The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (ISBN 0-140-16772-2) is a popular science book by Matt Ridley exploring the evolutionary psychology of sexual selection. The Red Queen was one of seven books shortlisted for the 1994 Rhône-Poulenc Prize (now known as the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books), that was eventually won by Steve Jones' The Language of the Genes.
The Red Queen argues that few, if any, aspects of human nature can be understood apart from sex, since human nature is a product of evolution, and evolution in our case is driven specifically by sexual replication.
Read more about The Red Queen: Sex And The Evolution Of Human Nature: Contents
Famous quotes containing the words red, evolution, human and/or nature:
“The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.”
—John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–1890)
“By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature—for instance in a biological survey of evolution—we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.”
—Owen Barfield (b. 1898)
“The only human beings I have thoroughly admired and respected in the world have been those who carried the load of the world with a smile, and who, in the face of anxieties that would have knocked me clean out, never showed a tremor. Such men and women end by owning us, soul and body, and our allegiance can never be shaken. We are only too glad to be owned. Religion is nothing but this.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“While nature thus very early and very abundantly feeds us, she is very late in tutoring us as to the proper methodization of our diet.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)