Donald Symons
Topic: Biography
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Donald Symons | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | One of the founders of evolutionary psychology Pioneering the study of human sexuality |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of California, Santa Barbara |
Donald Symons (1942–2024) was an American anthropologist best known as one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, and for pioneering the study of human sexuality from an evolutionary perspective.[1][2][3] He is one of the most cited researchers in contemporary sex research.[4] His work is referenced by scientists investigating an extremely diverse range of sexual phenomena.[4] Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker described Symons' The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1979) as a "groundbreaking book"[5] and "a landmark in its synthesis of evolutionary biology, anthropology, physiology, psychology, fiction, and cultural analysis, written with a combination of rigor and wit. It was a model for all subsequent books that apply evolution to human affairs, particularly mine."[4] Symons was Professor Emeritus[6] in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His last work, written with Catherine Salmon, was Warrior Lovers, an evolutionary analysis of slash fiction.
References
- ↑ "Remembering Don Symons". Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/2025/02/17/remembering-don-symons/.
- ↑ Pinker, Steven (February 4, 2025). "Sage of Sex and Psyche". https://quillette.com/2025/02/04/sage-of-sex-and-psyche-donald-symons-evolutionary-psychology-sex/.
- ↑ Symons, Donald (1978). Play and Aggression: A Study of Rhesus Monkeys. New York: Columbia University Press. p. IV. ISBN 0-231-04334-1.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam (2011). A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What The Internet Teaches Us About Sexual Relationships. London: Dutton Books. p. 20.
- ↑ Pinker, Steven (2003). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. London: Penguin Books. p. 114. ISBN 0-140-27605-X.
- ↑ "People - Department of Anthropology - UC Santa Barbara". http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/people/emeriti/don-symons.
Selected publications
- Symons, D. (1978) Play and Aggression: A Study of Rhesus Monkeys. Columbia University Press
- Symons, D. (1979) The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-502907-0
- Symons, D. (1987) "If we're all Darwinians, what's the fuss about?" in Crawford, Smith & Krebs, Sociobiology and Psychology, 121–146.
- Symons, D. (1989) "A critique of Darwinian anthropology," in Ethology and Sociobiology, 10: 131–144.
- Symons, D. (1990) "Adaptiveness and adaptation," in Ethology and Sociobiology, 11: 427–444.
- Symons, D. (1992) "On the use and misuse of Darwinism in the study of human behavior" in Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (eds) (1992) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (New York: Oxford University Press)
- Symons, D. (1993) "The stuff that dreams aren't made of: Why wake-state and dream-state sensory experiences differ." Cognition, 47: 181–217.
- Symons, D. (1995) "Beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder: The evolutionary psychology of human female sexual attractiveness" pp. 80–120 in Abramson, P.R. and Pinkerton, S.D. (eds.) Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture, The University of Chicago Press.
- Salmon, C. and Symons, D. (2003) Warrior Lovers. Yale University Press.
External links
Template:Evolutionary psychologists
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