Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted PsychologyMIT Press, 22 січ. 2010 р. - 232 стор. A philosopher subjects the claims of evolutionary psychology to the evidential and methodological requirements of evolutionary biology, concluding that evolutionary psychology's explanations amount to speculation disguised as results. Human beings, like other organisms, are the products of evolution. Like other organisms, we exhibit traits that are the product of natural selection. Our psychological capacities are evolved traits as much as are our gait and posture. This much few would dispute. Evolutionary psychology goes further than this, claiming that our psychological traits—including a wide variety of traits, from mate preference and jealousy to language and reason—can be understood as specific adaptations to ancestral Pleistocene conditions. In Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology, Robert Richardson takes a critical look at evolutionary psychology by subjecting its ambitious and controversial claims to the same sorts of methodological and evidential constraints that are broadly accepted within evolutionary biology. The claims of evolutionary psychology may pass muster as psychology; but what are their evolutionary credentials? Richardson considers three ways adaptive hypotheses can be evaluated, using examples from the biological literature to illustrate what sorts of evidence and methodology would be necessary to establish specific evolutionary and adaptive explanations of human psychological traits. He shows that existing explanations within evolutionary psychology fall woefully short of accepted biological standards. The theories offered by evolutionary psychologists may identify traits that are, or were, beneficial to humans. But gauged by biological standards, there is inadequate evidence: evolutionary psychologists are largely silent on the evolutionary evidence relevant to assessing their claims, including such matters as variation in ancestral populations, heritability, and the advantage offered to our ancestors. As evolutionary claims they are unsubstantiated. Evolutionary psychology, Richardson concludes, may offer a program of research, but it lacks the kind of evidence that is generally expected within evolutionary biology. It is speculation rather than sound science—and we should treat its claims with skepticism. |
З цієї книги
Результати 1-5 із 37
... Effect Reconsidered, Bruce H. Weber and David J. Depew, 2003 Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think, Zenon Pylyshyn, 2003 Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere, Tim Lewens, 2004 Molecular Models of Life ...
... effects of cosmetics, observations in brothels, the effects of specific brain lesions on sexual preferences, skin magazines and discoveries in neuropsychology. (Symons 1992, 144) Any of these things might prove to be relevant, of course ...
... effect in the Origin, was that it is possible to explain design without intelligence. He embraced the thought that complex features present a special problem for evolution. Darwin (1859, 3) wrote this in the introduction to On the ...
... effect , an ' organism design theory ' " ( 1992 , 53 ) . It can be used as a lever both to undercut the “ standard ” models in social science and to " guide the construction " of an improved psy- chology . Donald Symons ( 1992 ) ...
... effects of culture, though none of his opponents would obviously disagree on that spe- cific point, even if they do often emphasize the significance of culture. They need not deny a role for biology just because they allow a role for ...
Зміст
1 | |
13 | |
2 Reverse Engineering and Adaptation | 41 |
3 The Dynamics of Adaptation | 89 |
4 Recovering Evolutionary History | 141 |
5 Idle Darwinizing | 173 |
Notes | 185 |
References | 193 |
Index | 209 |
Інші видання - Показати все
Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology Robert C. Richardson Попередній перегляд недоступний - 2010 |