Reviews the emergence of evolutionary psychology from an earlier sociobiology, and examines the general arguments for seeing evolution as the key to human nature. Separate sections discuss the atavism that these arguments imply, the mental modules that evolutionary psychologists claim the mind is composed of, and the relationships between genes, brains, and behaviour that their theories assume. Concludes with a discussion of the perennial dichotomy of nature and nurture.
Keywords: atavism, evolutionary psychology, genes, human behaviour, mind, nurture, sociobiology