ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the most important evolutionary imperatives, from reproduction and survival to learning, cooperation, and competition. It examines how to avoid being derailed by phenotypic indulgences, and deals with a discussion of strategies of best fit. Evolutionary pressures shaped humans' motivational system to guide them toward reproductive success, and thus consideration of humans' evolutionary imperatives might help them gain some traction on what it means to lead a good life. Pondering the good life and how to lead it is probably a modern luxury. Survival goals are fundamental and great deal of humans' positive and negative emotions are tuned to their survival. Living the good life may well be a matter of meeting humans' evolutionary imperatives, but these imperatives are at cross-purposes with each other, and thus it requires a good deal of wisdom and self-knowledge to navigate between them.
