Three University Free Speech Reforms

I started this blog and indeed this website with the intention of staying clear of politics and focusing on the scholarship. In an amazingly short period of time, however, our current situation has deteriorated remarkably. A scientific illiterate has taken over in the White House and a shrill, knee jerk, overreaction from the opposition has […]

Confusing Gender

This little piece attempts to weave together two different arguments. One is about how we likely evolved sexed pronouns for good evolutionary fitness enhancing reasons and the other is about a concerted strategy to advance a political ideology through exploiting most people’s ignorance about the relationship between grammatical gender and sexed pronouns. For those interested, […]

Patriarchy’s Evolutionary Plausibility

Over many decades, now, a popular idea across the humanities and social sciences has been that of patriarchy. Etymologically the word means the rule of the fathers – or at least the elder males (father-like). It has taken on, though, a more general reference to the idea of men ruling over women. If one looks […]

Religion and Evolution, Let’s Try Again

Evolutionary theory in general, and evolutionary psychology in particular, have tended to align with the modern movement often referred to as the new atheists and humanists. Indeed, the prominence of those such as Dawkins and Dennett encourages a lumping of the two together. This isn’t quite fair. The new atheists are after all activists for […]

Canada to constitutionally enshrine anti-science Social Constructionism

UPDATE: Bill C-16 has been passed by the House of Commons. If passed by the Senate it will become law. For a Department of Justice statement on the bill’s Constitutional impacts, see here. Canadians can look forward to up to five years in jail for violating the premises of an anti-science ideology which will be soon enshrined into […]

Does Evolutionary Theory Entail Moral Relativism?

Today’s topic is one I’ve wrestled with a lot in the last couple years. I think I’ve finally resolved it in a coherent way, but, who knows? Think of this as a progress report, at least. For some people well versed in evolutionary biology and psychology, simply asking the question in the title to this […]

You never know, unless you try! (Though, you might soon.)

Conjuring up a well of limitless human potential, an old platitude – “you never know, unless you try” – is coming to now take on a slightly different inflection. In the process, the accuracy of the claim is likewise sliding slowly toward obsolescence. The original meaning of the phrase suggested that anything might be possible […]

Snowden: A Biological Realist Review

Oliver Stone’s most recent film tells the story of Edward Snowden’s circumstances, decisions and execution of a plan to publish evidence revealing spying practices of the National Security Agency. Snowden became convinced that the NSA was violating the constitution and infringing on the privacy rights of Americans and others around the world. As a result […]

Are We Humans Our Own Primary Hostile Force of Nature?

There are a lot of popular clichés about humans among people not as informed as they should be about evolutionary biology that get too much air play and word of mouth. For instance, there’s the claim that we’re the only species that fight each other in groups. Not true. Or that we’re the only species […]

Do We Overvalue Cooperation?

A big topic in the scholarship on human social evolution is our peculiar proclivity for cooperation. There’s no doubt that human cooperation is pretty remarkable, in a number of ways. The benefits it brings in terms of pooled risk, division of labour and economies of scale, etc., are well known. And, from a strictly evolutionary […]