Thursday, August 09, 2012

Today's Thought on Evolutionary Psychology


I recently got into a conversation where I was accused of being a creationist because I criticize evolutionary psychology of the misogynistic and simplistic type.  Indeed, I've seen variations of this argument from those very same EP researchers in their writing:  If you don't like their work you obviously don't believe in evolution at all.

Or in a more refined version:  If I believe that our bodies have evolved, how can I believe that our minds have not?

There is a logical error in those accusations, and that is very similar to this example:

If I don't believe in the horoscope I get from some magazine or newspaper as a guide to the future, does it mean that I don't believe we can predict any part of future events?  

Likewise, it's quite feasible to believe that our minds have evolved but not to believe that they have evolved into the particular cartoonish forms Kanazawa-type EP researchers offer us, especially given the almost total absence of actual data about the distant past and the social and economic arrangements which would have affected any sexual selection process.

Mmm.