Ape-Woman, Artist

This article, written by Adam Gopnik, was very interesting to me in the fact that he attributed evolution of man kind to social tolerance and explained that how we act is interconnected to our survival as a species. Overall, I would say that I agree with Gopnik's argument; however, I think that at times Gopnik is overestimating the amount of control that one has in specifically explaining evolution.

The section of the article that really helped me to best understand the main point is when the author uses examples from an experiment with Siberian foxes. In this experiment, when geneticists selected and breeded only foxes showing traits of tameness, they found that the newer generations also showed many other changes. The bred foxes showed floppy ears and soft muzzles and were much like dogs. Gopink then said that selecting the trait of social tolerance as an evolutionary benefit, lead to many other changes including tone of voice and organization of our brain. I think that this is really important because it shows that selecting one trait affects many things and that you can't control or predict what trait caused another from an evolutionary standpoint.

There were several points throughout the article when Gopnik referenced specific scientists along with their perspectives and theories. Having taken AP psychology I am familiar with some of the work of these scientists such as Pavlov and Freud. I thought that contrasting some of views of Pavlov's classical conditioning to this new theory of evolution showed again how unpredictable and uncontrollable this topic is. Also, Gopnik talked about Freud and how he explained civilization as the denial of unconscious wishes and desires. I think that this point helps to tie in the authors new theory. Overall, I would say that not only did Gopnik make an interesting , new argument regarding the topic of evolution but he also backed up his argument very well.