Plotkin explores the idea of Universal Darwinism, in which the same basic mechanisms - random generations of variants, selection of the fittest and retention of the survivors - may underlie not only the origin of species, but also the functioning of the immune system, the development of language and even the progress of science. The capacity to acquire knowledge is both a result of our evolutionary development and a process that itself develops in evolutionary fashion. This important book presents a radical new scientific perspective on human nature.
`Plotkin has written a book that is a pleasure to read, will instruct a wider audience and will force most readers to think for themselves about the issues he addresses.' Nicholas Mackintosh, Nature.