Kipling, Rudyard: (1865-1936) English writer and unwitting inspiration for evolutionary psychology. In his 'just so' stories Kipling described how the leopard got its spots, the tiger its tail, and the elephant its trunk in terms that were fanciful, unprovable, and quite logical, if of course you didn't think about it too much.
Similarly, evolutionary psychologists have emulated Kipling, but unfortunately without the charm, wit, or tongue fully in cheek. Thus, in books like Steven Pinker's 'How the Mind Works' and E. O. Wilson's 'So-so Biology', we learn how the human got his brain, his sex drive, and his need to cheat on his income taxes. And its all quite sensible, providing of course you don't think too much.
