Helena Cronin (born 1942) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Darwinian Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations tha ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and rationalist. She is the co-director of the

Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The CPNSS was established in 1990 and aims to promote research into philosophical, met ...

and the Darwin Centre at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. Cronin's important work is ''The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today'' (1991).

Life and work

Cronin attended

Henrietta Barnett School The Henrietta Barnett School is a grammar school with academy status primarily for girls in Hampstead Garden Suburb in London. The ''Good Schools Guide'' called the school 'One of the best academic state schools in the country, providing a gent ...

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentiet ...

. Cronin is co-editor of ''Darwinism Today'', a series of short books in

evolutionary theory Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. She writes popular articles for newspapers such as ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. She is a Patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious be ...

. She ran a series of seminars, "effectively a salon at the London School of Economics specialising in the implications of Darwinian theory for humans" according to

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

. The seminars featured

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

David Haig David Haig Collum Ward (born 20 September 1955) is an English actor and playwright. He has appeared in West End productions and numerous television and film roles over a career spanning four decades. Haig wrote the play '' My Boy Jack'', w ...

Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relat ...

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. P ...

and

Matt Ridley Matthew White Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, (born 7 February 1958), is a British science writer, journalist and businessman. He is known for his writings on science, the environment, and economics and has been a regular contributor to ''Th ...

among others. Cronin was acknowledged in the preface to the second edition of 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins.

Reception

The evolutionary zoologist

Mark Ridley Mark Ridley may refer to: * Mark Ridley (physician) (1560–1624), English physician and mathematician * Mark Ridley (zoologist) (born 1956), English zoologist See also * Mark Ridley-Thomas Mark Ridley-Thomas is an American politician. He prev ...

, reviewing ''The Ant and the Peacock'' in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', writes that it is a "fine book" in which Cronin uses our modern understanding of

altruism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...

(the ant) and "dangerously gaudy sexual ornamentation" (the peacock). Ridley notes that there are two reasons for sex differences like the peacock's train, and that Cronin explains them through the debate of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

and

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

. Darwin proposed female choice: female aesthetics drive male displays. Wallace both "ignored Darwin's problem" (ornamentation) and "denied Darwin's solution" (female choice rather than

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

). In Ridley's opinion, "The subtlest and most original insights in "The Ant and the Peacock" concern differences between Darwin's ideas and modern ideas." The review of ''The Ant and the Peacock'' in ''Biology and Philosophy'' was favorable." Nils K. Oeijord, in his book ''Why Gould was Wrong'', noted that

Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...

Gould's criticism of Cronin was misplaced.

John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics und ...

and

defended Cronin against Gould's charges. The English evolutionary anthropologist

Camilla Power Camilla Joy Cynthia Power (born 13 November 1976) is an Irish-born English actress. She is best known for her appearances in the television series ''Emmerdale'' and '' Waterloo Road''. Early life and education Power was born in Cork, Ireland, a ...

, in ''A reply to Helena Cronin'' criticized Cronin's claim that women are disposed to wanting a single mate, noting that monogamy is rarer than biologists thought. Power was critical of Cronin's view of the lone mother, showing that grandmothers assist their daughters' offspring. Edge, in its "Annual Question" in 2008, hosted Cronin in a piece entitled ''More dumbbells but more Nobels: Why men are at the top''Cronin, Helena
Edge: More dumbbells but more Nobels: Why men are at the top
Retrieved 3 May 2013.

Bibliography

* ''The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today'' Cambridge University Press, 1991. * ''The Battle of the Sexes Revisited'', in ''Richard Dawkins: how a scientist changed the way we think''. Oxford University Press, 2006.

References

External links

Official website

"Getting Human Nature Right" A Talk With Helena Cronin
Edge org 29 August 2000

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Helena 1942 births 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British philosophers 20th-century essayists 21st-century anthropologists 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century British philosophers 21st-century essayists Analytic philosophers British anthropologists British women anthropologists British humanists British women essayists British women non-fiction writers British women philosophers Charles Darwin biographers Living people People educated at Henrietta Barnett School Philosophers of culture Philosophers of sexuality Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophy writers Rationalists Social critics Social philosophers Theorists on Western civilization