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Category: evolution

Extended evolutionary psychology

Extended evolutionary psychology

Article by Stotz (referenced in the last post), Frontiers in Psychology, 20 August 2014. This one is a bit more like Thompson’s approach. The abstract: “What kind mechanisms one deems central for the evolutionary process deeply influences one’s understanding of the nature of organisms, including cognition. Reversely, adopting a certain approach to the nature of life and cognition and the relationship between them or between the organism and its environment should affect one’s view of evolutionary theory. This paper explores…

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Evolutionary theory: Fringe or central to psychological science?

Evolutionary theory: Fringe or central to psychological science?

By Danielle Sulikowski in Frontiers in Psychology, 24 May 2016. From the conclusion: “Newer conceptualizations of EP are uncommitted to notions of massive modularity, look beyond the Pleistocene for the selection pressures that have shaped psychological mechanisms and incorporate developmental and cultural impacts into theories concerning the evolved functions of psychological mechanisms. It is clear however, that the massive modularity roots of modern EP still influence how many, including both advocates and critics, view the field. One message that is…

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Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution

Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution

In the “development and evolution” thread on Thompson, Paul dismissed and contrasted him with “people who actually study organisms.”  Hence my latest referenced articles are by exactly those people that do. And even among the experts in the know there are differences and disagreements. Another such article confirming this is “Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution: A never ending controversy?” (The abstract is below.) Some adamantly choose one side of the debate, others like this article seeks some semblance…

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Multilevel selection theory and economics

Multilevel selection theory and economics

Article by evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson. Some excerpts: “Evolutionary theory’s individualistic turn coincided with individualistic turns in other areas of thought. Economics in the postwar decades was dominated by rational choice theory, which used individual self-interest as a grand explanatory principle. The social sciences were dominated by a position known as methodological individualism, which treated all social phenomena as reducible to individual-level phenomena, as if groups were not legitimate units of analysis in their own right (Campbell 1990). And…

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The evolution of pro-social institutions

The evolution of pro-social institutions

From this article in Evonomics (aka evolutionary economics). Some excerpts: “There is something very natural about prioritizing your family over other people. There is something very natural about helping your friends and others in your social circle. And there is something very natural about returning favors given to you. These are all smaller scales of cooperation that we share with other animals and that are well described by the math of evolutionary biology. The trouble is that these smaller scales of…

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Development and evolution

Development and evolution

Is the subtitle of Evan Thompson’s Chapter 7 in his book Life in Mind (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), the main title of which is “Laying down a path in walking.” Therein he details the received view of biological evolution and compares it with the enactive, dynamic systems view. It is highly technical and beyond my current knowledge of the topic, but nonetheless instructive in my burgeoning education down this path in walking. A copy of the chapter can be…

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Evolutionary psychology and embodied cognition

Evolutionary psychology and embodied cognition

I’ve sensed some tension between these fields in our discussions of both topics.  As my knowledge of EP is minimal I’ve decided to do some research on the topic, hence my latest posts. It turns out there is a much broader and ongoing tension between these two fields as highlighted by this article, abstract following. Paul (and others) can let me know if their presentation is accurate and fair. “Much recent work stresses the role of embodiment and action in…

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Evolutionary systems theory

Evolutionary systems theory

Article with the subtitle: “A unifying meta-theory of psychological science,” Review of General Psychology 16(1):10-23 · March 2012. Given there seems to be a conflict between evolutionary psychology and dynamic systems theory this article is relevant. The abstract: “Psychology is a theoretically heterogeneous discipline seeking a single, cohesive framework to unite the subdisciplines. To address this issue, I propose a hierarchical metatheory of psychological science that synthesizes neo-Darwinian selectionist thinking and dynamic systems theory by organizing evolutionary psychology, evolutionary developmental biology, developmental…

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Evolutionary psychology and consciousness

Evolutionary psychology and consciousness

The main title is “The serpent’s gift,” Chapter 22 of The  Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). A copy can be found at this link. A copy of this chapter can be found here. The abstract: “As a higher-order cognitive system enabling access to intentional states, and one that few (if any) other species even marginally possess, consciousness or, more appropriately, self-consciousness has likely been both selectively advantageous and the source of adaptive conflict in human evolutionary…

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Why economics needs a new invisible hand

Why economics needs a new invisible hand

In this clip Hartmann interviews David Sloan Wilson on his new article by the above name. A new economics needs a new foundation from the typical and shopworn invisible hand proposed by Adam Smith. That new hand is applying evolutionary theory to the topic. David S. Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University and Arne Næss Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo. His most recent book is Does Altruism…

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