A daily dose of philosophical food for your noodle... bacon for your brain!

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Evolutionary Psychology

By Diana Hsieh

Paul recently pointed me to this article on emerging criticisms of evolutionary psychology. Although I've not studied the subject in great depth, my general understanding of what I have read (mostly for an undergraduate course on "The Biological Foundations of Human Behavior") is that the subject fundamentally rests upon the arbitrary rationalizations of "Just So Stories" coupled with the falsehood of genetic determinism. As the article indicates, I doubt that even its model of the brain as modular-by-genes is correct.

However, I'm open to hearing an Objectivist case for evolutionary psychology -- if such is possible. I'm particularly concerned with the apparent conflict between the fact of human volition and the explanations for human behavior offered by evolutionary psychology. I'd also love pointers to articles that a defender of evolutionary psychology regards as good science untainted by bad philosophy.

So fire away!

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