The Blind Watchmaker and the Selfish Gene

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a masterwork of popular science. The Blind Watchmaker exposes the myth of genetic determinism. There's no reason for expecting genetic influences to be any more irreversible than environmental ones. If somebody asked me what book should I read about Darwinism, I would tell them those two books.

Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and inspired them throughout the years. They also respond to a listener email that accuses them (mostly Tamler) of being "reckless and irresponsible" in their discussion of responding to insults.

Episode Links

(Please note that the Top 5 links below are to purchase books through amazon.com via the Very Bad Wizards amazon affiliate account)

Tamler's Top 5

5. The Razor's Edge

4. Culture Of Honor: The Psychology Of Violence In The South (New Directions in Social Psychology)/Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence

3. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science)

2. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions

1. Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Penguin Classics)

David's Top 5

5. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

3. The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology