The dominant view in evolutionary psychology, the science of the way human mind has shaped over millions of years, holds that human nature was designed by natural selection in the stone ages to solve problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. According to it, our mate choices (men prefer buxom ladies; women look for high-status males), parenting (step parents abuse step children to ensure the survival of their own genes), cooperation (altruism is usually aimed to protect genetically related people) etc are all guided by selfish goals. But this view has been challenged by many experts.

David Buller, an associate professor of philosophy at the Northern Illinois University, examines many of those claims and busts them, drawing from a huge pool of empirical research. He also discusses his own work on child abuse to deomlish orthodox beliefs of evolutionary psychology.

Buller argues that our minds are not adapted to the stone ages, but, like our immune system, are continually adapting, over both evolutionary time and individual lifetimes.

This is a fascinating book, clear in thought and expression.