Intended for healthcare professionals

Soundings

The runaway brain

BMJ 1994; 309 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.309.6947.134a (Published 09 July 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;309:134
  1. Tony Smith

    Does Darwinian theory really explain Mozart and Michelangelo? Biologists would have us believe that the processes of random mutation, natural selection, and survival of the fittest are enough to explain the whole process of evolution. Primitive man is said to have evolved in the Rift Valley in Africa somewhere between 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 million years ago. Evolutionary pressures would presumably have focused on survival from predators, success in food gathering and breeding, and adaptation to climatic changes. It is difficult to believe that the genes that contribute to artistic creativity and mathematical innovation have any practical value to a hunter-gatherer. Does primitive man …

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