Evolutionary Psychology: 'New Science of the Mind' or 'Darwinian Fundamentalism'?

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viren Swami
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Interpersonal Attraction ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
New Science ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind

AbstractAs practitioners of a putative science of the mind, evolutionary psychologists have earned a degree of cachet with their provocative and sometimes controversial pronouncements about human nature and behaviour. In this article, I briefly survey the history of an evolutionary approach to the psychological sciences before considering the core assumptions of the field that has come to be known as 'evolutionary psychology'. By examining one particular example of evolutionary psychological research – on interpersonal attraction – I find this 'new science of the mind' to be lacking. Rather, I propose that developmental systems theory, buffered by a reconsideration of the dialectical sciences, offers a more comprehensive and rigorous approach to psychology. I further propose that historical materialists and those on the Left generally should take a keen interest in these issues as they have a bearing on social and political outcomes.

Beérkezett könyvek

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-427
Author(s):  
Csaba Pléh
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
General Intelligence ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Number Of Genes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Origin Of Mind ◽  
The Mind

Ádám György: A rejtozködo elme. Egy fiziológus széljegyzetei Carpendale, J. I. M. és Müller, U. (eds): Social interaction and the development of knowledge Cloninger, R. C.: Feeling good. The science of well being Dunbar, Robin, Barrett, Louise, Lycett, John: Evolutionary psychology Dunbar, Robin: The human story. A new history of makind's evolution Geary, D. C.: The origin of mind. Evolution of brain, cognition and general intelligence Gedeon Péter, Pál Eszter, Sárkány Mihály, Somlai Péter: Az evolúció elméletei és metaforái a társadalomtudományokban Harré, Rom: Cognitive science: A philosophical introduction Horváth György: Pedagógiai pszichológia Marcus, G.: The birth of the mind. How a tiny number of genes creates the complexities of human thought Solso, R. D.: The psychology of art and the evolution of the conscious brain Wray, A. (ed.): The transition to language

Beérkezett könyvek

2008 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-770
Author(s):  
Csaba Pléh
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
New Science ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Oxford University Press

Danziger, Kurt: Marking the mind. A history of memory . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008Farkas, Katalin: The subject’s point of view. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008MosoninéFriedJudités TolnaiMárton(szerk.): Tudomány és politika. Typotex, Budapest, 2008Iacobini, Marco: Mirroring people. The new science of how we connect with others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2008Changeux, Jean-Pierre. Du vrai, du beau, du bien.Une nouvelle approche neuronale. Odile Jacob, PárizsGazzaniga_n

Introduction to “What can evolution tell us about the healthy mind?”

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Parnas
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Psychiatry

Chapter 28 is an introduction to Chapter 29, which covers explores the application of evolutionary ideas to psychiatry, including evolutionary psychiatry, evolutionary psychology, neo-Darwinism, developmental systems theory, developmental plasticity, human nature, and process philosophy.

The Art of Moving

2021 ◽  
pp. 156-192
Author(s):  
Benedict S. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Mechanistic Model ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
New Science ◽  
Psychological Fiction ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Mind

“The Art of Moving” turns to an eighteenth-century culture of the sentiments, traditionally seen in strong contrast to a Renaissance culture of the passions. I argue instead that, from the standpoint of rhetoric, the discourses on affectivity from 1500 to 1800 constitute parts of a single, unfolding process. The chapter traces the influence of rhetoric on Shaftesbury, Hume, and Smith, arguing that empiricist models of the mind are built on a rhetorical concern with vivid, forceful, and passionate imagery, and that such models effectively introject a rhetorical scene into the mind. The chapter then turns to Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa—traditionally the exemplary instance of a new, “psychological” fiction—in order to argue that the novel’s psychology is in fact an externalist, rhetorical one that resists any clear distinction between character-driven and plot-driven fictions. Richardson’s novel opens up a series of concerns that reach deep into the material of both this chapter and the previous one: about post-Hobbesian accounts of the will as determined by passions; about circumstantial narrative as a means of not just representing but also exploiting that determination; about empiricism collapsing into a Gorgian rhetoric in which the very effort to promote an ethics of natural sentiment introduces a quasi-mechanistic model of the human being. In its final pages, the chapter turns to Smith’s lectures on rhetoric and Giambattista Vico’s New Science to argue that, between 1600 and 1800, literary history was becoming legible as the material of a cultural history of the passions.

From Psychological Humanities to African Psychology: A Review of Sources and Traditions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Nwoye
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Black Psychology ◽  
Western Psychology ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Life Of The Mind ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
Psychological Knowledge ◽  
The Mind

The purpose of the article is to trace the intellectual history of the new postcolonial discipline of African psychology. African psychology as currently conceptualized in universities in the South and other regions of Africa is a proud heir to a vast heritage of sound and extensive intellectual traditions and psychological scholarship on Africa and its peoples found scattered in the multiple disciplines of the humanities (anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, etc.). Even before and after the critical evolution that led to the emergence of African psychology as a new discipline situated in the departments of psychology in some forward-thinking African universities, the different fields of the humanities offered legitimate research and writings on the nature of the life of the mind and culture in pre- and postcolonial Africa. The article reviews the variety and changing psychological themes that occupied the attention of the African and Western humanists and intellectuals within and outside Africa. However, the great limitation of all psychological research and writings which constitute psychological humanities is that they could not and, indeed, are not meant to replace the legitimate role being played by African psychology as a fledgling postcolonial discipline and center of thought and scholarship. This fledgling discipline came into being to argue against and partner with Western psychology and the black psychology popularized in North America, with a view toward the enrichment of both Western and black psychological knowledge with new perspectives for understanding the psychology of Africans in continental Africa. The purpose of the article is to elaborate on these issues.

What can history and social studies of sciences teach us about evolutionary psychiatry?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Bovet
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Evolutionary Psychiatry

Chapter 30 is a commentary on Chapter 29, which covers explores the application of evolutionary ideas to psychiatry, including evolutionary psychiatry, evolutionary psychology, neo-Darwinism, developmental systems theory, developmental plasticity, human nature, and process philosophy, and what history and social studies of sciences teach us about evolutionary psychiatry.

How Homo economicus lost her mind and how we can revive her

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter DeScioli
Keyword(s):  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Target Article ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractThe target article by Boyer & Petersen (B&P) contributes a vital message: that people have folk economic theories that shape their thoughts and behavior in the marketplace. This message is all the more important because, in the history of economic thought, Homo economicus was increasingly stripped of mental capacities. Intuitive theories can help restore the mind of Homo economicus.

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