘Very Special Way’’ 97


c h a p t e r s i x
What Is the Mind? 116
c h a p t e r s e v e n
The Challenges of Reverse Engineering 132
Part Three: The Nature of Human Cultures
c h a p t e r e i g h t
The Benefits of Hardwiring 155
c h a p t e r n i n e
What Cultures Can the Mind Run? 174
c h a p t e r t e n
The Evolutionary Psychology of
‘‘Little House on the Prairie’’ 196
c o n c l u s i o n
Brave New World Revisited–Again 224
a f t e rwo r d
Writing on The Blank Slate 237
Notes 251
Acknowledgments 279
Index 283