Saturday 29 January 2011

Morning Scepticism: Evo Psych

There seems to be two different kinds of criticism levelled at evolutionary psychology. The first is a criticism that evo psych proponents make "just-so" stories after the fact, based on assumptions about the potential environment our ancestors lived in. While some of these assumptions might be accurate, the level of accuracy touted is overstepping the bounds of what the inquiry can offer. The second kind of criticism is that evo psych is defiling humanity, forcing people into stereotypes, and used to justify sexism and racism. That second kind of criticism makes the first kind of criticism harder. So instead of striving for good science, the battle becomes over what does it mean to be human - and in such a reductionist way too...

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