Evolution and human nature

The Templeton Foundation has asked several distinguished researchers the question

"Does evolution explain human nature?"

The responses vary, and are in the form of essays available here:

http://www.templeton.org/evolution/

Of particular interest is Martin Nowak's reply which mirrors the ethos of this blog in a sharp and succinct way. Nowak is professor of biology and mathematics at Harvard University, and has this to say:

"Music is part of human nature. There is also something very intuitive about numbers and geometric objects, and the ability to do some basic math seems to be part of human nature.

Yet the great theorems of mathematics are statements of an eternal truth that comes from another world, a world that seems to be entirely independent of the particular trajectory that biological evolution has taken on earth. The great symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler capture glimpses of a beauty that is absolute and everlasting. Beyond the temporal, materialistic world there is an unchanging reality.

My position is very simple. Evolution has led to a human brain that can gain access to a Platonic world of forms and ideas. This world is eternal and not the product of evolution, but it does affect human nature deeply. Therefore evolution cannot possibly explain all aspects of human nature."

Grothendieck's platonism

Alexandre Grothendieck is one of the last century's greatest mathematicians. There is no controversy in describing him as the mathematician who has pursued the most abstract type of mathematics ever. In his mathematics there are usually no numbers directly involved. Most of the time there are even no letters denoting numbers involved. The level of abstraction is breathtaking and, to some, deeply fascinating. Nevertheless, his work does have more concrete implications for relations between numbers. There is a huge collection of articles by and about him on the internet. A brief recent introduction can be found here:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/31898/titl/Math_Trek__Sensitivity_to_the_harmony_of_things

The following passage from Grothendieck's Recoltes et Semailles expresses, in a somewhat poetical way, his scientific realism, in particular mathematical realism. It seems like he is saying that what we call inventions and imagination are in fact very close to what platonists refer to as intuition or 'the mind's eye':

"What makes the quality of a researcher’s inventiveness and imagination is the quality of his attention to hearing the voices of things."

Perhaps Grothendieck is also saying that not only is the platonic realm a static life-less structure which we can tap for information, but he seems to suggest that physical and metaphysical entities are actively revealing themselves in various ways, ways which we of course may or may not pick up.

Marcel Légaut

A. Grothendieck wrote a list of a number of people he called "Mutants", that is, people who in his view were spiritually ahead of their time. I just looked up a name from his list which I had never heard before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_L%C3%A9gaut

This seems like a very interesting personality. I hope I can find some good source about his life and thought. The above Wikipedia article is unfortunately written by someone who is not particularly interested in producing texts where every word carries a meaning which can be picked up by a potential reader.