Upon choosing "evolutionary psychology" as our topic of discussion, I'm fairly certain at least half of our group had no idea what it really meant. Wikipedia proves itself as the ultimate source of knowledge, claiming that evolutionary psychology "explains physiological traits as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection."
With this definition in mind, I went looking for radical opinions on the matter.
Paul Griffiths argues that "the contemporary environment is so different from that in which human beings evolved that their behavior probably bears no resemblance to the behavior that was important in evolution." The theory of evolutionary psychology didn't arise until the 1980s, obviously much later than humans had evolved into their current physical form. I think what Paul is trying to say is that we can't possibly comprehend what was deemed important to early humans. How the prehistoric environment affected physical evolution.
But, Paul, evolutionary psychology is about psychological evolution (hence the name). Moving on to someone else's opinion...
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology proves to be no help. Their website is just an absolute mess of links on top of links on top of links.
Finally I run across some useful information: the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. As it turns out, evolutionary psychology is just another attempt to connect the brain and the mind. It attempts to understand why humans behave the way they do (logically, illogically, emotionally, spontaneously...) based on how they got to this point in evolution. What separates evolutionary psychology from cognitive psychology is "the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive, and reproduce."
So, now that we understand just what evolutionary psychology is, the next step is to form an opinion on the matter. What do you think? Is who we are today (mentally) a product of evolution? If so, should we be thanking our ancestors? Or hopping into our magical, time-traveling toasters to fix what they messed up millennia ago?
I think our current mental state is a product of our society. Think of an individual growing up outside of society, like Tarzan.
ReplyDeleteSo on one hand, I'd argue that it was society's evolution that makes us think like we do. But on the other hand, I think that psychological evolution is what shaped our society. The two build off of one another.
Our current psychology is a result of our technological development. The earliest man was consumed with finding protection from the elements and wild animals as well as finding a steady food source. At this time, people simply would not have the time to ponder larger ideas of society, religion, and personal ideals. They operated and thought in the manner that gave them the greatest chance of survival. Move forward through history to a time where agriculture, medicine, and housing had developed to where people in the developed world no longer had to worry about basic needs. Here you find that people are no longer focused on day to day survival but have begun perceive the world through a lens of personal ideals. Technological development has allowed humans to shift their methods of thinking as their personal needs became less uncertain.
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