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About this quote

What does it mean?
Even in advanced societies, remnants of a natural tendency toward monogamy can sometimes be observed.
In plain terms
Civilized people still show traces of a monogamous instinct.
What can you take from it?
Human instincts persist despite cultural progress.

Where it applies

  • sociology studies
  • relationship counseling

Putting it to work

  • educate about innate tendencies

Questions to consider

  • What evidence supports a monogamous instinct?
  • How does civilization modify innate drives?

Another view

The claim is vague and lacks empirical evidence.

More from Bertrand Russell

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  2. Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitu…

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  3. The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind…

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