Morality, Aggression, and Human Nature with Dr. Richard Wrangham
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2023
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Violence and virtue. The Goodness Paradox. Why are humans capable of being the nicest, but also the nastiest, of all species?
Join host Dr. Michael Gervais as he sits down with Richard Wrangham, biological anthropologist and author of "The Goodness Paradox," to discuss the intricate relationship between violence and virtues, and how understanding this connection can lead to a more compassionate and just society. Dr. Wrangham shares his research on the evolution of human behavior, challenging common assumptions about our species and shedding light on the complex interplay between our inherent tendencies towards aggression and our capacity for empathy and altruism.
Richard’s research has fundamentally changed our understanding of human evolution & behavior, and it was great to learn from him in this conversation.
You might wonder how a talk about humanity’s virtue and violence is relevant to thinking about human performance. Understanding humanity’s roots is fundamental to better understanding how we can reach our potential. There are major forces that guide our daily decisions and actions. Some of them come from our culture, our families, or our friends. Some of them are biological or for the purposes of this conversation – evolutionary.
Understanding the stuff that makes us is key to better understanding our own potential, the potential of those around us, and perhaps even the potential for humankind.
This was a really interesting conversation that took us places I didn’t think we’d go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The huge story about human society, that is different from animal society, is |
| 0:07.0 | the evolution of morality. And what I think of morality, what I mean is |
| 0:14.0 | the evolution of a sense of what's right and what's wrong. |
| 0:18.0 | Okay, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I am your host, Dr. Michael |
| 0:32.2 | Jervet, by trade and training, a high-performance psychologist. And in this |
| 0:36.6 | week's conversation, I am super excited to sit down with Richard Rangham. Richard |
| 0:41.9 | is a research professor at Harvard as a biological anthropologist. He is best |
| 0:47.0 | known for his pioneering work on the evolution of human behavior. Since 1987, |
| 0:52.7 | Richard has studied the behaviors of wild chimpanzees and other primates, which he |
| 0:57.4 | has eloquently linked to the roles of warfare, social behavior, and nutrition in |
| 1:02.2 | human evolution. I wanted to have Richard on after reading his latest book, The |
| 1:06.1 | Goodness Paradox, which explores the relationship between virtue and violence, |
| 1:10.5 | and why humans can be both the nicest and the nastiest of species. It's a |
| 1:16.6 | fascinating phenomenon. Richard's research has fundamentally changed our |
| 1:21.0 | understanding of human evolution and behavior, and I loved learning from him in |
| 1:25.7 | this conversation. Now, you might wonder how a talk about humanity's virtue and |
| 1:30.8 | violence is relevant to thinking about human performance and specifically your |
| 1:35.9 | performance. Now, understanding humanity's roots is fundamental to better |
| 1:43.9 | understanding how we can reach our potential individually and collectively. |
| 1:48.7 | There are major forces that guide our daily decisions and actions, and some of |
| 1:53.5 | them come from our culture, some from our families and our friends, some of them |
| 1:58.3 | are biological or for the purpose of this conversation evolutionary. |
... |
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