ABSTRACT
A good century before Darwin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that culture began when men began to compete with one another in order to impress women. Unlike contemporary evolutionary psychologists, Rousseau focused on the human shape of erotic desire. When consider the plethora of subjunctives used in evolutionary accounts of moral behavior, Rousseau's alternative appears more unique in its honesty than in anything else. In Darwin's own era, discussion of human motivation was infinitely richer. Popular evolutionary psychologists like Pinker who examine behavior looking for "payback" are only one among many. Considerable historical evidence exists that questions the assumption that self-interested explanations of behavior are the only natural ones. The inclination to believe the very worst about human nature gains at least as much support from faith as from fact. Frank's description of the fear of humiliation echoes Wright's discussion of embarrassment, and both authors are point out how pervasively those fears dominate not simply the behavioral sciences, but contemporary Western culture.
