Historical Misunderstandings of Human Behavior


Abstract:
From reading Russell.

Body:
I've been reading Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian, a book Sarah had from a previous boyfriend who tried to convert her to atheism. It's an interesting collection of articles if you haven't read it, especially because Russell focuses primarily on Christianity's effects on society and culture rather than logical arguments against the religion, making the book more accessible to believers, disregarding the title. I take issue, though, with an error that permeates Russell's writing: the assumption that culture alone is responsible for shaping most of human behavior.

In all fairness, Russell wrote these articles before the neo-Darwinian revolution in biology that would eventually lead to the development of evolutionary psychology, giving us a framework to understand human behavior in an evolutionary context. I write this entry not to criticize Russell, but to point out a problem which still exists in most people's minds. Russell wrote, for example, that "religions" like Communism and Nazism took hold only because people were conditioned to accept them by childhood indoctrination into Christianity. We now have evidence supporting the idea that humans have an evolved predisposition to religion (whether it's a selected or side effect trait is up to debate), so we should expect "religion", whether a theological or secular belief system, to pop up in every society. Similar thinking is found throughout Russell's work, which should show its age, but instead reads like much of what is written today. Even some scientists who should know better write as if the human mind were a blank slate. Given the great value of better understanding human behavior, evolutionary psychology is a field that should not be ignored.

Posted: Wed - May 10, 2006 at 10:30 PM         |    

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