Razib on Evolutionary Psychology

Posted on February 24, 2010
Filed Under Sideblog | 3 Comments

Razib against Evo-Psych again. “…much of the evo-psych which penetrates the broader public mindspace is driven by demand-side forces.”

Related posts:

  1. Private and Public Morality
  2. Myth of the Rational Market
  3. Razib on Religion
  4. On Ethics
  5. The End of Evolutionary Psychology?
  6. Razib on Mormons and Evolution

Comments

3 Responses to “Razib on Evolutionary Psychology”

i come not to bury EP, i come to fix it! :-)

I wonder if part of the recurring problem is the challenge to avoid functionalist thinking while still addressing some very interesting tendencies and questions. For instance, can you fully understand religious tendencies without some sort of awareness of possible selective forces? I still really like Wilson’s “Darwin’s Cathedral” even if it does tend to get thrown out with the EP bathwater. Opening the gate too wide is just as problematic as latching it too close.

That’s true. I think Razib’s point was more that a lot of EP theories seem mostly designed to quench a public need for certain kinds of narratives. As such they often have a lot in common with religious narratives that are “just so” sorts of stories. This happened a lot with psycho-analysis as well. It doesn’t mean the stories are true or at least a reasonably true simplification. Just that figuring out which are which can be difficult without the help of some sort of empirical testing. When they really fulfill a public desire for overly simplistic explanations it gets even worse.

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