Darwin's Mirror

Do you like what you see in the mirror? I think most of us would say “only sometimes.”

Your answer might depend upon your age, the time of day, and how much effort you’ve spent getting ready for a close, critical look at your reflection. Mirrors aren’t always kind, as we learn with passing years, but they tell a useful truth. That’s why we have them around, even if we don’t always like the image that stars back.

Now think of a larger mirror, a deeper on that not only shows your outward appearance, but also penetrates directly into the past, revealing our histories, our origins, our true character. You might call it Darwin’s mirror, an image of the human condition cast according to the rules and techniques of evolutionary psychology. The picture of human nature it presents in not always flattering.

Our image in the mirror is evolutionary psychology is one shaped primarily by chance and encessity. We seek happiness, friendship, and love not because these things are worthwhile in their own right, but because the drives to achieve them are adaptations chiseled into the human psyche by our ancestors’ struggle for existence. The mirror tells us that our thoughts, our values, and our motivations are not really our own and are certainly not what they seem to be. When we smile upon meeting a stranger, when we delight at a piece of music, when we kneel in prayer, we are actually following the dictates of a complex program running deep in the secret recess of our nervous systems. That program has been shaped not by conscious reasons and desires, but by the brutal realities of life thousands of years ago that affected the survival of distant ancestors. As Steven Pinker describes it, “Our minds are adapted to the small foraging bands in which our family spent ninety-nine percent of its existence,” and not to the conditions in which we find ourselves today. No wonder the world seems so confusing. No wonder the need for evolutionary psychologists to sort it out for us. ~ Page 109

that is an interesting way of considering the human condition. (sometimes i think this type of description is created by those who can't understand emotions and therefore feel the need to try and explain them) but i think it is only one possiblity, or one piece of a larger picture. like nature vs nurture, one being true doesn't rule out the other being part of the whole. there is so much we don't know. especially about our brains.