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| An adventure into the roots of human behavior. |
February 20, 2002
The mission of The Bio-Rational Institute is to apply discoveries in the emerging science of evolutionary psychology to our quest for personal fulfillment and societal harmony. Its first objective is to help individuals make rational choices through an understanding of the evolutionary roots of their behaviors; and second, to explore the emerging scientific evidence that individual liberty and free markets are the social structures most compatible with their evolved human nature.
Peace & Prosperity through Science
Evolutionary psychology, or as it is sometimes called, sociobiology, suggests unique keys to individual fulfillment. It also holds the key to the design of an optimal “social contract” by which mankind can achieve society’s most elusive goal—enduring peace, progress and ever-increasing prosperity. By understanding the biological instincts that evolution has hardwired into our brains, each of us can better direct our natural urges, as well as detect the primal templates that motivate behavior in others.
Emotions and Feelings: Survival Tools for Another Age
Emotions and feelings—from addiction to depression, and from anger to ecstasy—were built into our brains by evolution as survival and procreative tools. They are the genetic programs evolution has designed to keep us alive and drive us to pass on our genes to the next generation. Originally appearing hundreds of thousands, millions and in some cases hundreds of millions of years ago, these neural systems were retained through the aeons because they helped our progenitors survive and replicate in a primordial environment. Unfortunately for us, in our modern technological society, these ancient survival tools often lead individuals to unhappiness and even tragedy. Genes that were effective in helping individuals survive a primeval world often create mental illness today. Genes that triggered sexual behavior for optimal reproductive success in the wooded savannas of a million years ago can lead to adultery and jealousy in a modern community. Genes that worked for stable social organization in the small bands of early hominids result in war and genocide in our densely populated world. From a genetic perspective, Homo sapiens is a stranger in a strange land. It is for this reason that you should seek an understanding of the biological evolution of feelings, desires and personality. Such knowledge promises a new understanding of the behavior of those around us as well as an exciting journey into self awareness.
The Five Levels of Human Action
Each of us experiences and interacts with our world on five levels. On each level, our decisions and behavior are guided by a combination of our genes and our prior experiences. SELF: Our inner sanctum of private thoughts and feelings. HEALTH: Our physical body and its health and fitness. MATING: Our primary relationship with a ‘significant other’. PARENTING: Our relationship with our children. FREEDOM: Our relationships with our society—that is, other individuals outside our immediate kin.
THE BIOLOGY OF SELF—Scientists working in biology, genetics, and evolutionary psychology are flooding the journals with new knowledge of how the brain controls our self image and drives us to both positive and negative behaviors. The demons of depression, addiction, procrastination, and other self-destructive urges are now seen as mechanisms that evolved to cause individuals to behave in beneficial ways. Yet today, in this modern world, they are often considered diseases—anachronisms that can lead to unhappiness, failure and even suicide. Examine your inner world through the lens of evolutionary biology and you’ll discover exciting new avenues to personal fulfillment.
THE BIOLOGY OF HEALTH— Medicine and health are two of the world's largest industries, but far too often they fail us. We get sick too often, we get old too fast, and we die far to early. Now, evolutionary biology is bringing new insights and more logical strategies that will help us avoid illness, enjoy optimum health throughout our lives, and even double our lifespans. The bio-rational approach to health is to view the problems of disease and aging through the lens of our evolution. Our physical bodies are identical in function to those of our Pleistocene progenitors, requiring the basic nutrients—the vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats—in the relative proportions that were available during the evolutionary process. Scientific research is confirming that the closer we approach the diet of our ancestors, the more we avoid or cure our modern diseases.
THE BIOLOGY OF LOVE & MATING—Over hundreds of millions of years of mammalian evolution sex has evolved into the strongest of all drives, and love and mating into one of the most complex of human games. Understanding the ways in which evolution has designed our brains to achieve procreative success sheds a new light on the mysteries of this game. In this section you’ll find keys to a variety of relationship questions: why you are sexually attracted to certain types and not others, why some mating strategies work and others don’t, and how to dramatically improve your chances of achieving lasting harmony in marriage.
THE BIOLOGY OF PARENTING—Evolution has seen to it that after sex itself, no life goal is as important to normal parents as helping their children survive and succeed. An understanding of how evolution has shaped the drives of both parents and their offspring points to rational new strategies for raising fulfilled, happy and successful children.
THE BIOLOGY OF FREEDOM—The archeological record combined with several thousand years of written history reveals that Homo sapiens has failed to design a social system that achieves enduring peace and prosperity. The evidence of both history and sociobiology strongly suggest that individual liberty is the social condition most compatible with human nature, and therefore is the key to the design of the optimal social system.
A sampling of past and current essays and articles on topics central to evolutionary psychology and rational living are filed in the Essay Archive. Finally, browse the Recommended Reading section for comments on and reviews of related books and articles, as well as links to other valuable resources.
We encourage you to bookmark this website, and return often to explore the latest developments in human behavior. As you do, you’ll gather powerful new tools to help you achieve a rational, happier and more successful life! Your comments and contributions are welcomed. Direct them to editor@biorationalinstitute.com.
The Bio-Rational Institute is the creation of John Pugsley. David L. Brooks is Editor and Webmaster for this website. Intellectual and financial support has been provided by the Eugene B. Casey Foundation, Douglas Casey, The Center for Independent Thought, Robert Kephart, and from many other friends and colleagues.
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