I am going to be writing a series of blog posts on the evolutionary perspective that Professor Riley alluded to when we began discussing the book “Cheap Sex”. I have been interested in evolutionary psychology for a long time and over the summer I read a book called “The Moral Animal, Why We Are The Way We Are” which gives a comprehensive overview of the field. The book presents the arguments, evidence, rationale, and moral conclusions one can derive from evolutionary psychological principles, and for each new section of the theory presented the book analyses the life of Charles Darwin to see whether he conformed with the logical conclusions of the theory he founded or not. I believe it is useful to discuss this perspective because it is intimately tied to the questions and problems that Regnerus writes about. Have birth control, shifting sex markets, and internet porn changed humans as a species, or are we acting in a predictable manner based on how we have evolved?
*Disclaimer: a lot of what I type here will sound very politically incorrect. Keep in mind I am not advocating for this position, merely presenting it. I recognize speaking in evolutionary terms frequently sounds brash and insensitive and maybe even discriminatory, but there is no way around speaking this way while presenting the argument.