MetaFilter posts tagged with Evolution and psychology

Nagel on the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature

shivohum — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:02:18 -0800

Andrew Ferguson explains and defends eminent philosopher Thomas Nagel, who has been stirring up outraged refutations (e.g. here or here) with his new book Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False. Also in the defense column is philosopher Edward Feser's extensive series on Nagel's book.

" the difficulty of disentangling culture and biology."

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 23:45:03 -0800

IT AIN’T NECESSARILY SO: 'How much do evolutionary stories reveal about the mind?' Stephen Jay Gould, NYRB :Darwinian Fundamentalism David J. Buller - Evolutionary Psychology: A Critique(PDF)

To summarize, the fundamental theoretical tenets of Evolutionary Psychology are these. First, the human mind consists of ‘‘hundreds or thousands’’ of ‘‘genetically speciﬁed’’ modules, or special-purpose computational devices, each of which is an adaptation for solving a speciﬁc adaptive problem. Second, the information-processing functions of modules are designed to solve the problems of survival and reproduction that were faced by our Pleistocene hunter-gatherer ancestors. And, third, evolved modules collectively constitute a universal human nature. In the sections to follow, I will argue that each of these tenets is mistaken.

Buller's Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature - A Preview (Scientific American) and a review. University of California at Santa Barbara's Center for Evolutionary Psychology has a rebuttal.

Paleo Logic + Evolutionary Psychology ≠ Modesty

Telf — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:26:48 -0800

Predictors of Being Cheated On: For Women, Predictors of Being Cheated On: For Men, Is Tanning Even Attractive?, The Semiotics of Meat, Sexual Selection Reversal: The Rise of Male Choosiness, Three Ways to Get Academic Journal Papers and Scientific Studies for Free, Big Butts and Breasts: What Sir-Mix-A-Lot Got Wrong About Beauty and Attraction and many more interesting, opinionated, and divisive essays found at Evolvify. To give you an idea of what you're getting into, here's an excerpt from the about page: Credentials: None. All I’m working with is a pocket full of library cards, an internet connection, a meager 130ish IQ, and Openness in the top decile. Will Hunting said that all it takes to get a Harvard level education is $1.50 in library fines. If that was the case, I’d earn about 6 degrees per month. Be forewarned, the author touches on: diet, vegetarianism, obesity, sexism and evolutionary theory.

The Soul Niche

0bvious — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:46:10 -0800

Swimming around in a mixture of language and matter, humans occupy a particular evolutionary niche mediated by something we call 'consciousness'. To Professor Nicholas Humphrey we're made up of "soul dust": "a kind of theatre... an entertainment which we put on for ourselves inside our own heads." But just as that theatre is directed by the relationship between language and matter, it is also undermined by it. It all depends how you think it.

You're an Animal!

l33tpolicywonk — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:37:06 -0800

In a fundamental re-think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a research team lead by Arizona State University's Doug Kenrick has replaced the personal need to achieve status and respect, culminating in self-actualization, with the biological imperative to find a mate and reproduce, culminating in parenting. Kenrick also replaces Maslow's strict design, in which needs replace one another, with a design in which needs overlap over the course of a lifetime. Kenrick's pyramid preferences the burgeoning field of evolutionary psychology, in contrast with Maslow's developmental psychology. “There is such a thing as self-actualization, developing your inner potential, a self-need to become brilliant at whatever you’re doing,” according to Kenrick, “I just don’t think it’s divorced from biology." Opponents are reluctant to embrace evolutionary psychology because "[i]t views life as something of a cosmic joke (presumably on us). In the words of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, 'It desacralizes, it reduces, it animalizes.'"

Extending the Mind

homunculus — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:50:55 -0800

How Google Is Making Us Smarter: Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind."

Dopamine

homunculus — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:30:25 -0800

A New State of Mind. "New research is linking dopamine to complex social phenomena and changing neuroscience in the process."

The psychology of the moral instinct

homunculus — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:31:52 -0800

The Moral Instinct. "Evolution has endowed us with ethical impulses. Do we know what to do with them?" [Via The Mahablog.]

"We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers"

McLir — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:36:05 -0800

"We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers." Evolutionary psychologist Andy Thomson analyzes suicide terrorism from the perspective of evolutionary biology. The presentation was part of the Atheist Alliance International convention in D.C. last month.

Highly Sensitive People: if you prick us, do we not bleed? and burst into tears? and run from the room and fling ourselves down on the bed?

grumblebee — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:19:17 -0800

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person? This trait ... is inherited by 15 to 20% of the population, and ... seems to be present in all higher animals. Being an HSP means your nervous system is more sensitive to subtleties. Your sight, hearing, and sense of smell are not necessarily keener .... But your brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply. Being an HSP also means, necessarily, that you are more easily overstimulated, stressed out, overwhelmed. This trait ... has been mislabeled as shyness (not an inherited trait), introversion (30% of HSPs are actually extraverts), inhibitedness, fearfulness, and the like. HSPs can be these, but none of these are the fundamental trait they have inherited ...
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loonie oh loonie oh loonie oh loonie-oh!

all-seeing eye dog — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 14:41:26 -0800

Have you ever thought your boss might be a sociopath? According to some, you just might be right. A recent film called The Corporation actually goes so far as to argue that American-style free markets select for sociopathic tendencies. While some on the left seem all too eager to chime in with their self-righteous “I told you sos,” others on the right dismiss all such notions to defend free markets with open contempt… Which is strange when you consider that free market theory owes its existence to Darwin’s theories of natural selection, which many on the right don't accept. Seriously--help me sort this out, or else I'm going to have to conclude we've all gone crazy.

You have evolved to like this interview.

daksya — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:49:51 -0800

The fitness of evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology anyone?

kliuless — Sun, 01 Jul 2001 09:36:16 -0800

Evolutionary psychology anyone? It seems that more males are born during (and just after) wars and more females are born during peacetime. Adaptive group evolution or just speculative extrapolation? Jim Holt of Linguafranca explains.